The new CEO

I mentioned that I have bought a car. What I neglected to explain was how I managed to get my insurance and registration taken care of.

There is a critical constraint regarding businesses on the island: they are open for very few hours. Some open at 8, close at noon, reopen at 2pm, and finally shut their doors at 5 or 6pm. Others are open from 8-3. Many businesses are only open from Monday through Friday, and NOTHING is open on Sunday. Well, almost nothing.

Important car-related offices are not open on weekends. I was not able to take off work for hours and get lost trying to find insurance companies. Hence, the amazing fact: in Curacao, you may hire someone to take care of all of this business for you. The man who took care of my paperwork was far more efficient than I ever would have been, and enabled me to get my work done on campus. I left that day, feeling as if I were a CEO or some other rich, important person. It’s lovely to know that there are possibilities for expediency even in systems that don’t seem to understand convenience.

A Tuesday night

Yesterday I hosted my first dinner party. I spoke to my mother about the plan a couple of days ago, asking her what I should make for dinner. (I didn’t bring any cookbooks with me.) She replied, “It’s a school night, so make it easy. Cook shoyu chicken and make sure to use star anise.”

I told my guests that this was, I believe, the first dinner party I’ve ever hosted at which the entire meal was finished before company arrived. Thank goodness for the genius of mothers!

The evening went well, despite a brief power outage. We had warm food, cold wine, and good conversation. My guests left at 10:30pm, at which point, I went directly to bed.

Unfortunately, my night was not over.

I woke up at 12:30 am, to the sound of heavy breathing. The breathing was nearby, and it wasn’t coming from me. I bolted upright in bed, turned on the lamp, and found the landlords’ dog, Bella, sleeping on the floor next to me.

Bella is an outdoor dog. I don’t think she has been bathed in a good while. I did not want her in the house.

So I got out of bed and called her to the door. She came, took one look at the door, and went straight back to her spot on the floor. I raised a ruckus: clapping, yelling, snapping my fingers, pushing her with my feet. Nothing worked. Finally, I wrestled her out of the house.

I had solved one canine problem. But I now found myself with a new one—I smelled like dog. A little before 1 am, I took a well-needed shower.

This morning, I half wondered if the whole incident was a strange dream. That is, until I saw the dirt and paw marks on my tile floor…

My new car, classes, and the ESL angels

I bought a car! At long last. It is a little Toyota Yaris, a tiny sedan, smaller than a Corolla. I bought it yesterday afternoon from a woman who works at the Toyota dealership. Unlike most every other used vehicle I looked at, this one is actually has a well-kept interior. The school I work for gives foreign hires the option of taking out a car loan with them. It is thanks to this benefit that I was able to purchase the car.

My school schedule is still getting worked out. There are 3 ESL teachers at school (including myself), and we are spending a lot of time sorting out students' schedules and testing kids to determine who needs services. While I am eager to teach, I am also nervous. Some of my colleagues are confident in my abilities and like what they know of me and have seen in the classroom thus far, but others are apprehensive of my skills and will be monitoring me. I think the lack of confidence is not so much rooted in my newness at the school, but rather, my youth.

As I mentioned earlier, there are 3 of us teaching ESL, all female. Yesterday, the joke of the day came from the school's IT coordinator who would enter our classroom/office and say, "Good morning, ESL angels," and then answer herself, in a high pitched voice, "Good morning, Charlie." I'm just glad that I'm not asked to teach in a spandex jumpsuit!

A week of firsts: my first Curacao car accident and my first days of work

Goodness, there is so much to say and I don’t know where to begin!

I was in a car accident this past weekend. All people involved are fine, thankfully. My buddy and I were driving at a roundabout. Unfortunately, there isn’t a uniform rule about right of way at Curacao roundabouts. Sometimes those in the roundabout have right of way, and sometimes those entering it have right of way. As we were exiting the roundabout, another car was entering. Their hood crashed into our passenger door. I am just glad that we were not traveling any faster; the accident could have been much more severe.

This week has been our first official week of work. The past two days have been teacher work days. I was amazed at how my colleagues dressed up! I arrived on Monday in casual clothes and slippers and they looked as if they’d be teaching students. Fashion here reminds me of styles in Istanbul. In both locales, people dress with a European sophistication.

People have been asking me for the past few days who and what I would be teaching. I could answer the “what” question, but was somewhat unsure as to “who.” Yesterday, I was told that I’ll be teaching both middle and high school students. I will be sharing this job with another ESL teacher. She and I will teach different ages on different days. When I have a high school class, she teaches a middle school group, and vice versa. We plan to coordinate our lessons so that students of the same grade level receive similar instruction.

The high school class, I have been told, is a writing support class. I am to aid students with organization, mechanics, and vocabulary. This class is not strictly an ESL class. While it is mandatory for those struggling with English, other students may also choose to enroll.

My middle school courses operate differently. Middle school students take all of their core classes together. The ESL students, instead of attending Spanish and Dutch, will come to ESL class. I will be conferencing with the middle school core teachers frequently to see how I can best support their curriculum in my English as a Second Language classes.

Today is the students' first day of school. As I do not have a homeroom, I am not teaching at all. Instead, I am supporting other teachers with their activities and familiarizing myself with various ESL materials.

In other news, I am still without a car! If all goes well, my new vehicle will be cleaned and ready for me today. (I do not expect this to happen, unfortunately.) My colleagues have graciously been driving me to work and back. This means, however, that I keep their schedules! I left home this morning at 6:30, and have been leaving school around 6:30 or 7 pm. Thankfully, I haven’t been taking any work home with me…

Car hunting and laundry escapades

My poor buddy! She and I have been hunting all over town to find me a car. It's hard work! Many of the used cars look as if someone abandoned 4 dogs inside of them for a week. (Well, minus the slobber and dog hair.) I don't understand how people manage to damage the interior of their vehicles so much! People keep warning me to be cautious about who and where I buy a car from. Apparently, it is common practice here for people to import wrecked cars and fix them with strange parts. Because of this, I've been trying to look around at as many car dealerships as possible before calling people who are selling their own vehicles. Hopefully, I'll have a set of wheels by the end of the week. While I'm not exactly itching to drive on unfamiliar roads, I know I'm becoming a burden to my friends.

I had my first visit to the wasserette today. That, I believe, is Papiamentu for "laundromat." The woman washed, dried, and folded my clothes for me all on the same day! My buddy and I stayed late at school, and were late for the laundry pickup. I telephoned the lady at the wasserette 7 minutes before they closed, asking her in my terrible Spanish if she would wait a bit because I wanted to come and "wear" my clothes. (Can't you just imagine me trying to put all of my clothing on at one time?) The lady at the laundry place didn't even laugh and was gracious enough to stay 10 minutes past closing to wait for me to come claim my clothing. I think she's won a new customer.

La vida

The last couple of days were a bit slower and I’ve had more time to putter around my apartment. On Sunday, I spent the afternoon at the Hilton’s beach with my buddy, her sister, and my friends from Turkey. We stayed for the sunset, then met up with a colleague for dinner. We ate our meal at Rif Fort, an old fort right on the water that has been turned into a shopping complex. It was lovely.




Yesterday, we went into Punda. Wilemstaad, the capital city of Curaçao and the Netherlands Antilles, is bisected by water. One side is called Punda, and the other side is known as Otrabanda (literally, “the other side”). In Punda, we went to the movies to see Superman Returns. I was happy to know that the people of Curaçao and Hawaii share a couple of hot weather pastimes: going to the beach and the movie theater! There’s nothing like sitting in air conditioning on a sweltering day! After the movie, we went shopping and I bought some things for my apartment. The most exciting purchase was a brilliantly colored hammock that I can’t wait to hang. Then we sat on the waterfront drinking frozen lemonades. This is a hard life, I tell you.