Vacation Part 1

Well, I am on my last day in Paris before I head to London and ultimately back to Madagascar.  I had a great time seeing Dad and Christine.  Visiting with family after such a long time is pretty amazing, and I was sad to say goodbye!

We pretty much did all the big tourist things there are to do here in Paris.  There was the Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triomphe, Louvre, Musee d'Orsay, Musee Marmottan (full of Monet's paintings), Champs d'Elysees.  My shoes turned out to be totally inappropriate for cold weather (it has snowed here--yikes!) and the soles fell off, so we braved a huge department store to get a new pair of boots.  I did laundry in a machine for the first time since 2011 and went to a movie theater.

Here are some photo highlights:

We became metro masters.

And drank  a  lot of hot beverages.  (It was COLD)

And ate delicious food.  Yum!

Smelling perfume in the scariest department store ever.

Notre Dame

In front of Napoleon's tomb.

In front of Versailles.

Christine and Dad seal their love by locking a "love lock" on a Paris bridge, then throwing the keys in the Seine.  (We were all a bit worried about their marriage before that...)

The Louvre (and my fancy boots)

Atop the Eiffel Tower

Lavitra!  Far from home at the Eiffel Tower.

So I can't thank Dad and Christine enough for a great trip and I have to say I'm feeling pretty excited (and a little less nervous now) about heading back to America in May.  But I'm also excited for the rest of my vacation and time in Madagascar.  I'll keep you all updated!

Appreciating what you have.

I'm enjoying a vacation in France right now.  I met up with my dad and step-mom (Christine) and it's been really great to see them.  We have been mastering the Paris metro system and being tacky tourists but it's been a ton of fun so far.  I was a little bit panicked that my first outing into westernized, modern society after almost 2 years would leave me either making a huge fool of myself in public or hyperventilating in the corner. Luckily, neither of those has really happened.  Yeah, it's weird to me that every other person is on her iPhone and they are carrying around other devices I've never even seen.  But overall it doesn't feel as strange as I had anticipated, maybe because I know it's only vacation from that other life I've gotten so used to.

I am seeing now that there are some things that I can look forward to about being back in America in just a few months (eek!) but other things that Madagascar definitely does much better.  Here's a short list.

Awesome things about the western world:

• Hot, running water.
• Running, drinkable water.
• Laundry machines.
• Hot tubs. (Okay, so I really only see these at nice hotels but I can say they are great!)
• Fast, efficient public transport that doesn't make you fear for your life and even when crowded isn't really that crowded.
• My family, friends, and easy communication with them.
• Grocery stores and all the food that is in them.
• Restaurants with efficient waitstaff and where everything on the menu is available.
• Not sticking out in every single crowd.

Things to enjoy in Madagscar while I still can:

• Sunlight and warm weather.
• Tropical fruits.
• Not feeling like everyone is rushing off somewhere else as fast as possible all the time.  (If someone could offer some insight into where everyone is in a hurry to get to, it would be really helpful to me.)
• Not having mirrors everywhere.  (Okay, so I could probably stand to check how I look before I leave the house in Madagascar more often, but I don't need to see myself in every other building I go into.  You, lady primping in the mirror beside that amazing piece of art, should probably stop.)
• Knowing the local language.  (I'll get this in America too, but in France I am a bit of a dummy.  I've already spoken Malagasy to multiple waiters.)
• Not having human interactions interrupted by people checking their phones every 5 minutes.
• Living somewhere where everybody really does know my name, and they are always glad I came.

Well I'm sure there's always more that could be added, but I'm off to enjoy the things on the first list while I still can!

A photo update

To keep you all entertained for a while, and since I haven't been the greatest at writing posts lately, here's some photos.

Christmas lunch!  This is just half of the diners.

Christmas cuties, ready for their photo shoot.

More sunflowers blooming in my backyard, including this giant.

Beautiful view of Ambohimanarina from our walk to harvest rice.  Yeah, I'm pretty luck to live here.

"Mato ny vary!"  The rice is ripe.

My rice harvesting buddy, Litsano.

Christmas video

Here's a video I took on Christmas.  I ate a potluck-style dinner with my friend's family.  Everyone cooked their own "ro" and got together to eat it with rice.  After the meal they all relaxed and sang songs together (this family also happens to be its own church).

Boy how time flies...

Holy crap I'm really close to finishing my Peace Corps service!  Yes, there are some days where it feels like my service would pass faster if I were spending it watching paint dry.  However I am starting to feel like the time has really really been moving along and man, I've been here a while.  I mean there was only one version of the iPad when I left America!  The kids are suddenly much bigger than when I got here.

I realized just how long I've been here when talking to my friend the other day.  She talked about the "hova tsy manjary."  Basically this means "the person from the Highlands of Madagascar (near Tana) who doesn't work."  That's work as in work like a machine would work, and not in the human way.  Now to explain, our market is full of sellers who come from the Tana area and spend their weeks travelling from market to market along the road I live on.  Tuesday afternoon the come to Ambohimanarina, hang out and sleep across the road from my house, and sell in the market on Wednesday morning.  I pretty much know them all, and I had no question as to who the one that "doesn't work" was.

The next few months look like they'll be full.  I'm on the way to France to see my dad and Christine, then I'll travel some within Madagascar before a close-of-service conference with Peace Corps.  In early February I'll head back to Ambohimanarina to spend my last few months living there.  And I should probably start giving a little thought to what I'll do after that...