Day 2: A Very Eventful Day!

Today was the first day of our Religion 231: Myth, Ritual, & Symbol course that we are taking over the month of January here in Trinidad. The course is taught by a professor from PLU & she is out here with her husband & son to teach the course to us! The class was taught in the lobby of the lodge which is outdoors & undercover. It was weird for both the professor & the students since it wasn't a normal classroom setting with a white board & all but it was a different experience! The class was from 9am to 12pm. It was pretty interesting but kind of hard to stay focused since we are in a beautiful & sunny place haha.
After class, me & a few of the other girls took advantage of free time & went to buy some notebooks & other supplies we all needed. It took a lot longer than planned so of course we built up an appetite. We dropped our stuff off at the lodge then went to add minutes on our cellphones/look for a place to eat. Not all of us had wandered towards UWI's campus (which is like a 5 minute walk from the lodge) so we walked that way to see what restaurants we'd run into. We came across Eddy's which is a restaurant & bar but they didn't have any food prepared because it wasn't lunch time. We all thought that was really weird since in the US a restaurant has food from open to close. We walked out & continued our search onto UWI's campus. We came across a little cafe called "Rituals Coffee House." There I ordered a BBQ ham & cheese panini with a blended Dulce de Leche chiller... It was soooo yummy! After eating, we took pictures in front of a few of the buildings around us which was exciting to see since we will shortly be starting classes there! We made it back in time to the lodge for our 2nd orientation which was about the Caribbean Culture & Society portion of the semester. We received so much information about this course & realized we have a lot of homework for it but we feel confident that it will be easy as it consists of the trips, excursions, & everyday activities we will be doing throughout the semester.
Shortly after the meeting, dinner arrived! Tonight we had "Pelau" which is a traditional dish made of pigeon peas & rice cooked with meat and coleslaw & salad on the side. It was also pretty delicious! After dinner, was our trip to go meet with Rosalind Gabriel- the designer of our costumes for Carnival!!! We went to the very building where all the costumes are designed & handmade... Let me tell you, these costumes are verrryyyy detailed & extravagant & they are all made by hand! People pay thousands of TT dollars to have these made for Carnival but I can say that every penny is worth it. This woman & her workers are very talented & there are many trophies in here house to show that! The costumes we saw were beautiful & I am so excited to be wearing one for Carnival in February! :)
After this visit, we went to a few steel pan band camps to watch their rehearsals. The steel pan is a traditional instrument played here in Trinidad. We went to listen to 3 different bands who compete during Carnival. This was really cool because we got to see what goes on behind the scenes for this part of the event.. It was really cool & fun to watch & listen to!
We thought we were going straight back to the lodge after these visits but little did we know that Ken & Norvan had a little surprise in store for us. They took us to a to "Parang" which is an outdoor party that is hosted by anyone who wants to host one. Here in Trinidad, Christmas holiday ends until January 6th. So to keep the holiday spirit alive, Trinidadians host these Parangs which people usually go door to door to be a part of. Neighbors, family, friends & even strangers are welcome! This was such a surprise.... especially when they took us to the kitchen to serve us drinks haha! Imagine that? Kicking it at a party with our directors & even our PROFESSOR! Yes, our professor from PLU was there haha. They served us a few drinks with Trinidadian rum & they were delicious. We had a live DJ there playing local music. The music was so local that even one of the artists whose song played was there! We got to meet the guy & he was very humble & kind to us. Everyone was! We danced & drank as a group & with everyone that was there & had so much fun! The Trinidadian culture is much like the Mexican culture where we welcome anyone that wants to party with us & have a good time! I felt so comfortable being there & had such a great time dancing to their music. Tonight was definitely a night that I will remember forever! What a warm welcome we had & what a good way to start the festivities that are awaiting us!