Bon jour St. Martin

This time tomorrow I will be sitting on my parent's porch (aka veranda) chilling with the rents and a mojito. There is an amazing but tiny french deli the next village over with the best baguettes. Fresh loaves (still warm) every morning. My brother found it and we would get our wine, cheese and bread from there. Too bad after 8 years of jr/high school and college French, I can't speak it. Since I started taking Italian random French words pop into my head and I can sort of read it. My parents asked me when I'm going to start taking French. I can barely handle intermediate Italian. French is going to have to wait.

I hope this year the local carolers do not show up at 1:00 a.m. Last year my siblings and I were coming home from a very long and good dinner and we saw all these people on the porch wearing Santa hats. My brother said "Isn't it late, what the f**k"? They were singing carols. Badly. All loud and off key. This could be because they were drunk. We were cracking up, basically at every house they have something to drink. I think my dad gave them some guava punch. There are not that many houses in my parents neighborhood, so they know all the carolers. The next night the carolers were back. I didn't think it was possible but they were actually worse and woke up half the house.

Christmas is on a Sunday this year, which means I will be in church at 8:00 a.m. Their United Methodist Church is the minister's first service of the day. I think he goes to Marigot or Philipsburg next. The bells start ringing at 7:30 a.m. If the bells don't wake you the wild roosters in the hills will have you up at the crack of dawn. My grandfather used to have roosters and as kids we really wanted to take them out.

My dad rebuilt the house and they don't have any animals but there are some mango and lime trees from when my grandfather lived there. Too bad all the coconut trees were damaged after the last big hurricane to hit St. Martin in '94. My dad has planted some new trees and I think there's a banana tree too.

The day after Christmas is Boxing Day. Not sure why it's celebrated on an island that is French and Dutch. It's a British holiday. Everyone goes to the beach, then to big house parties.

I am going to ask one of my parent's neighbor where are the fun places to go. She is a single French woman and has lived on the island for years. One of my friends is coming down from New York and I'm sure she'll want to go out. I have the beaches and restaurants covered. Don't know the bars that well. Not sure if we are going to take the ferry over to Anguilla. I would like to see some of my cousins but they will probably be at one of the Boxing Day parties in St. Martin.

I am going to get my Type A mom to relax and hang out with us at the beach. It will be tough. Last year I tried to do my own laundry and she yelled at me. She wanted me to take it easy. I did cook dinner a couple of times. However, everytime she would come into the kitchen asking if she could help. The few times I have seen her not working are during church, The McNeil/Lerher (sp) Report and Young and Restless. Not sure if she still watches Bold and the Beautiful. Y&R has been her "story" for years. It was a great day in the Tri-State area when my parents got a VCR. My mom could tape her stories and watch them whenever.

I have to finish cleaning. I am packed. Got my brows done today, mani/pedi and hair twisted yesterday. My hairdresser was almost an hour late, ugh! which made me late for my nail appt. at Jessica's. My twists are really thin so they are kinda curly. Still getting used to them, they really stand out in the land of weaves. After brows, went to the foreign currency counter at the bank to get some Euros. Not looking forward to sitting at LAX for three hours but very excited about tomorrow!