Aeryn Sun

Uncharted Territories
2010-07-15 23:43:30 (UTC)

Back to reality

I'm back in NY, got in last night about 10:30pm. Our flight
to NY was delayed due to a security issue at JFK or else we
would have arrived since about 8pm. The layover in Barbados
(BGI) was sooooo long and boring which just prolonged my
sadness, more on my sadness later. Here's a recap of my
super cool vacay :) which I'll making in several entries.

The night before we left, I didn't sleep at all. I spent the
night watching True Blood and at the end of every episode I
planned on going to sleep, but it didn't happen. Then
towards the end of one episode, Mo comes into the room
telling me that mommy is ready and about to leave. She
didn't even say anything to me, I thought she was still
sleeping b/c she told me that we would be leaving @ a
certain time. I scrambled to get dressed, gather my luggage,
and tried my best to finish watching that last True Blood
episode (which didn't work out.) The layover in BGI was cool
b/c my aunt - Ingie - and her daughters (1 being my 16 yr
old cousin that got pregnant last yr - Mel) picked us up
from the airport and took us to visit my godmother. I hadn't
seen her in yrs; sadly she died yesterday, we got the news
shortly after reaching home last night. Mo and mommy's
suitcases were left in BGI b/c Liat, the only carrier that
operates in SVG due to corrupt politicians like the Prime
Minister, is retarded. They always have this problem, esp
around busy seasons like carnival and christmas. Their
planes can never fit everyone's suitcase so people sometimes
wait for days before they can get their luggage yet they
don't employ additional planes. Retards. As of now Mo's
suitcase is still in transit b/c it never left SVG with the
other luggage. Half the people on our returning flight
couldn't collect their luggage in BGI.

The first day there while Mo and mommy went to deal with the
luggage situation, E, Jen, and I took a walk with our
cousins. OMG, SVG is a tiny but hilly island (it puts SLO's
hilliness to shame); felt like we walked for days. I think
they got their luggage by the next day though, and mommy's
friend and daughter arrived (they wanted to vacation with
us). I wish they didn't go on the trip b/c they like never
left the house. The house we stayed at is down a hill from
my grandmother's house and they went up to her house once
when mommy introduced them to everyone. After that they
refused to go back; can u believe it? REFUSED b/c they
didn't want to walk uphill. They're Bajans and I know BGI is
pretty much flat, but when you're in someone else's country
and *you* asked to go along on *their* vacay w/ *them*, make
an effort to fit in. They complained about the hilliness so
they never wanted to walk ANYWHERE (mind you we didn't have
a car so we had to rely on vans, which meant paying to get
to places we could have easily walked to). Then they
complained about the mosquitoes, as if that's something we
could have helped. We were all getting bitten, but my family
dealt with it. And they couldn't leave the house on
Saturdays b/c it's their sabbath. I was upset that they
barely left the house b/c E felt as though he needed to stay
in the house and keep them company while mommy wasn't there.
I sure as hell wasn't staying in with them. I was constantly
out walking. I often invited the daughter out to walk with
us but child refused, she didn't even want to go on the
trip, her mother made her. One of our adult cousins went on
the trip too, so they stayed with her for a couple days;
they mostly hung with her. That's awful, they went on the
vacation with mommy yet barely hung out with us. And they
left early, spent the rest of the vacation in BGI w/ their
family. Can you believe that they didn't even tell anyone
they were leaving early? Mommy found out from the adult
cousin and one morning as I was leaving the house I saw
their suitcases all packed by the door. Mommy still seems
chummy with them but I don't want to have much to do with
them. They're too high maintenance for me.

Our first Saturday there was Kiddies Carnival. We watched
all the kids march through the town in their costumes, which
were really good. Next major outing was a visit to Fort
Charlotte and the Botanical Gardens, 2 of my fav places on
the island. Fort's long been an historical landmark and is
also now a prison. I didn't go to many of the carnival shows
like I expected, only went to 1 - Soca Monarch - and that's
b/c my cousin was performing. Didn't really have $$ for the
shows, but it was fine b/c mommy went to several and while
she was out I got to spend time w/ Dev (more on that later).
Monday morning we did J'Ouvert; it was mommy, Mo, E, mommy's
old friend Tita, her daughter, R, his cousin, and I.
J'Ouvert is like Halloween, people dress in weird outfit
(ie: guys dress in school girl outfits) and they paint up
and powder everyone. R and his cousin Eddy put paint all
over us. I wore old clothes, but completely forgot about my
undergarments so my pretty VS panty now has a blue handprint
on it, compliments of R. We were so tired at the end that
after I got home, I showered, ate, then hit the sack until
after noon. J'Ouvert in the Caribbean is 10x better than
here in the states. Everyone was in a festive mood and I
didn't have to worry about being groped. Then that same
evening Mommy and Mo did the Monday jump w/ Lime. That's
basically the same as J'Ouvert except companies get a truck
to play music and people follow the truck around town,
dancing, drinking, and having a merry time. The jumps
through town is like a huge street party that goes until
about midnight, traffic is closed off, businesses are shut
down, and no one cares. I didn't do that jump but met them
later that night after Ingie and her daughters arrived from
BGI. Then the next morning was Carnival and of course mommy
and Mo played mas and I didn't. Playing mas isn't really my
thing. Ingie wanted to go into Park to see the masqueraders
perform on stage but we got there too late so we just
watched them march through the streets. That went all night
until about midnight, so for those 2 days we didn't sleep much.

The rest of the trip was spent visiting old friends and
family. One day we went to another part of the island to
visit some family and took this huge hike into the
countryside. Jen found a dog that he named Billy and tried
to have it follow us home. He was always afraid of dogs but
during the vacay he fell in love with them and kept asking
if he could bring one home w/ him. Funny thing, @ JFK when
we got back there was a dog in a cage barking and E told Jen
that it was Billy waiting for Jen to collect him, Jen almost
went for it. Oh yea, so during the visit to country, I
discovered a few things about my family. 1- my uncle has 2
kids, each with a different woman who are related to the
family (so his cousins) and 2- the lady w/ whom my mom and
her siblings spent their school vacays and thought was just
a cousin was actually their aunt. My grandmother didn't even
know or really put the pieces together, she just knew that
she was somehow related to this lady. They're sisters
through their father. I heard that back in those days one
wasn't allowed to be too inquisitive, just take things as
they're told to you. One intention during the vacay was to
do a family tree on my mother's side but that proved
extremely complicated b/c there'r so many people in the
family, many of whom don't know about their father (ie: my
grandmother, hence the above confusion), and many of the
older people who could offer a lot of info are dead. I
figure I'll have to trace the family through the women.
Right now the furthest I've got is my great-great
grandmother, who apparently came from Europe and owned a
plantation but lost it and knew absolutely nothing about
working the land and could barely fend for herself b/c she
had servants doing everything for her; poor thing. I'll have
to do research during my next trip, whenever that is.

On the last day Mo ran into a sticky finger situation. Mel
and I were walking to our grandmother's house and started
laughing at how all the guys were calling out to Mo even
though she had the meanest look on her face. We had past
another cousin (who also got pregnant @ 16, now dubbed
sticky fingers) and when Mo caught up to us she asked if we
thought that was funny. We had no idea what she was talking
about, but then she said how she saw sticky fingers wearing
her bra (pink w/ black polka dots) under a white shirt.
Chick is dumb, she didn't think that a pink bra would show
under a white shirt? Anyway, this chick has been stealing
from everyone for a long time now yet no one seems to be
able to do a darn thing about it. She stole $$ from Mel and
our grandmother, Mel's panty (eww?), our cousin's cell
phone, my uncle's ipod, and god knows what else. She's also
twice Mo's size and wears @ least a D cup, how the hell did
she fit into the bra? She was hiding from us all day but
when we finally got to question her, this is how it went:

Mo - Sticky fingers, I'm missing a bra, I left it in the
chair w/ some other dirty clothes. Have you seen it? (mind
you, Mo is staring right @ the bra draped over the baby crib)
SF - yea, I borrowed it this morning. (my mom's bra which is
more her size was among the dirty clothes too, yet she
didn't borrow that one)
*silence b/c Mo and I are now dumbfounded by this admittance
SF - you want it back?
Mo - no you can keep it.

What the hell, "do you want it back"? Asking that question
shows that she had no intentions of returning it so how can
she say she borrowed it? Like why didn't she just wait until
we left to wear it b/c @ least then we would have thought
that Mo simply misplaced the bra or forgot to pack it. No
one can trust her yet my grandmother still harbors her in
the house b/c she sometimes helps her. Mommy was going to
leave her a few things and $$, but left her nothing after
that stunt. I don't even want to have anything to do with
her anymore, and to think that I felt sorry for her.

My butt hurts from sitting in this chair for so long. I'll
continue the rest in another entry when my butt is no longer
numb.




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