life on SXM

more on fixing the island

2010-01-16T07:50:00.002-04:00

this video was made for the Caribbean Foundation for Sustainability

what's wrong with St. Martin?

2009-11-02T09:21:00.005-04:00

For a long time now I've been trying to gather my thoughts and succinctly explain what my feelings about St. Martin were and why they tended more towards the negative than the positive. Every time I meet someone who hears for the first time where we lived and that we were not as thrilled about the experience as honeymooners usually are about being in the Caribbean, I realise how little people outside the Caribbean know about its reality. I think that through this blog and through conversations I've head I've managed to astonish quite a few people.

But to astonish them was not the point. I was under the impression that many of these people thought I was just ungrateful for the 'fortune' of an experience in the tropics, or worse, that I am just a difficultly satisfied spoiled snobby westerner - even if I'm not a westerner;) So I hope it is clear to all, I did not complain about St. Martin because I'm thankless or because it sounds cool to say a desired and unreachable for many place sucks.

I would love to have triggered a thought provoking process with all the negative SXM aspects I drew attention to. This is probably not the last post on the topic. I still feel there's so much more I can say about the reality of the island and that somehow this will at one point translate to someone's positive doing and 'fixing' of the 'wrong'. I just don't know how to link the 2 yet. I feel I have to spread the word about what I learned there, what I saw, what I experienced. SXM is not a paradise. It is a ruined paradise; ruined by people, people who wanted to exploit the paradise without any consideration for it's fragility, for its limits, for the irreversibility of certain actions or for the costs of trying to restore balance, or for the natural, social and economic side effects of certain activities. To use a popular term, there was never an impact assessment done, or if there was, it was ignored.

SXM is a place out of control in many aspects. The best illustration to this statement is a video uploaded to the following link of a local SXM ngo, (Caribbean Foundation for Sustainability) with which I was involved while living there. First 40 seconds show you the paradise you expect to see, later you see the reality the island is made to endure. The second half of the video is what shocked me at arrival and what kept impacting me all along my stay.

Notwithstanding the state of affairs, there are plenty of great civil society actions under way in St. Martin. It is not a forgotten by God place, but the ones who care and want to fix or restore seem to be outnumbered by the ones who keep not caring. It was really a difficult place to live and to accept it all, especially the not caring.

the move is done - sxm chapter is closed

2009-05-19T09:29:00.006-04:00

It's been ages since I've posted. Apart from being busy, I have had little authentic will to blog lately. Maybe because I was already exiting the virtual and entering the real life phase and perhaps I felt I didn't need to blog to be able to share feelings and observations. Other, more traditional forms, were available again.
It's not yet time for conclusions or a summary. I'm sure I'll get around to that sometime before Christmas this year, when the West Indies experience will feel truly in the past. For the moment, anyone interested in following our travels and discoveries is welcome to visit the new blog:)

careful what you wish for

2009-02-15T20:00:00.005-04:00

It's been a while since I was able to blog. Life surprised me in one of the hardest ways and kept me occupied, stressed and completely reprioritising for a while. As much as I wish not to write about all of these events they have a consequence for the blog other than there being a few months of silence. I will be leaving the island of St. Martin. Going to my next place, for the moment unknown. Thus the blog will shortly come to a natural end.
Those who have followed my entries know that although I've tried hard to be an optimist I never really felt I fitted in. I didn't directly express wanting to leave but I think it was clear for the sensitive readers, my attempts of making St. Martin a home were giving poor effects. Now that I know I am leaving for sure and for good, I feel like I have not done all I wanted to. And there will probably be no time to squeeze in what's not yet ticked off. There were places I haven't gone to, food I haven't tasted, events I haven't participated in. The pain of most likely not experiencing these things is somehow double; for one I won't know what it's like - just for myself, won't enrich my exposure, my senses, my observations, I will feel less fortunate for not having my own opinion on x, y, z; and secondly, I won't be able to write about it here, in other words, I won't fully analyse it, digest it, put it into carefully considered words and share through the blog. This makes me sad.
I am as strong believer in that all things happen for a reason and that, oh well, if for example I did not go scubadiving here in St. Martin, this is just an excellent opportunity to make it up elsewhere, ect., ect. I won't have a number of experiences here I wish I had had, simultanously I'll be having others I did not anticipate, in a different place. Life is always full of events, so here or there, something will be happening to you, if not a, then b.
Since I know I won't be able to make up for time lost in the future, rather than planning on doing just certain most desirable things, I will most likely frantically catch the opportunity and jump at random activities that pop into my mind. After all if I end up leaving for good without having done something, I will only after realise, I really wanted to do, St. Martin will still be here 10, 20 and 30 years from now.
How does it feel to know to be leaving? It feels as if even though, this is what subconciously my mind wanted all along, it's too soon, too unexpected and too violent, like I'm too little in control and like this is not the way I wanted it.
I will probably have some more gaps in writing, I'll prefer to focus on final experiencing and picture taking; I'll be able to do my writing ex post from the next 'home'.

vote vote vote

2008-12-22T07:46:00.003-04:00

The blog is getting so much traffic recently and so few votes in the polls:(
Maybe it's because it's not necessarily visits from SXM and I guess asking someone who lives in California or Germany how often he get's left with no water is like asking him how often he has no oxygen;) But at least I hope all the island dwellers have voted:)

In case I don't get a chance to post anymore before Chritstmas, Merry Christmas everyone!

some sunrise now, since the sunset was so popular:D

2008-12-19T21:28:00.005-04:00

These pictures were taken from the lookout at the hill of Orient Bay at 6.30 am about 3 weeks ago. We had an early flight to catch and one of the few good things about getting up so early was witnessing this great sunrise:) If you click on the picture to see it larger you'll notice how nicely St.Barths is lit with the morning rays:)

just another beautiful sunset, enjoy!

2008-12-18T11:58:00.025-04:00

a great place to eat!

2008-12-03T15:52:00.006-04:00

I have to share this information because it's only fair to let everyone know:) There's a restaurant we discovered recently which is unbelievably good. We thought of going there already last year yet the ambience turned us off. We were wrong to let that (mis)guide us. Although the decor and general feeling of a place are important features when choosing a place to eat out, I think that in a place with limited options, as SXM, maybe that criteria should not get in the way too often.
It's not that the place looks bad or untidy or aesthetically incorrect...I'm just very picky. And it made me feel at least 20 years too young to be there. On second thought, knowing myself, 20 years from now, if the decor does not change, I will still most likely feel it is not my kind of ambience. It's all perfectly colour matched, tidy, spacious, modern....just whatever it is ...something's there or something's missing. Won't dwell on it, because it's much less relevant.

The food, the food was wow! I would go back any time, recommend it to anybody and praise it endlessly, because the chef deserves all the free publicity possible. I'm talking about the Temptation behind the Atlantis Casino in Cupecoy, Dutch side. I hope if the chef ever reads this post does not hold it against me for expressing my opinion on the look of the place, I honestly believe once you have his food in your mouth you loose all needs for being ambience spoiled, you forget everything, eating there is just such a pleasure:)

In fact I wanted to post more pictures, of the delicious dishes, but we literally forgot to take them before we started digging in, the look and smell were so tempting and the starter convinced us the the rest would be fantastic :) It would not do justice to the quality of the meal to show a messy plate with the food half gone... So I leave it to your imagination or better yet, to your own visit to the Temptation, to find out how wonderful and uncomparable is the food.

some shots of Orient Bay

2008-11-29T17:27:00.010-04:00

water & electricity

2008-11-25T22:16:00.005-04:00

I recently noticed that we have interruptions in the delivery of both much more frequently than before. What really bothers the most is that power cuts mean no internet:(
I realise these polls test more your feelings and subjective perceptions than reality but the impression you have is often not that much exaggerated and a fair reflection of the true situation. So although no one marks down how often they couldn't shower or use any electricity run devices, most of you have an idea of how much/frequently these occurrences annoy you. Therefore I trust everyone's replies will paint an honest picture of utilities' delivery on the island:) Don't let me down, vote!
And yes, if among the readers there are the unfortunate ones who have power cuts and water supply stops more frequently than 3-5 a week...just mark that answer. Although it must be much more annoying to have that happen more than 5 times in a single week, for the sake of this poll let's just assume that that is the extreme.

Is SXM safe - your anwers

2008-11-22T22:14:00.006-04:00

Do you feel safe on SXM?

yes, completely, I am a man	4 (23%)
yes, completely, I am a woman	1 (5%)
not more or less safe than I did in the last place I lived	5 (29%)
I feel less safe than in my former residence	7 (41%)
I used to feel extremely unsafe, but now live here many years and know my ways	0 (0%)

Votes so far: 17
Poll closed

The poll is closed and the results are not very surprising. Especially that only one lady voted for feeling completely safe.
28% feel here completely safe.
29% don't see a difference between SXM and their other homes in terms of how safe they feel.
41% feel less safe.

You can draw 2 conclusions. Either that the largest group of voters perceives the island as relatively dangerous. 41% is a lion's share of the votes. Or if you add the first two responses, of people who feel completely safe with those of the people who feel the same (lack of) safety as in other places they lived, the majority actually perceives the island as relatively safe. 57% is the compound percentage of those two responses and mathematically the majority. But I have to stress, it's not a 57% believing the island is safe. It's 57% who just don't feel less safe.

I suppose I could have phrased the responses better and gotton less ambiguous results;) Feel free to comment.

last 3 days to vote in the safety on SXM poll

2008-11-19T13:46:00.003-04:00

so far the votes distribution makes it impossible to say whether readers consider the island safe or not....so we need a few more votes to get a clear idea. who hasn't done it yet is encouraged to take part:) Thanks!

Philipsburg movie theatre

2008-11-17T22:16:00.005-04:00

What a nice surprise it was to discover that the movie theatre of Philipsburg is such a pleasant and quaint place to watch a movie. Especially the comfy large sofas made it a unique experience.

For the mosaic, I wanted a different picture representing the Quantum of Solace, but the image of James Bond having his famous drink on a plane from a martini glass is nowhere to be found:( So I used a picture from a fellow blogger's site, favoritehero.com

shopping in St. Martin

2008-11-14T22:48:00.008-04:00

[edit 25 nov]

I discovered that there actually is a Benetton on the island. Or rather I've seen the sign and heard the ad on radio, not yet seen the shop, so I guess white t-shirts for less then 60 euro a r e possible;) Also saw that one of the jean shops in West Indies Mall carries Diesel, so no need to go to the Bahamas just for those;)

I would not be a women if I wouldn't talk about shopping. The truth is, it is a difficult activity here. There is a specific shop reality, meaning, it is nothing like anything else experienced hitherto. It is neither the typical large city with a plethora of all budget, all target group, all brands, all size; and it is also not the typical delayed little town reality. If you live in St. Martin, or if you are visiting with the intention of shopping for clothes there's just a few shops you're likely to look into. Although there are plenty of establishments, about 90% you would not go into. The majority of shops are focused on tourists - offering diamond and other gem stone jewellery, electronics, perfumes and similar souvenir type goods.
For people who live here, the actual shopping experience is quite limited vis-à-vis the actual shop presence. I have already written about the West Indies Mall in a post in March, and that offers a few shops you can enjoy as anywhere else in a shopping centre; plus there are 2-4 shops in Philipsburg I look into on a regular basis and 2-5 in Marigot. Regular means in fact completely irregular, rather, if I'm in town when the shops are open I stop by. About 50% of the times I stop by, I end up buying something; but I am in town rather rarely.

The island offers supposedly tax free goods, which is great for computers, perfumes or in general for branded expensive buys. The sad reality is that if you are not after a Furla belt, Tag Heuer watch, Burberry scarf, mac computer or Hermès bag you are likely not to notice at all you are profiting from the discount. Not to mention now, when the Euro is so strong and it makes a a great difference whether you are paying a 100 USD Dutch side, or a 100 Euro French side. Let's say you need a regular white t-shirt, or beach shorts, or whatever garment which is not meant to be brand conscious, you're stuck with paying (cheapest) 60 Euro for your T-shirt, as you just can't get plain regular items at a supermarket, wallmart-similar-establishment, decathlon or a chain shop as Benetton, Zara or H&M. You're left with the uber cool, uber expensive boutiques, or the places targeting poor locals (example Backstreet of Philipsburg) where most items are India/China made, the ambience is depressing, lighting dim, fitting room scary, the variety close to zero, the up-to-datedness very behind:( likelihood of cheap t-shirts very high.

And don't be fooled by the few chic brands I flashed at you above. The island does not offer all possible high end delicacies. For Dior, Louis Vuitton and company you're better of shopping at nearby St. Barth. I had to go for my Tods to Miami, my Diesel to Bahamas - just to name a few.

Yet in this weird reality there are a few places which target moi as a client:) yey! And I have nothing against Hermès sandals or Longchamps bags - I am in favour all the way, but I need my variety, my options, my comparesen, my free choice! Filiberto often compares the island to a large dutyfree airport shopping area, and he has a point. You have your liquor, cosmetics, high end brands, etc. But who can survive shopping only at an airport? Which is why I am so thankful for a few shops which make the island a little less dutyfree like... This post is dedicated to those places, the Tommy Hilfiger, Ralph Lauren and Cocolito of Philipsburg as well as Showroom, MaxMara, Coco Island and Ici Paris of Marigot. I unfortunately don't have pictures of all places I mention but hopefully this will be corrected soon:)

prince charming

2008-11-14T21:55:00.002-04:00

even if frogs are not bugs....no comment

what's a better home SXM or SBH - your answers

2008-11-12T18:50:00.005-04:00

First of all, thanks for participating in our first poll! I wish we'd have some more votes, making the results a bit more credible, but 8 people is good enough for the beginning:)

You all love St. Martin so much that no matter what complaining I do here about the island;) or how beautiful pics on St. Barth I post, I guess everyone's gonna be in favour of SXM:)

if you know both St. Martin and St. Barth, which would you prefer for a home?

SXM is/would be my home for a lifetime	4 (50%)
SXM but only for 2-3 years max	2 (25%)
SBH is/would be my home for a lifetime	0 (0%)
SBH but only for 2-3 years max	1 (12%)
I can't imagine living on either regardless of time	1 (12%)

Votes so far: 8
Poll closed

Lastly, I'm encouraging everyone to take part in the new poll added today:)

since when does SXM have buses?

2008-11-12T13:30:00.006-04:00

I spent the entire Monday driving between the Dutch side and French side. I was constantly stuck in terrible traffic, due to the pre-St. Martin Day frenzy - what was it all about? where were all these people suddently so eager to get to? It was a beautiful day with what rarely occurs 4 islands being visible of the South coast: Saba, St. Eustasius, St Kitts and Nevis. As much as I dislike traffic I had beautiful views to admire on my way so I was fine:)
I also noticed new buses on the roads; much higher and longer then the minivans that I used to see. Plus with an almost uniform look, the top 4/5 were white and the bottom section would be painted either purple, orange, yellow, etc. They really looked like proper public transport service buses, where inside one can stand, walk, sit in individual seats, additionally they had a regular door. I was amazed. Have they been on the roads long?

Orient Bay does not have a proper bus stop, plus it's never a destination of any of the buses, so I take them rarely as it's just very inconvenient to be standing on the side of a road with no sidewalk, praying not to get driven over by one of the maniacs, and hoping to distingush the bus minivans from just regular minivans in time to wave-stop them.

For everyone not familiar with the bus system on the island, there are no numbers or letters or names of buses, the minivans which can only be distinguished as a bus by their licence plate have a destination card placed somewhere on the front windshield. The letters are medium size, so if the minivan is going slow and your eyesight is good, you read it fairly easily, but it's still far from user friendly. They do not have a common colour, or size, are not the same make, the drivers wear their private clothes rather than a uniform. Honestly to anyone not famiar with such solutions, the local buses are not an easy thing to spot.

As the principle road on the island is basically a circle, with only a few side roads, theoretically whereever you are going you can get to by taking a bus going whatever direction, as the bus's trayectory will be some section of the circle and most likely you will have to get off anyway and take a second minivan as no bus (that I know of) does the full circle. Very confusing system whichever way you look at it. Does not give you a sense of being public, yet not really private. The prices are nowhere explained, I'm never really sure whether the bus driver cares if he gets dollars or Euros, and how come I sometimes pay 1 (usd or Euro) sometimes 2. It's a whole different concept for public transport than anything I have ever seen and I'm saying this after having taken buses in plenty of countries, each with their own rules. As diverse as the systems I saw may have been, they had something in common - I was never in doubt which vehicle was a bus.

So I was very happy to see these new uniformily looking buses on the roads. Now all I have to wait for is that they start going by Orient Bay and maybe a bus stop is created:)

centipede

2008-11-10T06:34:00.007-04:00

[edit 17 Nov.] Finally found the 2 of them together. This makes the distinguishing process easier:) So the arthropod on the left is a centipede (poisonous and dangerous), the one on the right is a millipede (just annoying but apparently not dangerous). Until someone corrects me.

Not that jogging is boring for me or needs to be enriched by other activities, but yesterday as I jogged I decided to count the centipedes I find on my way. We see them so frequently in and around the house that I was curious to figure out if it was our house alone that was a favourite hang out for these deadly worms, or were they uniformly invading the larger terrain. Not sure how many of the ones which were actually on my way I spotted, but I usually find all the coins others walk by, so my eye sight is rather good:) Counted 37 centipedes and jogged for 35 minutes, out of which about 8 minutes was along the beach where they either don't enter - I at least fully believe that and lay on the sand carefree - or I have never seen any there. This gives roughly 37 centipedes in 27 minutes, that's 1.3 centipedes per minute. Is that scary? or is it just me being difficult? According to Wikipedia "Centipede densities have been recorded as high as 600/m²" so I guess I live in a safe environment...
Wikipedia also shows many pictues of centipedes but none quite like the ones we always see, although we were told to watch out by having the precise bug pointed to us. So I am pretty confident what we see are centipedes, but as soon I spot one today I'm posting a picture of it and waiting for the readers to verify whether the red worms are in deed the poisonous ones. I have a hesitation whether waht we're seeing are not millipedes but I'm a city dweller from the north and have very little experience with any bugs other than ants, so for the sake of safety all red worms we see cause a red alert and immediate killing with no direct touching taking place.

fellow SXM bloggers

2008-11-07T14:15:00.006-04:00

I found some new links I wanted to add and normally I'd add these without posting about adding, but I wanted to thank the author of the site I found them on, and I'm just not sure how to do that - ? First blog I find where I can't comment or email the blogger, or at least have not come across how to so far. Thus this post and a link to the blog sxmophile I owe my new "News links" to. Hopefully one of the readers will either forward the thank you or let me know how to do it myslef:)

Bamboo Bernie's II

2008-11-07T11:00:00.011-04:00

Bamboo Bernie's this time not only will get my verbal compliments, but also plenty of shots for our readers to judge and hopefully admire:)

I'm glad this time we got a nice minimalist japanese looking plate. Although I like very much the traditional boats they used to use, I can have them in other places. This plate served great and made the meal present itself wonderfully, much better than the other time when we were served on an oval dish with floral or other bas relief I could easily imagine wiener schnitzels on... So please use just these nice plain ones:)

[all pictures are our own]

And two last pictures showing a bit of the ambience and decor.

hotel I loved

2008-11-05T00:12:00.008-04:00

I feel I need to clarify, as perhaps my previous post lead to a misunderstanding. I have unfortunately put together my appreciation for St. Barth and disappointment for region's hotels in one post, possibly leading readers to a conclusion that I disliked our hotel in St. Barth. I loved it! I would recommend it to anyone. Picturesque, quiet, tidy, orderly with manicured gardens. The kindest service I can remember, just the right balance of politeness and non formality; I usually find people who are either excessive in their hotel service manner, reminding servitude times or people who give the sensation of just hating their job and taking it out on me haha). Our St. Barth hotel also gave no sensation of an overwhelming large construction or mass tourism ambience. It was a perfect place to stay, relax, sun bathe, eat and just enjoy the beautiful surroundings. I hope we go back. Le Guanahani & Spa Hotel deserves some propaganda:

[all pictures via leguanahani com]

great things about St. Martin

2008-11-03T08:17:00.019-04:00

One of the greatest things about St. Martin is being so close to St. Barth. I don't mean this with any irony, I sincerely am glad living here has allowed me to do some travel in this region, which living in Europe allows much less. Of course Europeans travel to the Caribbean, but it's always so far and takes so long to get to, people most often find valid reasons for a vacation closer to the Old Continent, or at least a destination better connected, where arrival to does not mean loosing a whole day of our precious holiday. Lastly the flight cost has an impact, making vacationing to the Caribbean an idea easy to substitute by equally beautiful regions somewhere closer.

Speaking of costs, it's not just the travel that is expensive, getting a decent accommodation in the Caribbean is much more expensive then anywhere in Europe. Most densely visited destinations in Europe offer a plethora of lodging options, from B&B and aparthotels, through motels and hostels, chain hotels of all quality standards, to boutique hotels which exceed in satisfying clients' needs. All these solutions come with an adequate and expected price tag. So you know up front what you'll get for what you pay. Hostels and B&B can be very affordable , even to the student on a budget, yet they don't have to be repelling, dirty and smelly just because they cost 10 times less then a good hotel. No one will pamper you there, but you'll spend a comfortable night in warm and decent conditions. Best European hotels will charge far more, but will also offer far beyond what you need to praise them. Most importantly, there's a whole spectrum of solutions in between, which always seem to have a price tag which proportionally decreases or increases with the quality you find within.

From what I've seen so far in the Caribbean things are different. There seem to be 2 polarised ends and very little in between. The extremes are not the same as the European ones though. Here it seems a 6 (on a scale of 1 to 10) in decency hotel requires a 9 price tag. Spoiled by European standards, I'm expecting pampering for a price tag of 9; here I get just plain old OK, with some defects often on the service side.

My biggest disillusion are not the more expensive places which turn out not to exceed my needs, it's the lower end places which, personally I believe, have an approach: since you don't pay a lot you deserve to be punished with bad service haha. Long story short, lodging is much more diversified in Europe, much more adapted to the different budgets and most of all prices allow to create right expectations; stressing the fact that low prices need not mean unpleasant experience; plenty of economy solutions cut your costs without cutting your experience. I have this unsettling feeling that in the Caribbean you have a choice of either being very unhappy in a crappy place or draining your wallet, because that is the only next echelon after crappy:(
Although I only know this now, and these were not obstacles to my travelling here in the past, I believe these may be the obstacles stopping so many Europeans, knowing that value for money, they end up losing travelling so far. I don't want to repeat after everyone else, but what counts more in a time of crisis, than value for money...

Long introduction behind me, I'll move to what I wanted this post to be about. I just needed to get those hotel uneasy feelings off my chest, although the topic has not been exhausted;)

One of the greatest things about living on St. Martin was discovering St. Barth. The island amazed me. Having so much in common with St. Martin in terms of nature (although substantially more differentiated in elevation) it shocked me with how different a feeling it gave me.

The orderliness we were greeted by, the kindness of the taxi driver, the cleanliness of his car. I could not believe my eyes. I once heard that the sophistication and development of a society can be judged by how it deals with prostitution; those first 15 minutes driving through St. Barth made me think, you can judge a society on how clean are their dumpsters. Driving culture and just regular people street politeness impressed us immensely. I was having a dissonance thinking, this could not be the Caribbean and at the same time feeling, but this IS the Caribbean, the paradise on earth I visualised before ever setting foot in the region haha.

We know it can't be perfect. Not all that shines is gold, plus we know the downside of small, orderly and beautiful corners of this world, after all, Monaco was like that as well:) Yet the great impression the island made on us has not worn off yet. I'll gladly travel more in the region and I'll come with an open mind to all places, but something tells me I might not find a second St Barth reality anywhere close. If anyone planning a trip is reading this and is hesitant if to include SBH in the their trip, trust me, there's nothing like it, especially if American style resorts are not your thing and if you like to get out and discover true island living, rather than sipping an invented-for-the-sake-of-tourists-cocktail in a freezing over air-conditioned casino full of people in white sneakers, go to St. Barth!
Living in Europe we'd likely decide to visit St. Barth only maybe after kids were university age;) Without direct flights, or without any big plane landing there at all, I'd probably see getting there too much hassle, especially if I'd know a bit of the Caribbean already and expect all of it to be pretty similar, I just wouldn't put the extra effort. Living in St. Martin, made it an easy and obvious destination. We got to see a different side of the Caribbean, not a cleaned up resort area for the tourist, but a a whole beautiful island, clean for everyone who lives there or comes to visit. aaa...

[all pictures from St. Barth]

who's the villain

2008-10-28T23:37:00.004-04:00

Not everything in life needs to be antagonistic and about "them" against "us". But it often is so. And it does not take a dual nationality island as St Martin, French vs. the Dutch Antillean, whites against the blacks, locals against the residents/tourists, etc, etc. But I guess the island offers plenty of opportunity.
Before I arrived to the island I was given an example of what's a typical island life situation I might not be used to. The example was a traffic jam caused by two local drivers, who going in opposite direction, stop in the middle of the road, roll down their windows, start chatting inconsiderate of the people behind each of them. This perhaps would not be so bad if the other waiting drivers would have extra lanes, or at least a space on the side of the road through which they could over take the 2 friends who decided to catch up on lost time. St Martin does not have 2 lane roads (with maybe two exceptions I can recall), and to the side of the road there's often a cliff, a building, high rocks, etc. Overtaking is possible in very limited occasions; never has it occurred to me for it to be possible when 2 cars stop to chat.
I may be biased in my view, but so far the only times I've experienced being blocked like this, it was due to locals. This fit perfectly with what I was told prior to coming. I tried not to get stressed over it. After all, you can be in a traffic jam for so many reasons, in so many places, the cause of it is usually irrelevant, the outcome, that you arrive late, is equally bothersome.

Nevertheless, I couldn't help thinking, how much such driving habits derive from a broader lack of civic consciousness. Naturally, I don't believe that the island is the only place touched by this deficiency; I have lived in too many places to think that mutually courteous behaviour is perfectly developed in more developed countries. Bad manners, driving culture included, are pretty much uniformly spread geographically. Nations differ in the bad manners they master in. It is usually our set of values taken from a particular upbringing that makes us praise more the civic consciousness of one place, turning a blind eye to the 'bad manners' we are more inclined to forgive, and demonise other places for their lack of respect for habits we need so much to feel comfortable and at home.
I'm pretty neutral on driving culture, as long as it is not a culture conducive to more danger on the road, I'm ok with different drivers pursuing their own ways.

The other day something happened which changed my focus on the topic though. We were in a taxi, a french license plate, with a driver who was fluent in French, but I wouldn't put a 1000 USD on that he considered himself French, whichever way he seemed to be a local. We needed to stop because of the above described 'friendly chat' blocking the road. It was in a predominantly French-of-the-Métropole residential area. After stopping, my instinct told me one of the 2 cars would budge, to let us pass. To my surprise neither did. We waited a moment longer, the driver being very well educated did not use the horn until a significant while had passed, allowing for both cars ahead to realise we were there waiting. Must I spell out the 2 interacting men, where white French men? I realised how much biased I have been to this moment.
Our driver honked, yet kept his cool, never showing any impatience. The two men continued to chat regardless:) This is the moment when our driver said the magic words: it is always the French, the French are like this, they just don't care...
It made me laugh. Who would have thought that the locals thought it was the French who brought this habit to the island and claim that the French are the practitioners;)

So who is the villain? Was it the locals teaching the newly arrived French how to loosen up their trained for centuries good manners? or was it the nonchalant French who showed the locals it's ok not to care how our actions impact others?:)

the new Bamboo Bernies

2008-10-22T13:36:00.005-04:00

Last night, for the first time since its move, we dined at Bamboo Bernies. The new restaurant really impressed me, while the wholo Maho area impresses me very little; minus Bliss and the old Bamboo Bernies that is. I was reluctant to go and try the new location, because the complex it is in did not convey the mood I seek when thinking of dinig out. In general in the past we never felt the locales we tried in that area were really our thing. True also, we have not tried all places yet, plus yesterday realised there are a few we did not see before... So as much as I dislike generalising, we have always generalised the opinion about Maho based on singular expereinces. The reason I don't like the Maho atmosphere is that it makes me feel old at 30:( Bad feeling. The people around me give me a vibe of them feeling old...while old is not on my mind at all. And I am not referring to the age of the people...but to an aged air they potray regardless of their age. I think people who act old while being young are just unhappy people and intuitively try to avoid their company. Hence our scarce returns to the places of Maho.

But since most of the restaurants in our area are still closed, and I really wanted sushi, we decided to drive all the way to the other side of the island and give the new location a shot. What a nice surprise it was to realise than not only was the food great (no mayo in sushi!....which I happen to find constantly on the French side), good drinks, but also the interior, music and general ambience made a very good impression. Service was kind, air co not exaggerated, trendy bathroom (I always pay attention to the bathrooms, it's a fetish;), the lounge area seemed very cosy and lastly, there were no mosquitoes, as it's all indoors.
It's a shame it's all the way opposite edge of the island, otherwise I would turn into a regular:)

From the Daily Herald of Today - No comment

2008-07-20T14:23:00.006-04:00

Police officers’ love affair turns sour, gunshots fired

BETTY’S ESTATE--A love affair between two police officers turned sour early Thursday and resulted in one officer reportedly firing at least one gunshot at the home of his paramour.

Details about the incident are sketchy, but Police Deputy Chief Commissioner of the Windward Islands Richard Panneflek confirmed that there had been an incident involving male Detective C. and female Patrol Officer P. He also confirmed that no one had been injured.

Reports reaching The Daily Herald stated that the incident apparently stemmed from a love triangle.

Detective C., whose wife resides on another of the Windward Islands of the Netherlands Antilles, reportedly turned up at the Betty’s Estate home of his girlfriend Patrol Officer P. and discovered another man in her home.

According to well-placed sources, C. stood outside the home and opened fire with his gun. At least one bullet punctured the front door. Whether the police had been summoned to the scene by P. or neighbours had 911 could not be confirmed, but it is understood that following the incident P. spent the remainder of the morning at the Philipsburg police station, apparently for security reasons.

It is also understood that C. was held for questioning, but was later released after all his firearms had been confiscated.

C.’s release has reportedly left several of his police officer colleagues furious. They contend that by law the incident should be considered attempted murder and C. should have been held in custody.

Panneflek disclosed very little about the incident, at a press briefing at the Philipsburg police station Thursday afternoon. He said he could not give any details as the incident was still under investigation. He said all the relevant authorities had been briefed and the matter had been referred to the Attorney General.

NO COMMENT

Things I can never figure out....

2008-05-02T00:16:00.007-04:00

1) why the hell a 6 bottle case of Evian, costs 15 Euros in Orient Bay?
2) does St Maarten have its own ZIP code?
3) is there a way to keep mosquitoes off my bedroom w/o inhaling toxic gases myself?
4) why cows are free to cross the streets?
5) why are there 2 carnivals?
6) why do I need to convince taxi drivers that the fastest way between the airport and Orient Bay is not via Oyster's Pond? (specially considering that the fare is fixed!!!)
7) why are taxis on average bigger then buses?
8) why collective taxis are to the benefit only of taxi drivers and not customers?
9) why people in SXM are not keen in giving directions?
10) why - while walking on front street - would I need a "taxi back to ship"?
11) where can I find information on buses? I mean if I want to go from Point A to Point B, how do I know which Bus to take?
12) why the propane bottle re-seller has an ad on the yellow pages which says: "home delivery" if they don't actually do home delivery?
13) why taxi drivers thing that the traffic problem in SXM is caused by rentals?
14) how many resorts/private condos/villas are they going to build?
15) why european citizens can't sign up in the french town hall of Saint Martin? Isn't that a basic right/duty of being european?

Philipsburg Carnival Parade

2008-04-29T20:22:00.008-04:00

Water wall!

2008-04-26T19:03:00.002-04:00

Never saw so much rain altoghether in my life. And I lived in Brussels and Amsterdam.....

findind peace

2008-04-17T19:48:00.005-04:00

Ever since my resentful post in February about taxi dispatchers at the PJIA, I have gone away and come back a few times and therefore had to take more taxis from the airport. Taught by the previous encounter I now orderly stop at the booth outside the exit door and tell the uniformed man a) that yes, I want a taxi, b) where I am going.

I still find it pointless, very big-brother-like and wish I could just do like everywhere else, queue and board the first in line. But I conform.

I do many things which are against my nature, but carry a prize which is worthy the 'sacrifice'. In this case, a hassle free getting out of the airport, and a day without a pointless fight with a total stranger, which would only entail becoming upset for no reason and ruining my otherwise feeling good, IS worth the effort of conforming to pointless rules:)

eating out

2008-04-17T19:22:00.008-04:00

Choosing where to wine and dine on sxm should be easier now:) I was sent a link to a new site dine sxm which allows to choose your place based on a group of criteria; location, cuisine, price, hours, features.

For all of those who had to rely on the plentiful (but so old school and so for tourists) St.Martin holiday catalogues, this site offers hope of a more up to date approach on deciding where to eat out:)

I have not used their site myself, but hope to do so very soon. Bon apetit everyone!

peaceful palm sunday at maho

2008-03-19T23:50:00.012-04:00

Ladies room bureaucracy

2008-03-19T18:52:00.006-04:00

Anyone who has come shopping to St. Martin (on the French side), whether was here for a day or a lifetime, probably knows le West Indies Mall. It's not too large, beautiful on the inside, looks like a Monte Carlo Casino from the outside, in fact I was thinking the other day, that Monaco's Le Métropole is actually a little less lavish than Le West Indies Mall haha.
Anyway, I had a funny incident in the ladies room of our island's shopping centre. As perhaps some of you know, to enter the rest room, one must pay; surprisingly enough, price is quoted in US$ rather than in Euro. This makes completely no sense, baering in mind the current currency exchange.
Fili's parents were visiting, and they discovered that if you are a customer of the little bar down the stairs across from the main entrance, you are exempt from paying rest room. Provided you hand in to the rest room lady the ticket from the bar - but it must have something scribled on it!
So the other day, I was there with them, and we were having a snack, comprising 3 beverages. After this we went to the rest rooms, with the ticet in hand:) The restroom lady stopped us, saying that unfortunately in order for her to let us in free, the ticket must say how many people were at the bar!!! hahaha
Isn't this the most ridiculous thing you heard? I already feel ridiculous writing about it. When I heard this on the spot, I just burst out laughing. I mean, anyone can do basic math, if assigned the important task of collecting money at restroom entry point, right? So if there are snacks, plus 3 beverages on a ticket, plus the group trying to get in is composed of 2 fine looking senior citizens, and a young lady, is that really grounds to become bureaucratic? We are talking about 3 US$...and about trying to get into a shopping centre's bathroom, which for Pete's sake, should be free of charge anyway! haha

Anse Marcel

2008-03-08T20:21:00.001-04:00

airport taxi dispatchers

2008-02-26T14:02:00.007-04:00

Today is the 4th time that I land on the island. And by far the least friendly welcome:(
On the plane I was reading a book about the human need for being and remaining in control, so to a certain extent I understand what took place and can justify it; for the rest, I am just astonished.
I breezed through passports, no queue, no lengthy questioning/explaining why EU citizens don't require a carte de sejour, lastly the usual no baggage. I was out on the street within 5 minutes of leaving the plane. That was a wonderful feeling. Until it got rained on by another not so friendly island folk.
There must have been no other plane landing prior to mine for a while, as the waiting area was clear and there were hardly any people in front of the exit. I happily walked out and headed for the first taxi in line, hoping that since there is no one else around, I might get a solo ride, rather than getting a tour of the island with 10 other tourists, before being brought home.
As I was already trying to make eye contact with my lady taxi driver, I was called to a halt. A man in a uniform, which means little here on the island, bearing in mind the plethora of uniforms around, asked if I needed a taxi. Without really stopping, I turned my head towards him and replied yes. I guess my not stopping upset him, because he changed his tone and objectively impolitely demanded to know where I was going. His colleague and he, the 2 for sure nondegree, close to neandertals told me to go to the first taxi. At which point I thought this is even more Kafka than I initially assumed. I did get upset and said that that is exactly what I was doing, ie going to the first taxi!
I can't remember the exact words, but the conversation followed a pointless exchange of bordering on rude ripostes. He claimed I HAD to stop and inform that I was seeking a taxi, plus tell them where I was going. Grounds for which he showed me an illegible tag on his uniform shirt and a sign on his booth which read TAXI STAND. I was so taken aback by his imposition of authority that for an instant I did stop and stand speechless, trying to figure out if it was island humour I was not realising, or whether some sort of new nazi laws were implemented while I was away, and now I in fact did have to inform uniformed people of where I was headed.
So buffled and upset I finally said I was going: home. This was either not heard by him and his colleague, or simply was unappreciated, as they both screamed once more where I was headed. So purposely low I muttered my destination, after which again I was pointed to go in the direction I was already going. Low, because I don't like the big brother attitude of the US airports, and since that was where I was coming from, I had a strong need to rebel against having to inform of addresses and other data. Certain things are private and I really disagree with having to share so much..
So why should I have stopped?? The man claimed I had to because that was his job to dispatch people to taxis, and that he was there in service of his government. HA! I am seriously not sure what kind of service he did for me, for one. Secondly, not sure what citizens of this island pay taxes for, because of it's to cover his salary, I'm sorry for every NAF wasited.
I honestly wish I had more positive items to post about SXM, but it's either my attitude towards this place that attracts negative events, or it's just plain honest truth, there's more bad than good to write about.

Mix pictures from the island

2008-02-16T16:41:00.001-04:00

Beach and Sky in Terres Basses

2008-02-16T16:35:00.001-04:00

grey skies

2008-02-14T00:58:00.007-04:00

As insane as this may sound to many people living north of us, I miss the cold, the grey, the fog.
Whenever I would move south, I would always experience this, so I am not surprised now.

Today the skies were grey:) I could not see Saint Bart's. Even though it often rains between the 2 islands making Saint Bart's invisible, today was differnet. For the first time I did not see the horizon... It was an amazing view. The sea no longer had it's caribbean turquise aspect and far away the dark blue would fade into the grey of the sky. Wow, I felt as if I had woken up in another country;)

Seriously speaking, I don't miss the constant grey of Amsterdam, the days, and weeks without seeing a ray of light. But what I do wish I had more of is variaty. It's bad enough that you can hardly notice the change of seasons here. Out our window you always have the same view. So on top of there being little differentiation between seasons, I sometimes long for waking up to a differnt sky then the day before. Just give me a little, a tiny little variety. Constance is somethign I am not used to in weather conditions. Not caring to check the weather forecast, not bothering to put my nose out the window to see how may layers I need on; these are things I have comepletely ceased to practice haha. As it is the same, everyday.

So I am glad today was different:)

night life

2008-02-10T12:43:00.002-04:00

We finally had a fantastic night out:) New year's eve was also good, but we definitely danced much more last night. At last I experienced sxm's party face. And I liked it:)
Dinner at Bliss with really good music accompanying us, followed by some dancing we couldn't resist before we headed off to the mansion. This club at first seemed like it was a bad choice, the music, compared to the just left dance floor at bliss, was nothing special and I couldn't decide what I thought about the drag queens, which I shortly realised were actually women...dressed to look like drag queens, or just badly dressed -? haha
But the music improved, the drinks kicked in, fishnet legged policewomen replaced the drag queens, and we danced like we haven't in a long time:)

ziplock bags, cake covers, etc

2008-02-05T15:31:00.001-04:00

Since we have moved into our new home, we have discovered that there is plenty of products we can't live without, or new habits we need to strictly observe. Our home was not well kept by previous tenants and when we arrived it was a tropical zoo, lizards, cockroaches, an every now and then mouse, grasshoppers, and all sorts of insects I have not seen before, suddenly were part of our household. We soon discovered that cleanliness is only partly a method of keeping our home just to ourselves. Closed windows help as well. Nevertheless, we are below the tropic of cancer so certain living beings are inevitable. But we have implemented a few rules which help reduce the occurrence of our little friends;)
Since insects and roaches easily enter cupboards and drawers, at first we would wash everything (plates, cutlery, cups) right before using it, even if it was just washed recently and put in place. Soon we realised this habit is cumbersome and difficult to follow a l w a y s . But we do keep our utensils in zip lock bags, a few cups and plates for daily use are stored in a plastic cake cover and basic pots and pans ended up in a large see through click close storage box.
Other habits we had to take on involve never leaving any sort of food out in the open, including unbegun fruit - I personally really dislike eating straight out of the fridge - so fruit I foresee to eat in the next day or 2 are kept in a clay bowl with a lid. Dishes with any food remains (even if it's just bread crumbs) should never be left in the sink. And although I have never liked a full sink, now it's not about aesthetics, now it's a bit of paranoia that any minute food might invite little hungry insects.
The most difficult habit to follow is the closed windows:( we have AC, but a part from it being unhealthy, apparently electricity is very expensive here on the island. Plus it seems so illogical to sit in a closed room, when we live in the Caribbean on a hill with plenty of nice cool wind. In fact, when the windows are open, as they're are on opposite ends of the living room, we can get the house perfectly breezed through with no effort, never feeling the above 30 degree weather outdoors. The minus is, this is how all the little living beings enter. We plan to find out if there's a provider of net doors on the island. As it seems the most logical solution, yet it's a solution I have only seen applied in 1 of the many houses we visited during the house hunt.

But I still like the turquoise views...

Cotton plant and Marigot's Marina at sunset

2008-02-01T18:47:00.001-04:00

More pictures from Fort Louis Marina In Marigot

2008-02-01T18:43:00.001-04:00

Sunday eve in Marigot

2008-02-01T18:31:00.001-04:00

the weather and consequences

2008-01-23T19:01:00.001-04:00

We've abandoned our blog a little. A bit of travelling, a lot of getting our new home into shape and most importantly, have internet connection at home just as of few days ago.
Last night, after a week away from the island, we went grocery shopping. To our surprise the super market we usually go to (biggest and usually most crowded on the island) was half empty, in terms of customers and produce. When I saw just one or two shelves empty I didn't make much of it. But as the vacant shelves became more frequent and especially when they were clustered next to each other, we started worrying. Finally we read the notice: due to bad weather the ship is delayed...food has not come in..
This was an aspect I did not envision when taking the decision to move here. Since we were gone, we had not really realised how bad the weather had been. Yes, the day we landed it was raining and much more windy than before, but I guess it must have been like this for consecutive days. Neither did we realise the impact of such weather, beyond the deep puddles on the already bad roads.
How can I best describe the way this otherwise very western super market looked like. Even though I was raised in communist Poland, I don't really recall the empty shelves, everyone notoriously mentions when speaking of before '89. Maybe because the shops were not as big, or maybe because I did not do grocery shopping myself those days. Whatever be the reason, the image I saw yesterday seemed much more scary, than any of my childhood shopping memories. It looked like a pre-war, or natural disaster scene - that is in the fresh produce section; naturally chemicals and anything packed with additives and preservatives was plentiful. We hardly managed to find tomatoes and salad, which were neither covered in fungus or just brown from growing old. There weren't even bananas..which btw grow on this island, so no need for shipment from abroad. But perhaps in my rookie tropical ignorance I don't know that now is not the time for bananas in this part of the world.
Long story short, we'll need to go back grocery shopping soon enough, and hopefully the ship will have arrived then.
Really makes you think about dependency...

New Years Eve Party - Orient Bay the Fireworks

2008-01-14T20:37:00.001-04:00

We spent our first Caribbean New Year's Eve at the Waikiki Beach in Orient Bay. Great Atmosphere although we were puzzled with the pseudo-carnival-in-rio show that they proposed. Not Brazilian enough, not Caribbean at all. Neither French enough, considering we where in the DOM side of the island. ... and at a certain point the lights (and the power generator) went off! Puff! Black out!

The most interesting bit was the Special Menu, which was special only on prices since it offered 90% of dishes in the standard list by just multiply the price x2 or x3.

The real highlight of the night were clearly the fireworks, of which we manage to capture few moments.

Nothing like Caribbean colours....

2007-12-17T10:49:00.001-04:00

Early morning before rain started pouring....

2007-12-13T14:59:00.002-04:00

By looking at this picture I just realised how much vegetation we have in front of our porch!
This morning when I woke looked like another sunny day was going to bring me to work.
By the time I started the car's engine, water started pouring from the sky and I though I was sailing to work! In the picture below you can actully see rain and sunshine mixing up... I should have known better!

Finally we have a place to live....

2007-12-10T16:21:00.001-04:00

View from the entrance..... with St Barthes in background

Philipsburg preparing for Christmas

2007-12-07T03:39:00.001-04:00

It would have been my first Christmas without snow/almost-snow-other-type-winter-weather. I won't be around to see St. Martin at Christmas, but already observing it dress up for the season was fun. A few images of Philisburg decorated.

fellow sxm bloggers

2007-12-06T09:03:00.000-04:00

I discovered last night that we are in good company of many other sxm blogers:)
I don't know why I found this surprising; I guess I should have assumed that with the amount of foreigners who have made St. Martin their new home, other sxm bloggers were bound to exist;)
So as of yesterday I have linked the discovered blogs to our site (below right hand). For all of you who wish to verify our observations against those of other SXM bloggers, feel invited to browse their pages. These blogs are also full of great pictures, often of places we still have not discovered. Plus, they have very many useful links, e.g. the cruise ship schedule in Phillipsburg - handy if you wish to (as the author suggests) avoid the crowd of tourist, or if you need to make a shopping trip to Phillipsburg, you can count on your shop being closed if it's a non cruise day.
And thank you fellow bloggers for the warm welcome:)
ps.
Barbara and Philippe, thanks for your comments. I've updated our blog list with your sites:)

the island is not so bad after all....

2007-12-04T13:18:00.001-04:00

Yes. Finally, I had that longed for feeling, of walking on a street of Philipsburg and being content, just for being there:) The feeling, when you realise you are smiling and there is no apparent reason.
I think I am finally beginning to feel at home, and finally ceasing to subconsciously fight against everything I experience, which is different than I'd (subconsciously) expect it to be. Good to at last discover that the adjustment period is entering its less seismic phase.
Also I am beginning to question the powers of this blog, as since I have published it pointing out certain issues I dislike, things have started improving..hmhm

examples:
1. the garbage dumps on the beach, suddenly have been tidied up and the rubbish ended up being collected into garbage bags, although no one has picked these bags up, it looks light years better;
2. our shipment - arrived!:) well, we were only informed of the arrival 5 days later, and only when we ourselves called to enquire, buy hey, at least we know it's not lost at seas;
3. we found an apartment! which means we are finally not homeless! We can at long last give an address, our address, not my or Fili's parents, not last valid in Ams, not temporary ...finally a stable address we can call our own:)

In this post some images of Caribbean rain; it rains very often, at least once daily, otherwise how would everything be so green?:) But, just as the clouds here differ from the Benelux ones, local rain is also a different atmospheric experience.

the beauty of moving...ahhhh

2007-11-28T19:45:00.001-04:00

Unbelievable but true, the shipment with all our things from Amsterdam has still not arrived. We packed everything mid June and took only summer clothes to Monaco. After all we were expecting to stay there till Sep/Oct, so we weren't in need of warm things. Obviously the containers are not at sea all this time. They were supposed to wait in Rotterdam harbour for our cue that we were leaving Monaco. When we finally knew the move date, we could not get in touch with any competent people from the freight company.
Once on the island we ultimately found out that, they currently don't have sufficient cargo to send a full ship from NL to SXM, and ours being only 17m3 couldn't be shipped alone. So our things will get shipped to Guadeloupe instead (hahah...) from where supposedly there are more frequent shipments to St. Martin. We heard this 3 weeks ago. I guess not that frequent after all.

Furthermore, while we were camping at the Charles de Gaulle airport, switching our flights, we had to make adjustments in terms of baggage and the different regulations of American carriers. There, instead of weight, units count. With our 13 pieces we were bound to pay 2 big fines (Paris-Miami and Miami-SXM), as our flight was with a 1 night stopover in Miami.
Therefore, thanks to a La Poste located conveniently at the airport, 9 of our suitcases we sent with regular post. This was 29.11; and our suitcases still have not arrived.
These 2 would not be a big issue; we don't need many garments down here for one, and living in a hotel room, the less suitcases you can trip over in the 16m2 the better. But we are going home for Christmas, were it is significantly colder. My personal favourite, is the temperature Warsaw will reach on the 12th of December:) a whole 45 degrees less than here.

The dark side of the moon... Philipsburg Marina St. Maarten

2007-11-25T17:03:00.001-04:00

St. Maarten has the peculiarity of combining the typical Caribbean images of the a beach party, of happy people dancing around a bbq while sipping ice cold drinks, and the total lack of care for the same Caribbean landscape. The peculiarity is the 2 things are combined, seemingly intertwined at the very same time, in the very same place. Like if it were normal that the 2 sides of the moon could show themselves at the same time, by explaining each other.
So on the very boardwalk, as the street along the sea is called, while an fund raising beach party is going on - fund raising from a Saving the Sea association - broken bottles and sun faded cans - not too mention old engines, pneumatics and plastic stuff - lay on the ground 10 mt away. With a roaster happily seeking for food in all this mess!

Saba from our window

2007-11-23T18:49:00.002-04:00

this is Saba last night, around 18h.

the next 3 show Saba today at 6 in the morning

and this is Saba around 9

house hunt is not going

2007-11-23T16:49:00.002-04:00

maybe it's difficult to believe, a house with this view (it's smudged because of the mosquito net) was actually not perfect...
although I guess you agree the view is

this one, even though it had a banana tree in the garden...also wasn't it..

emotions

2007-11-22T15:20:00.002-04:00

Perhaps the hardest part of arriving to a new place is realising you don’t like it. I don’t want to say this is the case with me and SXM. But as anyone who has moved around knows, when you move, you go through all phases of love and hate with your new ‘home’, you compare it with all other places you know, you love and praise it for everything it has that others didn’t, and you degrade it horribly for lacking whatever you took for granted in the former places.
I guess 3 weeks (exactly today) into living on the island is an expected moment to fall into my negative sinusoidal part of relationship. It’s hard for me to complain already because I still haven’t written anything good here…and don’t want to start of on a negative. So as therapy to myself I’ll write about both, what drives me mad and what is quite OK about the island.
I just remembered what Olivia and Nick once said about Barcelona, which could actually help me deal my current feelings; they said Barcelona doesn’t suck:) maybe that’s how I should approach SXM…

So what I find fantastic is:

being dressed 60 seconds after I shower, don’t need to towel-dry
my feet are the happiest for wearing flip-flops 24/7
I never have to make time for washing my hair…blow driers totally unnecessary
it’s daylight at 6 in the morning…so I never have to wake/get up when it’s dark
the island is duty-free, often with $1= €1
the supermarkets are full of American, Dutch and French products so pindakaas, hoemoes, president milk, koolaid all are found under 1 rooftop
lush green hills that make me think this is what Ireland must be like on a sunny day
horses, goats, sheep roaming happily on these hills
swimming in the sea all year round
butterflies everywhere, in all colour

If I were to do SXM from scratch I’d

make music other than Caribbean compulsory on the radio
disallow religious invasion and occupation of all radio programmes, sticking preaching stickers on cars, etc.
fine the authorities for allowing spontaneous garbage dumps, ca. every 25 metres
remove onion soup and caesar salad from 50% of restaurant menus (trust me I love both dishes…but why does EVERYONE serve it…? and how can you enjoy greasy and spicy onion soups in this heat?)
have them install extractors in all kitchens…I really don’t like knowing what everyone is frying…and they fry as early as 6 am…
introduce smiling courses in schools…no one of the locals smiles
do something about the stray dogs everywhere, as well as the very unclean pigs, and noisy roosters…
build more roads+side walks, introduce a proper public transport infrastructure and get rid of the current you-have-to-drive-wherever-you-need-to-go

In addition to all of this, I am under the constant feeling that the XIX and XXI centuries cross paths at all time. On one hand side everyone drives brand new SUVs (surprisingly for my understanding of the island’s GDP and average income), but then the roads and houses often look like they were built 90 years ago and never repaired.
Plus the, otherwise contradicting, French and American cultures both exercise here an extremely strong influence. I don’t know where else on the planet you can find so many French license plates on Chryslers. Here the two cultures seem to be fighting for dominance, yet in away they almost manage to merge…as heretical as that sounds;) ….their influence is just as strong on the island’s gastronomy.
There are contrasts everywhere you look and they’re hard to get accustomed to. The most obvious ones are of course the rags and riches. We have never seen so many Hummers, as here, but when you see a rooster and/or a goat strolling in front of them, there’s a sense of dissonance difficult to shake. The diamond shops right next to falling apart huts (yes, huts, they may be more sophisticated that the ones on Lost, but they are still far away from houses/buildings),…These jewellery shops are just meters away from shops were locals buy, which are just difficult to describe with words, in general, they look like badly lit warehouses; even tiendas de Chinos looked classier in Spain. Lastly, all the locals eating at the plentiful KFCs, McDonalds, Burger Kings…you can see these places at their tops even at 22h! families with small kids…really hurts to observe. While the foreigners of the cruise boats, (on average 3 daily) dine and spend like locos…

So for a few days I was unable to write, because of all these emotions. I was waiting for them to cool, and to come back fresh and happy to write about something optimistic.
Today is Thanksgiving, and although neither to the Polish nor to the Italian culture, this holiday means anything; our hotel is under siege of American tourists who are celebrating tonight at our hotel’s restaurant. They lifted my spirits in a way, arriving cheery and dressed up, ready for a big festivity, often as big families:) We’re also about to go down and have our dinner, right next to all these happy people…see how they celebrate it, in the tropics:)

this blog was supposed to be about the island...

2007-11-19T18:20:00.000-04:00

...and I keep talking about other places...
the island is more difficult than we thought...
and today I just don't feel like writing anything positive...

the unexpected Paris holiday

2007-11-18T11:36:00.001-04:00

As you imagine, we left Nice wearing summer clothes..after all we were supposed to land in SXM at hottest time of the day, 14.oo.
Paris was of course C O L D, but I must say sunny and beautiful. Autumn, my favourite season (which I was so worried I would not get to see this year) is a great time to visit this city. Thank you AF once more!
So Sunday morning, we open all of our 13 pieces of luggage in frantic search for winter gear...and hit the town!:)

More pics from Paris
Fili has not uploaded all yet...

Our trip interrupted by AF strike

2007-11-17T20:26:00.002-04:00

We were scheduled to fly on the 26.10, but Fili had a meeting so we changed the flight to Saturday 27th. (btw, that meeting was cancelled at last moment).
We had a very early flight from Nice: there's only 1 flight Paris-SXM a day and it's at 10am:( We had 13 pieces of luggage! and an 80 or 90 kg limit (European airline, so limits per weight rather than units of luggage.)

We arrive at airport ON time:) it's the pre-All Saints w-end, so althought it's 4am...the airport is packed. We find out our total weight is 200kg! ohmi... Our boarding pass won't be given until we pay the fine. Can't pay it at checkin, must go to a long queue were angry French people are already screaming at the Airport employees. We know it's the days AF was supposed to strike...but the flight agency confirmed to us our Paris-SXM is operated, so we're tranquil. We were more concerned about the Nice-Paris, as this one was not confirmed.
We get 2 surprises: we are told excess weight is not being charged that day:)!, and we do get boarding passes to Paris. Yet the ladydog at the checkin won't give us passes to SXM. Says she can't access info whether Paris-SXM will fly and we must pick up our luggage in Paris, check there whether the flight goes, or not. We are advised to stay...but since she does not say for sure it's cancelled, we fly.
We arrive to a very angry Paris; even more tourists, more yelling, chaos. Our flight is of course: cancelled. After a few hours of useless queues and attempts at trying to figure out where to go, to get any info at all, we give up. We move our 2 overpacked trollies towards the hotel (thank God for hotels built indoors of airports). We're told they're full. We know they are not, Fili's dad phoned and was told there are rooms. So they have no choice but to give us one. We get a beautiful Paris view of the Charles de Gaulle runway....hahaha, it was actually fun to watch. We go discovering the 'neighbourhood' bistros. There are really plenty of places you can eat at without stepping a foot outside the airport. On the way back from lunch we pass another queue where we see many familiar faces.. There are babies crying, we here complaints of people who say they've been stuck there a few days. Yet now that we've been through our share of the ordeal, we get wise, calmly ask a lady if maybe there's a special business class queue. I feel bad for all the pregnant and nursing women behind our back as we make it to the counter in less than 3 minutes.
It is here that we discover what the strike is all about; cabin crew gets to decide whether they fly or not, and they announce it when they please. So this is why all flights remain scheduled, and become cancelled usually only at last minute. We are told we can not be booked on any flights within the following 6 days; there are long waiting lists on all. Moreover, there is no certainty they will actually take off. AF and KLM are the only direct flights to the island. Although we could try getting a train to Ams to fly from there, it's unthinkable with our amount of bags. We rebook to americanAirlines. It's not direct but it's relatively the earliest flight, without waiting lists, and without the risk of the cabin crew striking. Earliest means 4 days later. We get a paper to claim back from AF costs born due to our flight's cancellation.
We realise we'll have an unexpected Paris holiday (perhaps free of charge). We still don't know, paper sent, but no reply yet:)
We went back to the runway view hotel room....and slept till midnight. It did us good, started preparingfor the come in 4 days jet-lag.

about Cap d'Ail

2007-11-17T12:13:00.001-04:00

I want to also say a few things about Cap d'Ail...
If any one ever gets to go, a MUST is Plage Mala, and its 2 restaurants, Eden and La Reserve (open only July and August though).
here's a sneak...plus the view we had from our window in Cap d'Ail:)

our trip to the island begun 5 months AGO!!!

2007-11-16T17:50:00.001-04:00

After many hassles, uncertainties and delays, we finally made it to the island of St. Martin, our new 'home'.

As many of you know, we did not know our exact move date till late September, and living out of a suitcase, even if in beautiful Monaco, was becoming painful. Hardest was the not knowing, when we need to pack, what we still have time for and what not, how many more visits home we could squeeze in and which would be the final see you later with family and friends.

Monaco and Cap d'Ail (the actual town our temporary apt was in) were fantastic. I wish there was a way of sharing smells over internet, because that was what I most loved about the south of France... it's indescribable for an amature blogger...so I won't even try. But I can share the zykzykzyk...
The views were spectacular. The blue of Costa Azul (and of the sky!), and the sandy grey of the mountains that literally reached the beaches. Plus the very green and all the shades of pink from the endless bougainvillea and oleanders.
I still remember my first impressions when we were approaching the coast, the first glimpse of the sea...and just 24 hours earlier we had left a very typical Amsterdam June day...partly cloudy...cold...rain hanging in the air...It seemed like a different planet. Below are some pics of our arriving to Monaco. This was, wow the27th of June!

as you can see, there were clouds the day we arrived! but they were so different then the ones we left behind in NL...:)

And just for the record, Amsterdam was not only bad. Now after a while of being away we can look back more calmly and I think most of the sorrow is gone. Everyone knows what made our stay most difficult was the job situation. Both for me and Fili the great opportunities NL was supposed to offer...did not turn up. This was not only hard on our professional egos...which both of us have extremely high..; most of all this turned the whole NLexperience into a disillusion. We had so much hope for that move. We really believed leaving Spain for the Netherlands was going to open so many doors for us, which we felt were either closed, non-existent, or reserved for the Catalans in Barcelona. So it was double painful to learn that the great life we had given up in Spain (great friends, weather, prices, lifestyle) were all sacrificed for no reason...as the one thing we thought NL was better at than Spain (i.e. career opportunities), NL was not better at at all:( or at least not in our particular case.
What we obviously miss the most from Amsterdam, are the people we met there:) Thanks to all of you guys the 2 years there were not only bearable, but fun:) Towards the end of our stay we really felt we had finally gained back a social life! hahah! We hope you are all doing well in the lowlands, thankGod for facebook &co., I feel like we're much more in touch, and I can still peak into your lives:)