Bon Bini

Welcome to Curacao, bon bini na Korsou!

After a long flight, I arrived on the island of palmtrees, cactusses, white sandy beaches and sunshine! Not expected was the traffic jam: only one main road connects South with North and anything in between is just dusty, sandy roads with holes in it. I knew I would love it from the start;) Curacao does not have speed limits: that doesn't mean everyone is driving like crazy. It just means the guy in front of you takes all the time in the world to move with the speed of a snail.

Unfortunately, the internship was not quite what I had expected. Being in the role of intern, I'm hardly allowed to do anything more than carrying boxes, clean and make notes. But, hey ho, I'm on this beautiful bounty-island and next week I am going to have a job interview. Fingers crossed people. Two major things I need to start learning now are: driving (!) and papiamento (Danki dushi). But I'm very willing to. I'm quite suprised to notice that the island is more Dutch than I expected. We have an Albert Heijn, shops full of Hak, cheese and pepernoten. Furthermore, you will find the Bruna, D&A and van der Valk. It's shocking! I am rapidly meeting new people and making contacts on the island for I'm intending to stay.

It is great to be able to dance salsa, merengue and zouk so often. Just out in the open, in the warm evening breeze. This is my chance to meet more locals instead of all the drunk, Dutch tourists. Curacao has quite a complicated history with the Dutch and still the relations can be tense. With the new elections coming, every one hopes for the best. As you might have heard, minister Schotte did not want to leave his fort. The guy is on coke, I've heard. And he's is probably not the only one. I also heard that it is about time that the kabinet will be screened on criminal records...

But I haven't felt unsafe so far: if I speak a bit papiamento with the locals, they'll open up and appreciate this. I think it is more than respectful to learn the language of the country you'd like to emigrate to.

Meanwhile, the sealions are making funny noises under my balcony...luckily, the sharks are on the other side of the ship. The ship (ms. de Woerden) is the place where we live with all the interns (6 in total). The first days, my mind was playing games and I felt like the ship was moving all the time...So I say, Ahoy captain! Till the next blog!

Esther