August 19, 2004
Light of Day
Are you a morning person?
Do you really know anyone who is?
Last night I was in bed about 9:30 falling asleep over my book when I decided to shut of the light and go to sleep for real. So you would think that it wouldn’t be too difficult for me to get up at 6 am, having had eight and a half hours of sleep. But then you would be wrong. I set the alarm for 6, but when it went off I still couldn’t manage to wrangle myself out of the bed for another 40 min. 40 min that I meant to be doing yoga.
This same battle has been going on for at least a month. I set the alarm… It go back to sleep… I don’t do the yoga. Ok sometimes I get up and do the yoga but that happens about 2 out of 5 days a week (and sometimes less).
I want to blame it on “Not being a morning person”, but I’m just not sure that is a valid excuse. Grrrr
In other news… I paddle again tonight. I am not as sore and whiney as last time, so I will not subject you to the run down on how I feel.
And for those of you who addicted to the web I hope y ou ate taking a look at Google each day. Those guys crack me up.
Comments
I seem to have developed a nice caffine addiction here. I have coffee every morning (but Sundays) with a group of Samoan Ladies. They are my adopted Aunties and they take very good care of me. But... after a few months of two cups a day I think I am now addicted. I once tired to switch to water, in order to save money and... caffeine intake, but I was met with a distressed response from the Aunties that I need to “Enjoy your life” and “Are you sick?” and multiple offers to buy my cup of coffee. So I came tot he conclusion that it is just in my best interest to drink the coffee. I had no such addiction before I left home.
As for food...
I live “in town” and have my own house so I can pretty much eat whatever I want. But doing this to often will run you into money problems. So mostly I eat a lot of fish (It is good, fresh and cheep here). There are a plethora of green veggies here depending upon the season (BAHAHAHAHA, like we actually have seasons) right now green beans are big in the market. There is always eggplant and Lau Pele is an acceptable substitute for spinach. Not to mention a ton of good fruit. Eating Veggie is easy enough here. I am not sure about other islands but here is ok.
D
I hear you on the morning thing. In the States, it's fully possible to stay up all night doing just whatever. Heck I do it all the time. My usual pattern is to go to bed around 4 am and get up at noon -- and I'm not some young college student. Can't do that for the next couple months, of course, because I'll be teaching at 8 am for a couple of hours, but my body will struggle to fit me back into that mold. With me it has nothing to do with how much sleep I'm getting or not getting -- it's like I exist on a 24 and a quarter hour day: every night I stay up a few minutes later than the last one, until I'm going to bed at dawn!
Anyway, maybe it's illness for you, or maybe it's ennui, or maybe it's stress. Or maybe it's caffeine -- how's your intake down there?
Oh, and while I'm asking about food items you put in your body, I'd love a post on what your diet consists of. I'm an erstwhile vegetarian and I'm sorta nervous about what my diet is going to be like when I get to the Pacific, wherever it might be. In the Caribbean, I ate nothing but starch, just about. A meal might have consisted of rice, beans, plantains, breadfruit, saltfish, dasheen (taro), "fig" (fried bananas), yams, and macaroni and cheese. Lots of fruit, as you might imagine, with banana, mangoes, starfruit, pineapple, and passionfruit. No greens to speak of, though: for some reason, people in the Caribbean eat almost no vegetables, and their "salad" is what Americans would call cole slaw.
I do eat fish, which is why I call myself an "erstewhile vegetarian," something about which I have very mixed emotions. It's a practice I began last time I was in the Peace Corps for practical reasons, and I anticipate eating plenty of it in the Pacific. So I'm curious how a current PCV eats down there.
Stay strong my sistah!
-Bri