Mmmm...roti!

Anyone here in Trinidad know what kind of bird that is? I think it makes cat-calling sounds and has a beautifully yellow belly.

Okay, so I finally tried my first roti today. Heaven on food earth for me! Roti, in case you have forgotten: chicken and potato and chick pea and curry covered in a tortilla-like bread (only thicker and doughier)) Okay, here's a puzzle...if rotis are supposed to be one half of doubles (two rotis together, yes?) then who in the world can eat a double at one sitting? I could only eat half of my roti, and I was hungry!

So...yesterday we almost opened our bank account. Now you Trinis who are reading this can laugh at me for this, but we encountered our first cultural misunderstanding in a most unexpected manner: We needed to go open a bank account since M is going to be paid at the end of the month. So when we went in, we asked to open a checking account. After all, that's sort of the "generic" account that one would open in the US upon settling in a new city, yes? Well, as soon as we asked, the bank lady looked very puzzled, nearly suspicious, and asked, "Why do you want to open a checking account?" M and I just looked at each other. Then she seemed to realize that we were dumb foreigners and said in a very apologetic way, "We don't open checking accounts until you have a savings account for six months." Ah! The dumb foreigners (that would be us) nod. Also, apparently very few places accept checks, if any, so the savings account sort of acts like a checking account would in the US -- comes with a debit "check" card and everything, so it's really not necessary to have a checking account. So then after giving her two i.d.s each and a letter from the University telling them that M is employed there, they still needed a utility bill or something with our addy on it. Of course we don't have one yet, having just moved. And that was one unbending rule. Apparently there is so much attempted money laundering there that they have to have every single thing in place to open an account. M has to get a note from the housing office saying that we are in fact living there.

I am feeling a lot more settled in than before, finally. I just need to get my writing schedule underway and be very strict about it. After all, that's why I'm here, without a job of my own, to finish this novel!