Greenwich Country Day School Martinique 2017
June 10, 2017
The group arrived safe and sound at Fort-de-France airport around 2:30 pm local time. After exchanging money to Euros, we loaded the bus and headed towards our hotel on the other side of the island. Along the way, we stopped at a supermarket to pick up a few personal items and snacks for the week. Once we arrived at the hotel and settled into our rooms, we walked down to the beach, la plage des surfers, which is just down hill from our hotel. It was our first chance to visit the ocean! Finally, we headed back to the hotel and then walked down the street to dinner at a restaurant called le Phare, which means “lighthouse.” We tasted accras, the local fried cod fritter appetizers, which were delicious. By 9 pm, we were back at the hotel and everyone went straight to bed, tired but happy at the end of our first day. Tomorrow, we are off to Chateau Dubuc. Bonne nuit!
– Julie (Global Works Leader)
June 11, 2017
The first full day of Martinique was a fun success! We started our day at the Tartane Beach and had some good first memories. We also befriended some of the friendly locals while speaking only French! In the afternoon, the group visited the Chateau Dubuc, ruins of a castle nearly 300 years old. We ended our day by moving to our new hotel in Fort de France, the capital city, which looks very nice as well as having a nice dinner that included a nicely cooked chicken curry.
– Cameron T.
June 12, 2017
After a great night of sleep in our new hotel, we had a very busy day ahead of us. Piling into the bus, we were all very excited for our early morning surf lesson. Although it was nerve racking, it was a lot of fun. After that, we enjoyed a tour of a banana museum where we learned about the variety of bananas. It was great and informative! Fun fact…there are over 100 different types of bananas! We ended the night with dinner at a restaurant. Today was fun-filled and we went to bed feeling fulfilled!
– Liza D. & Sara M.
June 13, 2017
After a fulfilling breakfast we headed off to La Maison du Bèlè. There we learned about the history behind not only Bèlè dancing but the drums used and how the language créole was intertwined within it all. Though the dance was fast and hard at first, it was really fun. Then we had a picnic and practiced our French while buying our lunch. After that we had the joy of going to a local elementary school. We had fun drawing with the 5th graders and appreciated them teaching us more French and créole. Today was a productive and educational day and it was a unique and heart warming experience.
– Emma Kate S. & Sasha L.
June 14, 2017
Despite the rain, today was an exciting day! We ventured through the streets of Fort-de-France, the capital of Martinique and managed to stay somewhat dry! We visited a church with beautiful architecture and saw a glimpse of the Martinique culture in a market.
After eating lunch at a local mall we headed to the docks for a ferry trip to our next hotel. It was still pouring when we arrived, so we went to our rooms for a mellow afternoon before gathering again to play a few fun games. We are looking forward to another adventure tomorrow!
-Gigi D. & Jamie J
June 15, 2017
Today we visited another school. The kids were so cute and we taught them English vocab words and performed for them. After we performed, they performed for us. Then we went kayaking in amazing mangroves and we learned all about them in French. It was super interesting to learn about all the animals and the conditions mangroves need to survive. We spent an hour and 30 minutes kayaking across beautiful waters. Later, we took the bus back to our hotel where we enjoyed a delicious dinner and we spent the rest of the time dancing.
-Carolyn J. & Maggie J.
June 16, 2017
For our final full day in Martinique, we first went to a school where we met up with a class of students roughly our age, who spoke roughly as good English as we did French.
We then did a sort of speed dating activity where we met with pairs of students for 4 minutes at a time and had a mini conversation in both French and English. While it was certainly challenging, it was very fun and helped to improve our French speaking skills. After that we took a trip to a shopping avenue right by our hotel for lunch, where we got extra French practice.
Taylor L.
