Bastille Day

Note: the cord to my camera seems to be lost, so no more pictures or videos on the blog till I get back to the U.S. and can figure out how to replace it.

So Bastille Day here was quite dull. Last night however, there were several events, starting with a ceremony honoring a number of individuals stationed here in Cayenne. At one point, a soldier with a big gun seemed to be losing consciousness, likely due to the bright light shining right in her eyes, a light that was there to light up each regiment in the dark. Scary moment. That was followed by a military parade, complete with a helicopter flying overhead, which was cool. Fun fact: the firefighters are considered part of the military.

But today, EVERYTHING seemed to be closed, except for a couple souvenir shops and restaurants (and my internet café). So after a couple hours chatting with Matt and editing a paper, I headed to the beach. I forgot that I don't really like the beach, though, so I forgot my notebook and other reading material. I ended up going into the ocean very briefly, then relaxing on the towel, fascinated by two yellow crabs (one adult, one baby) that kept popping in and out of the holes they'd made in the sand.

And tonight there is some entertainment in the Place des Palmistes, including traditional and hip-hop dancing. That's where I'll go soon. Tomorrow, I have my final interview as well as an elicitation session, and my research goals for this stage of the trip will have been met, which is good, because after the cancellation last time, I got worried. But I'm pretty confident that tomorrow's will go well, and that the trip won't have been a bust.