YUM! Smells like maneur

This city smells like maneur. Yum. Swear to God, especially in new buildings. I smelled it first when I got into the airport, there was an ATM in a little inlet that I went to that smelled overwhelmingly like maneur. It’s so bizarre and pretty gross. That should be obvious.

Yesterday I had a meeting with an Asian man, Mr. Tjin. (Immediately thought his name was Mr. Chin, like my evil first landlord that I had). It was a fine meeting, afterwards, he wanted to ask me questions which started with do I like art. Then we went to the computer so that he could find some emails for me that had some pictures of art on them, they were from an art gallery he had visited in Miami. In fact, he showed off an invitation to art show at a gallery that he had received from the place in Miami. He couldn’t attend (it cost money to get into in the first place!) but he had been so flattered to receive it that he had to show it off. I was like…. Duhhhhh you’re on the mailing list! But I didn’t tell him that. Before I left, I gave him a box of chocolates. He was so happy and surprised that he said, “oh that’s SO nice! Let me give you a hug! “ And that followed by a big kiss on the cheek. It took me by surprise, but it made me feel happy that he was so happy about it!

Paramaribo is an interesting, strange place. I have actually noticed quite a few people staring at me despite the fact that there are a decent amount of white Dutch people roaming around, and even some who live here. It’s a mix of African, Javanese, Chinese and a few white Dutch people as far as nationality is concerned. There are some very interesting looking people around. There is nothing special about this city, it’s very sleepy actually. There are no big buildings, just houses; some of which look really nice and well-kept. Some have driveways which stretch over a small river, which is bizarre. I have been told that the nightlife is good here. The downtown is very small and consists of a bunch of dilapidated looking buildings, and others that look like they are of 1970’s real Dutch style, lots of streets with potholes, but there is an underlying Dutch style to everything, the streetlights, the decorations on the houses and buildings which gives it a very unique look. The roads are pretty narrow and everyone here can speak surprisingly good English. I barely have to slow down my words when I am speaking. Impressive.