In hindsight, it was probably a bad idea.

I was supposed to meet these Austrian girls who might need roommates at 11:00 in downtown Saint-Denis at the central bus station. We picked this location because it supposedly would be the easiest place for both of us to get to. The house I am staying at right now is in the city next to Saint-Denis, called La Montagne, appropriately titled because it is on top of a giant mountain. But there is a bus stop close to my house, so all I was supposed to do was hop on the bus and take it down the mountain and just over three more stops to the center of Saint-Denis. This did not happen.

I forgot to get the paper Nathalie printed out for me of the bus schedule, so I figured I'd just read it on the stop when I  got there and wait for the next bus. They come every half hour so I shouldn't have to wait too long. But when I got to the stop, the stupid schedule looked like this:

Not very helpful. as i was trying to read this damn thing, the bus on the other side drove by, which gave me hope. After a few minutes though, I realized it meant that I missed MY bus by probably five minutes.

Ok so that's when i decided it didn't feel like it was a long time when we drove from Saint-Denis to this house my first day here.....I figured it might take me a half hour to walk there...and obviously it was going to take me a half hour to wait for the next bus. So, why not walk if it was the same amount of time? it was a beautiful day...the scenery down the mountain was breathtaking, and I could use some exercise anyway, right?

Wrong.

I started walking down the mountain. At first, I was all happy, and listening to my french music, and thinking about how grand life is while I gazed over the cliff at the beautiful ocean and tiny Saint-Denis.

Saint Denis

Then my little pedestrian side of the sidewalk disappeared, and a lot of cars started coming! At first I rememberd what I was told in cross country--to go AGAINST traffic, so you can see them and they can see you and you won't get hit from behind. But with the steep turns down the mountain, I realized it was worse to go against traffic because you really can't see each other around the bend. I switched sides. Then this weird little trench started to appear so I went down there to get off the street.

weird trench and sword plants

I ran into that little aloe-like bush you see in the picture and thought I could brush it away, but apparently it is made out of little green swords that stab you. They are all over the little trench area, which I assumed was to get water off the streets when it rains. But as it turns out, the trench is also used for smelly garbage and swords plants. Then I passed a sign that said to watch out for falling rocks for the next 2 miles. I looked down and noticed a lot of little boulders in the trench area. I started to think...maybe trench area is to catch all the falling rocks...and that I was definitely going to get hit in the head by a boulder. Even a small boulder would proabably kill me...didn't you ever hear that story about someone being able to throw a penny off the Empire State Building and kill someone? Well...now it was going to be me, with a pebble boulder, in a trench on the side of some mountain in a random island in the Indian Ocean. THAT would be a dumb way to go.

I started to walk a little faster down the mountain.

So all in all it took me an hour and 20 minutes to get to the center of town.

After another hour of not being able to find Eva and her friend Andrea, we met and then I found out both of them are not really looking for roommates but they might be in the future.

Epic fail.

So I get on the bus to go back home, which was a much easier trip, until I discovered the bus does not stop automatically. Apparently there is a secret! If you want to get off at your stop and there is no one there to get on, you have to clap twice.

Bravo.