Recent Successes (and only 1 fail!)

Today, I unlocked the door to my classroom and found this sweet little note left for me....they even signed their English names :-)

The school had a big Halloween party, where all the kids went on an activity scavenger hunt. The teachers all wore witch hats and they decorated the school in spider webs and pumpkins. It was really sweet. At the end, they had a huge table of candy and baked goods the kids brought from home...crepes, cakes, cookies...yum yum! 

I have to say...I was pretty proud. My kids were all split up and in groups with kids i didn't know...but I was standing at the station with the English activity...and every time one of my kids got there I watched. In every case, without fail, my kid was the one who was taking charge and leading the team, correcting the mistakes, and answering all the questions of the other kids.  At the end, they would always look up at me and catch me smiling a big smile at them. I really hope they become encouraged by how much they know and continue learning English....

Anyway, so I told the teacher standing beside me how proud I was and she said that I should be...that they talk about me all the time, and when I teach one half, the other half is jealous and can't wait until their turn. Also, she said that they have a penpal program with a class in England...and she told me that not some...but ALL of the kids have been writing about me in their letters. It was really touching. 

In other French news, I went on another hike on Sunday with Yazid and all of his friends. They are so much fun, and even though i couldn't speak a lot, it did me a TON of good to listen to them talk back and forth. By the end of the night I realized that I was understanding most of what they were saying, and when they said something to me, I didn't have to translate it in my head first before responding...that is a HUGE step for me!! Luckily, they all speak about as much English as I speak French, so we had a lot of franglais going...which is definitely progress for me!! So here are some pics from that hike...it was gorgeous. 

My french friends :)

Sugar Cane juice!! They just pressed a giant cane in a machine and voila...

aaaaamazingggg

we got lost and ended up walking through a field of lava from an eruption in the 70's....it felt like walking on the moon! 

So, needless to say...it has been a good couple of days for French progression. 

Although the embarrassing moments are still coming....

When trying to ask the farmer if he had leeks, I accidentally asked if he had breasts...

He had leeks. 

Dipavali--The Hindu Festival of Lights

Saturday was the day of the big parade for Dipavali, the Hindu 5 day celebration about the triumph of good over evil. It was an amazing show, and so many people were there...everyone comes to celebrate each other's religions here. Here is a small slice of it:

I have a friend here in St. Denis now, named Yazid, who I met on the street when he heard my English accent. He studied in South Africa so he knows a little bit of English, but he wanted someone to practice talking with, since no one here speaks it. I told him if he'd give me french conversation practice in exchange, it was a deal, and we have been friends ever since! He has been just as amazing as everyone else I've met here...inviting me out with his friends, taking me and Schafer to dinner at real Kreole restaurants, and..Saturday, he drove us all the way to St. Andre (saving us an hour in the bus and a 4 euro ticket each!)

So they have a big area with all these different tents and things to do...get henna tattoos, massages, eat, etc. etc.

Then there was this big road, where the parade would take place at night. During the day, everyone was running around getting ready.  

 The fireworks started at dusk, and the parade began!! It was amazing :-)

And the greatest of these is love.

On Tuesday night, we had my "French parents" over for dinner, (what P.A. and Nathalie are lovingly referred to now by all of my other friends, because of how well they took care of me for the first month!! No other assistants were nearly as lucky as I was...we joke that it was like being adopted by a King, haha.) and the four of us got into a really great discussion about Réunion.

Before I got here, everyone kept saying Reunion is such a "mix" of people, because it was settled by all different countries from Africa, Europe, and Asia. One of my French teachers at UTA was actually born here, and she told me that "La Réunion is truly a place where all races are mixed in one person. Réunionnais(es) are from Asian (China or India) descents, African descents and European. Sometimes it is actually very funny to see a Creole family because you can see a mother with four kids and they all look different (and they all have the same father). One can look Indian, another bi-racial, another more dark..."


I didn't understand, really, how strange and true this was until I got here. Then I saw the stark differences between these people...but missing was the racism, the segregation, the cliques that we know in the States. In classrooms, the darkest kids don't only hang out with other dark kids, and the half Indian kids don't only hang out with the half Indian kids and the white kids don't only hang out with white kids. In the back of my mind, I wondered why this was, because everyone has different backgrounds and different beliefs and different religions, something that would greatly divide a group of people like this anywhere else. But not here. 


The whole purpose of religion is to facilitate love and
compassion, patience, tolerance, humility, forgiveness. 
— Dalai Lama

The one thing they all have in common, Nathalie explained to us over dinner, is that they are Réunionnaise. They are all inhabitants of this tiny island, and (in general) they all speak Créole. 

Le Petit Prince in Creole, which I thought was so cool! 

I have Wednesdays off, and so I decided to just kind of walk around see what adventures pop up. I walked to the little farmer's market in the middle of the city, and realized exactly what my French parents were talking about. On my 10 minute walk to the market and back, I passed a Cathedral, the Grand Mosque (the first mosque ever built in France, BTW), a Hindu temple, and a Buddhist temple, all just a street or two away from each other. It's a wonderful physical representation of the culture and attitude here...not just about religion, but about race and even humanity.

He who experiences the unity of life sees his own Self 
in all beings...
– Buddha

Little did I know, in just a few hours I would see first-hand how true this really was.

Wednesday was also the first day of Dipavali, a five day Hindu celebration. One of the girls in Schafer's high school class told her she was dancing in a celebration and that Schafer should come see it...so she brought me along that evening. We thought we were going to a small Dipavali parade or something but when we arrived, there was a small group of people (maybe 50 or so) gathered around outside, beneath the palm trees and mountains. 20 of them were old nuns in white with giant cross necklaces, which confused us. Why were there so many Catholic nuns at a Hindu festival??

As we sat down and listened, we realized what the meeting was really about...and that was to bring together all religions, to celebrate life and love and brotherhood. People from every religion, from children to grandparents, took turns reading poems, singing songs, and dancing. A little French grandma was passing by, and, curious, sat next to us to ask what was going on. When we told her, she instantly understood, like it happens all the time. We talked to her for a while, explained where we came from and how we ended up here, and she said "ah yes, this is a good thing for you to see..."

Then the man with the microphone was calling everyone together. The whole group got up and stood in a circle, taking turns lighting candles to put in the center, in a ring. At first, Schafer and I hung back...planning to play more of a spectator role. Then suddenly at the same time, we looked at each other and said "let's go do this." The sun started to set.

So there we were, in the middle of this giant group, standing next to people of all ages, colors, religions. The guy on the microphone was reading a scripture in French. There was a band playing. It was dark now. The little grandma found me from the middle of a crowd and reached over some people to pass me a candle. "Here!" She called, "take this. You girls light this one." And we did. The wind was blowing and I covered it while Schafer set it down in the circle. I looked around. There were five children lighting candles in the center, and behind them stood all of the nuns in white, candle light flickering on their elderly faces. It gave me chills.

We all stood together like that for a few minutes, until we joined hands and recited something in French, from the program. It was about the light in all of us, that we are all human, that we are all in this together. The last time I felt like this...or did something like this, it was in September of 2001, and it was following an unspeakable tragedy. But these people are doing this now, here, for no other reason than because life is good and the future is bright.

When I do not know who I am, I serve you. 

When I know who I am, I am you. – Indian proverb

Now, I think Réunion is a microcosm of what the world could be...paradise and unity and happiness. Understanding and respecting the differences of others but following your own path and beliefs. Living together. I wish other people could see this, could know that it's possible and that it works. Maybe the fact that it has happened here, on this tiny island in the  middle of the Indian Ocean...maybe that's a really, really good start.

I've spent 27 years trying to identify my religion. Lately, when asked, I call it "spiritual, but not religious," for a million different reasons. But maybe I was wrong. Maybe in fact, when someone asks me what my religion is...I should say all of them. 

I consider myself a Hindu, Christian, Moslem, Jew, 
Buddhist and Confucian.— Mahatma Gandhi

Thriller Night...

Halloween is not a French holiday, but as I've been told, it is becoming more and more popular as each year passes. And by popular, I just mean that people talk about it a little bit and maybe have a party. I think kids going door to door might be catching on too, I'll have to update you on what really happens next week. Anyway, I've been researching the history and cultural associations because the teachers want me to tell the kids about how we celebrate back in the States. I have some cute songs and worksheets picked out, and a dorky jack-o-lantern mask I bought for a dollar before I left Texas.

There is not one thing anywhere in sight that would tell you Halloween is in a week. No giant bags of candy in the grocery stores. No fake spider webs or Frankenstein hanging on the doors of houses. No aisles of princess dresses, witch hats or spiderman suits. The trees here are as green and fruitful as ever...there is no cool breeze stripping off leaves and leaving long, bony branches. 

However, there is one thing here to remind me of Halloween. 

When I moved in to the apartment, I was really curious about this house across the street from us. It's one of those places that just gives you a creepy feeling when you look at it. It's built like an old plantation house, like many houses are here in St. Denis. But it's completely shut down...covered in graffiti with over-sized locks on the rusty gate. I've often wondered out loud to my roommate what that house used to be and why it's just sitting there now, useless and untouched. There's really no way to find out, though, and it's been driving me crazy. 

The other night when I went out with the assistants and ended up leaving early...I was walking back by myself. It was 1 a.m. but Saint-Denis is pretty safe and the bar was really just a five minute walk from the apartment. I neared my building and looked across at the creepy mansion.

I don't know exactly what it was that I saw...it happened so fast and I was so scared that I got the hell out of there. But I swear I saw two men dressed all in black on the other side of the locked gates. They had nylons over their heads like you see in movies before someone robs a bank. They were crouched down and creeping through the tall weeds and uncut grass. When they saw me, they froze and one moved behind a tree. They watched me watching them. 

At first I stood there in shock. Then my mind started racing as I realized I stupidly had 50 euro on me from my trip to the bank that day...that I was a girl. All alone. In a dark street. At 1 o'clock in the morning. And also...that if they were doing something bad in that house...like selling drugs or human trafficking, or planning a murder of some sort...maybe it would bother them that I saw them back there. The plot of Sister Act played in the back of my mind, and I practically ran to the gate of my apartment. It was, of course, broken and wide open for anyone to walk through. I ran all the way up the three flights of stairs to my apartment and locked the door behind me. 

A tiny part of me can't decide if I should've done something...like called the police (what if someone was being murdered or assaulted or something and I could've saved them?) or informed the concierge (as encouragement to fix the gate...). Maybe (well, most likely) I didn't really see what I thought I saw. Maybe they were just dumb kids going to graffiti the wall some more. Maybe my over active imagination was getting the best of me.

If nothing else is certain, however, I can tell you this:
I will never be walking alone down that street again in the dark.

Choices, Choices.

Up until last night, I was feeling a little torn about how I was spending my time.

A lot of the assistants on the island (whom I hear from a lot, because we have a group facebook page and people are always on it planning things) are constantly on the move: visiting every city, going to every festival, planning beach parties and club hopping in the tourist towns. You kind of feel the pressure to go to these things, to get out there and have adventures on every part of the island, to be part of the group.

In general, however, I've been passing on most of these events and I was feeling a little guilty about it. I thought about it a lot: more questions...

 Is something wrong with me? Am I homesick? Should I force myself to go do things all the time? Am I missing out on meeting amazing French people and conversation practice? Am I going to regret not taking advantage of every single thing that comes up? Am I getting old and crochety? Am I shy, and is this a character flaw I should force myself to overcome?

So last night, I got home from teaching. My roommate, Schafer, brought over a bunch of assistants for drinks before going to a few bars down the street, and I decided to stop being a recluse and go with them. It was okay at first, I liked the girls we were with, and it was good to get to know them. We met a French person or two and got a free drink from the bartender, a friend of Schafer's. Just nothing really all that exciting. Then, the cool girls went home, the French guy that was with us started to steal our drinks and ask for money, and some drunk people started aggresively hitting on other drunk people. After only half my drink, I decided it was time for me to go.

Walking home, I got to thinking about this one Friends episode where an old college friend was supposed to come visit the guys and they got all excited because they had  been on some crazy adventures with him before, and maybe their lives are lacking now. When he didn't show up, they got depressed but decided they didn't need him and went out for a night of partying. They came back early for a coffee recharge....and decided to just go home. They bemoaned themselves for being tired so early and how they can't handle loud music and crowds anymore. 

Then Chandler says: Y'a know what? We're not sad, we're not sad, we're just not 21 anymore. Y'know? I'm 29 years old, damnit! And I want to sit in a comfortable chair, and watch television and go to bed at a reasonable hour! 

Click here to see the Friends scene!


That's when I stopped feeling guilty. There's nothing wrong with me! I'm here for a job, I'm here for my future career. I'm here to gain teaching experience and study French. Why do I feel the need to force myself to go to bars with other Americans? I've been in bars with other Americans for at least 40 hours a week for the last three years! Maybe I AM shy, and maybe it's good to force myself to do some things. Things I'm scared of, like going to coffee with Sylvie, or talking on the phone to a French person, or going to the market by myself, all of which I have been doing. And there ARE touristy/adventurous things I want to do on the island, but I have chosen the most important ones to me and I have the next six months to do them in.

And obviously I'm not saying there is a right or wrong choice here. The other assistants are mostly much younger, still in college or just graduated. I've been there. I've been through the "see the world, grab at every opportunity, take every direction possible" thing. I believe that's what your 20's are for. The exploring, adventurous nomad phase. Instead of thinking I should still be doing that, maybe I should listen to my gut and be happy that I have grown into the next phase: the phase where I have taken all the information I've learned in my 20's, and used it to decide who I am, what I want in life, and where to go from here. I think that's kind of an amazing revelation.

You know what I haven't done? (Well, before I came here.) I haven't read a book for pleasure in the last four years. I haven't slept in, or done nothing for days on end, just because...guilt-free. I haven't eaten a meal without counting calories or measuring it out or stepping on a scale every day. Actually, I can't remember the last time I ate a carb without worrying about how to get it out of my body. I haven't woken up without a huge, impossible, unending list of things to accomplish before the day is over....a list, by the way, that never gets smaller and is always looming over my head. I haven't spent time alone, inside my home, to write or think or listen to music or watch T.V., or learn to cook, or research things I'm interested in, simply because I chose to and there was nothing else I had to do. 


These are the things I chose to do now. 


I still feel slightly guilty even as I write that. Like people should judge me, because all of these things are things I can do in the United States...tv, and music, and cooking and reading...how stupid. I can hear someone in my head saying "You're on a tropical island in the middle of the Indian Ocean, and you spend that much time inside doing dumb things you can do back home?? WHY??" 


After last night, I have the answer. 


Because it is what I want to do. It is what makes me happy. Sure, I could have been doing all these things back home, but I wasn't. I never made the time. Maybe this is a wake up call I needed to have. Maybe this is a lifestyle choice, a lesson I need to bring back with me. 


Slow down. 
Be happy. 

So I'm just gonna keep doing what I'm doing. The volcano, the ocean, the forest, the beaches, the rum...it's all going to be here, just like I am, for the next 6 months.

Don't worry, I'll see it all. I always do :-)

Change the World

!!!!! Today I taught my first lesson alone and it was such a high. Words cannot explain the feeling at the end of the lesson, when you let the class perform on their own and you just sit back and say "wow, I taught you that! You learned that from me!!"

So the first class I was with today was a little crazy. They go into a special room once a week to have a video conference with this very old looking cute English Grandma lady. They have a little microphone and a very old fashioned TV with Grandma England looking out at them (kind of like a skype screen) and playing games with them. Today they had a box of paper dolls, and Grandma England would tell them to "pick up the girl with the straight blonde hair" and "put on her yellow skirt" and stuff like that. Then they would show the doll to Grandma England and describe it back to her. It was so cute.

They had other stations of things to do including just games we play (battleship was the game for today) readings on culture, and other stuff like that. Group activities. So as you can imagine, it is a setting out of the norm for them and they were wired. The teacher told me to go station myself at the battleship table because the students weren't understanding the game. So that's what I did.

The kids were super cute, but it was hard to force them to speak in English and even harder to try to get them to understand the game, since I could only explain it in broken french. They were amazed when I started speaking French, their teacher had told them that I only know English, so they would be forced to speak English with me, but they weren't getting it! When I started speaking French to them they got wide-eyed and looked at each other and giggled. One tiny little boy said (in French) "Madame Jennyfair, you have a foreign accent that is very strong!" They realized soon that I am not totally fluent, and that they would have to help me speak French to them. So just us communicating became a game...a word here in French, a word there in English. It was fun.

One boy (I already know his name...Luca....) is an obvious total troublemaker. One of the little girls caught him looking at me for a long time when my back was turned to him and she told me (in English this time with an adorable french accent) "Madame Jennyfair, Luca..eeh loves you!" And that turned in to a whole big thing that lasted the rest of class. I did not handle it right because I lost control of the giggling little children. By trying to be their friend and joke with them, I lost my leverage. When I left, it was so loud and they were so crazy that I was terrified of ever doing this again.

But there was still one more class for the day! Luckily, it was Sylvie's class. I met her and she told me that her class learned "Heal the World" in French, and today I was to teach them it in English. She kept saying it until I finally asked "Is Heal the World a book?" She looked at me like I was crazy. "It's a song! By Micheal Jackson! Do you not know heem?" Do I not know Micheal Jackson? That was crazy talk. But I did not know that song, which she said was crazy. Should I feel bad about this? Haha. I really have never heard the song, and after today, I must say, Micheal, I am really not impressed. It was not one of your best.

Anyway, so I took 15 kids into the next room...and had to teach them a song I didn't know. (btw these schools have NO electronics...no computers, not even a CD player or tape player...so if you want to play them a song...you sing it to them...) I got creative. I asked them to sing me the song in French, so they knew and remembered the tune. Then I taught them the chorus in English...line by line, having each person pronouce each part out loud as we went along. They were getting it!!! I had them piece together the first half with the tune, which they remembered. When they nailed it, I got excited!! When I got excited for them, they were encouraged, and the next time I asked if someone wanted to try to say the whole next sentence by themselves, every single hand went up. It was so inspring. They were so happy to be speaking English!! At the end, they proudly sang the chorus totally in English, totally without my help. It was amazing.

This is obviously not my class but you get the picture :-)

In the first group, I had a little girl who was super smart. If I got stuck explaining something, I could talk to her in my broken french...she could understand it, and would translate to the rest of the class for me. It was so cool. It is like a puzzle...communication. If you don't get the right fit the first time, if the lights don't flicker on in their head, then you try it a different way until something else works and clicks. It's a fun game.

The next class had a lot of boys so there was a lot more whispering and chatter. But by the end of class I still was so proud to hear them singing the whole chorus in English! When I left that class, I realized I already had favorites. I made a mental note to try not to be so obvious about it, and I wondered if all teachers had favorites, and all parents for that matter! haha.

Needless to say, It was a very encouraging day :-)

Learning the Ropes

On Monday, I left the house 45 minutes before school started, thanks to that ridiculous Army habit of "being 15 minutes early is being on time." Although this time, I got there in like five minutes due to nerves and fast walking, so I was much more than 15 minutes early. The school gates are closed until ten minutes before school starts, so I had to wait outside with all the moms and their screaming kids. It was a little creepy because they kept staring at me, probably wondering why an adult would be awkwardly hanging around an elementary school at 7:30am without kids. 

There are two Jules Reydellet schools, right next to each other. A and B. They didn't know which one to tell me to go to, so I just guessed B. It was closer. Later I found out I guessed right...but when I walked in to Reydellet B, you might not be surprised to hear that no one was expecting me anyway! Haha. I walked in, found the first adult, told her what I was doing there and she lead me to the principal, who is another very strict-seeming woman in charge. She took me to a teacher who teaches English, and they sorted out who I would be sitting with for the day. I started to ask him a question in English, and he laughed and said he had been studying English for 8 years but he can't speak it. I quickly learned none of the English teachers could speak too much English...enough to get by for teaching 9-10 year olds...just words like "hat" "scarf" and phrases like "what's your name?" 

Luckily, it turned out that all the teachers there had this great relationship and are amazing. For breaks and lunch, they all hide out in the teacher's lounge, drinking lots of coffee and eating chocolate, teasing each other about stuff and complaining about the kids. They were all SO nice to me. My favorite is this woman named Sabrina, who made sure I was taken care of. When I sat in her class, she let me participate and teach them a lesson about clothes. She has a 15 year old daughter who can speak English very well, but she only knows a little.

The kids were cute. A little talkative, and a little bad at concentrating at the task on hand, but they are only 9-10 so that's expected. In every class, they gasped when they learned I was from the United States, like I was famous. Then someone would say "Hollywood" in this thick French accent and I would say "No, I come from Texas." And they would all have this blank stare, but then the teacher would get excited and say
"Really? Like Dallas?!" And start singing the Dallas theme song. I learned later that there only used to be one channel on Reunion Island, and growing up, everyone from that generation watched Dallas on TV every day, because it was the only thing to watch.

Although I am only paid for 3 hours a day, I somehow was forgotten about and continually passed from class to class from the beginning of school until the end...8 hours later. I probably should've said something but I was scared! And it just kept going where I thought it would be just one more class, until it was too late. I tried to find the principal before I left, to check out with her...and when I finally found her, she looked at me and said "Oh, you stayed all day?" Hmmm... I would have to take a different approach with this tomorrow at the next school, I think....

The next day, at Centrale, which is in the middle of downtown, I realized there was a huge class difference here. The kids who go to Centrale come from families with more money. They are more behaved, much more quiet, better dressed, and the school is a lot bigger and newer-feeling. The teachers at Centrale are very stiff and (it seems) don't care much for each other. It's just a job. The principal is another strict-seeming woman who didn't smile once at me or try to speak slower when I asked her. Some english teachers told her they don't want to participate in the assistant program and can teach English by themselves. (Also none of them speak too much English). 

But Centrale is where I met Sylvie. For whatever reason, Centrale was also not prepared to have me come to their school. Almost all of the English teachers said they did not teach English on Tuesdays. But Sylvie found me, and was very nice, and took me to her class to watch how they operate. She was really great with her students, strict at the right times so she had control, but not scary and unaproachable like some other teachers were. While they worked on some math work, we talked a little, she gave me some of their French stories to read (I told her how I was here to practice!) She helped me find the library in Saint-Denis online, and, right before I left, she asked me to have coffee with her and her brother after school was over in the gardens down the street!

Excited, and kind of a little bit dreading it...I went home and had to mentally prepare for coffee. I wrote down some things I could say to her and had to look up a few things in the dictionary. I wrote my boyfriend an email, laughing at how even just a cup of coffee with someone required me to do an hour of homework and preparation! That's when a giant pigeon came through my open window and perched on a chair next to me. I screamed, clapped at it a few times till it left, and realized that coffee was not one bit as scary as some other things that happen here.

So it was lovely, and it was all in French. Sylvie prefers tea! (Finally, someone NOT trying to shove 6 cups of coffee down my throat in one sitting...I jumped on board with the tiny expresso in the morning, but I can't do so much coffee all the time!!) The tea was amazing!! Easily the best tea I've ever had. And I once had a $28 cup of tea in a really fancy Zen tea place in San Francisco. This tea cost 3euro, which Sylvie generously paid for me, and was the best tea in the world.

I found out Sylvie is 31 with no kids, sings in a choir, takes salsa lessons, and has a long distance relationship with her boyfriend who lives an hour away in the south of the island. I loved her instantly! We had much in common to talk about. I told her about my sweet boyfriend, my dream to be an actress, and the places I hope to visit on the island. She was very nice and patient with my terrible verb conjugations and my struggling to get words out. She asked me to come try to find English books with her for the school the next day at the bookstore. Which I happily accepted. I had a friend!

Time to Grow

I have been in college for the last four years, which meant I had a reasonable excuse for not reading books for pleasure. It seemed like if I was going to be reading something, it needed to be my textbooks and homework. Now, gifted with lots of spare time and minimal access to technology...it seems I have much opportunity to catch up on some literature. But now I have no books!! When I was in Paris, I read Eat, Pray, Love and it was inspiring and exactly what I needed to read at the time. I'm looking for that kind of book again for this trip. So if anyone out there has an amazing book they can send me...or even just a list of some amazing book and I'll get it off amazon...here is my address!! 


CHEZ ISABELLE AMBROGGI
pour Jennifer Damp
1 RUE STE. ANNE APPT 34
IMM CONCORDE
97400 SAINT-DENIS
RÉUNION ISLAND, FRANCE


Additionally, thanks to one of the assistants here, I'm a litte interested in storypeople.com 
Has anyone seen these before? I'm curious to order one...

Also, school starts tomorrow and I'm slighty terrified. I have no idea what to expect, only that I'm to show up at 7:45 and find someone who will know that I'm coming. However, the most terrifying part is this plant I encountered on my "practice walk" to school yesterday:

WHO DOES THIS PLANT NEED TO KILL!?!!? Hopefully it's not me. 

A Grand Adventure: Salazie, Hell-Bourg, and Trou de Fer

I've never gone on an actual "hike" before, so I wasn't sure exactly what to expect when I signed up for this. I imagined it to be like a ruck march in the Army...maybe like 16 miles of walking through the woods on a maybe paved or semi-paved path with a ton of gear. I can do that. I got this...

Except it wasn't anything like that. It was more like rock climbing, at 90 degrees. Then when it started raining, it was more like log hopping, or swimming really. And there was not so much of a path, as there was a bunch of slippery rocks or roots people have walked on before. Here are some examples:

don't trip on a rock! there is only one way downnn

So needless to say, it was a challenge. But it felt a little bit like being in the middle of a Disney fairy tale. The forest is amazing. Breathtaking. Really words and pictures can't even describe it. No matter how miserably cold, muddy or wet we were, all we had to do was stop for a second and look around. It was completely worth it. 

We stayed in a place called a "gite," which is like a privately owned cabin/hostel. You pay a fee to stay there overnight in bunk beds (luckily we went with 6 girls so we had an entire room to ourselves, but you might be bunking with complete strangers!) and then you can pay extra for some home cooked meals. It's cheap to stay the night (15 euro) but super expensive to eat!! (18 euro for just dinner!) so we paid for the first night's dinner and packed camping food to eat the rest of the time. Dinner WAS pretty amazing....totally Réunionnaise. Reunion has their own rum, so they made a Rum Punch as a before meal drink, and something called Rhum Arrange for after you're finished eating (this is a specialty and a big deal...it is rum infused with fruit and spices.) After the Rum Punch, was a quiche with chouchou...that weird veggie my roommate and I cooked for our first cookbook adventure. Then we had a traditional Réunion dish...Curri Fish with beans and rice.  For dessert we had pineapple cake, of course with fresh Réunionnaise pineapples! 

Our Gite...on the top of the mountains!! 

The second day rained a lot and it was freezing. So after our hike to Trou de Fer (which was covered in fog when we finally got there after hiking for two hours...but luckily the fog lifted enough for us to see the waterfalls!) we came back to the gite. In the room next to ours were four little Réunionnaise girls and their two moms. We ended up playing card games with them for the rest of the night. They were so cute. They had just started taking English classes so they would say a few words here and there. And they told us they really want to visit the US one day. When they went to dinner, we pathetically were sitting around the table by the fire, rationing out tiny pieces of a baguette and eating tuna out of a can. So when they came back from dinner...they had a surprise for us...they smuggled back six pieces of coconut banana cake from dessert!!

we are very happy now. 

Before bed, they gave us all goodnight kisses and performed a dance for us! haha. 

We got back Friday afternoon and it took me most of the day to recover!! But it was a perfect little adventure to end the school break. We start classes on Monday, so for the rest of the weekend I'll be preparing lessons and seeing how long it takes to walk to my schools....keep your fingers crossed for a good semester!!! 

Oh!! I discovered how to upload small videos!! Ok so this one is not terribly interesting, but it is of the BEAUTIFUL bus ride into the mountains!

And this one is of the little dance the girls did for us before bed :-)

OK, now, c'est fini <3