The Mice Will Play.

Richard is in Paris this week on business and I'm on a pseudo-vacation since school is on a break.

I intended to do a whole lot of nothing (aside from teaching my adult lessons) but somehow lots of stuff happened:

1.) Tried to meditate, but it was right before bed and I freaked myself out by thinking I was going to see ghosts. Too scared to sleep the first night alone. Slept with the light on for the rest of the week.

2.) Went to a big party for International Women's Day with Elena. Decided it was not our scene. Celebrated instead at a fancy restaurant telling secrets over fois gras and raw salmon with algae-butter.

3.) Got really lost when going to an acting/photo shoot. GPS guided me up a mountain to a corn field and proudly proclaimed "you have reached your destination!" I cried.

4.)"Acting/photo shoot" turned out to be a kiss. The actor had just flown in from Paris (it's for a popular French T.V. show which is kinda cool, and made Richard a little less "stop agreeing to weird things.") We shook hands, said our names. I have no idea what he said, but I'm kinda sure I saw him on TV a few days later.

5.) One night while not sleeping (so the ghosts can't get me,) I made a super-awesome iphone video of my birthday photos before removing them off my phone:

6.) Got called in to redo the kiss in a new location. Found out they were paying me! It costs 86 euros ($120) to kiss me. Richard was informed of the price augmentation.

7.) Hosted "Vegetarian Dinner and a Movie" night at my place. We made Quinoa Chili. It was so delicious that I ate the leftovers for every meal after until it was gone. 

8.) Attended an informative (and mandatory) "How to Integrate Into France" class for all the foreigners deciding to live here permanently. Learned lots about taxation. It's a form of brotherhood. Test Question.

9.) Had Elena over for dinner and made hummus (the best ever, btw) and ceviche.

10.) Did an early morning hike with Rachelle. She delivered an impassioned speech about women's rights. Got chills even though it was 100 degrees.

Annnnd...(drum roll)

Converted my blog into a hard cover book! (For me-- not to sell or anything crazy like that.)

Book Two seems to have a pretty great start.

It's been quite a productive week :-)

The More Candles, the Bigger the Wish!

Knowing that dolphins are my most beloved, favorite animal, Richard arranged a tour for us on the morning of my birthday. We dragged ourselves out of bed at six and hitched a boat ride to the other side of the bay at the hotel.

We hopped in a taxi and drove for an hour to the other side of the island. I always hear horrible things about traffic in Mauritius, but we seemed to be the only ones on the road. As we passed by villages, Indian music was playing over loudspeakers and people in beautiful costumes were walking around carrying shrines over their head. 

"Today is a holiday, it is the celebration of Shiva," the taxi driver informed us. Richard whispered that Mauritius is known as "Little India," the major origin of their ancestry and culture. I felt pretty honored that Shiva was sharing his day with me. Ironically, I saw three rainbows that morning. I took it as a good sign.

When we got to the lagoon, we hopped on another boat with six other people.

Our mission was to find some dolphins and maybe try to interact with them.

Our captain looked kind of scary at first but he turned out to be a big teddy bear. He was always asking us if we were happy, if we were having a good time...and if we wanted some rum. (It was 7:30am.) 

  

So we cruised along the slick lagoon, breathing in fresh salty air and enjoying the sunrise colors playing out on the landscape before us. 

Finally we came upon a cluster of dolphins surrounded by a few other boats. I had been worried about how this would work...if we would be disturbing the dolphins or causing any harm...but it was nothing like I feared. In fact, it seemed like the dolphins were enjoying a private little game. They would circle back and forth between boats, inviting swimmers to come chase them, then minutes later they'd kick up the speed and leave us in their wake. Little tricksters! 

The captain would spend some time angling us in their path. We'd climb up on the side of the boat and wait for his signal. "NOW!" He'd shout in French, and we'd dive in right next to the dolphins as they were passing by and swim swim swim as hard as we could to stay with them. Lucky for us the others seemed to be quite lazy and would give up swimming after about ten seconds. So Richard and I would be mostly alone with the pod after they whizzed by the boats. They swim so so fast...a minute with them was all we could do! 

After that, we would swim back to the boat and climb up. The dolphins would come back around eventually, teasing us to try it again. And so we did, for about an hour or so. 

When you jump in the water, the way they look at you goes straight to your heart...curious and compassionate, silent but deep...in those first few seconds when you're next to them and there's a connection there...I swear it is one of the highest highs life has to offer. 

After respectfully thanking the dolphins for playing with us, we bid farewell and went snorkling over by the reef. 

As you might imagine, we worked up a pretty big appetite! On the way home, we asked the taxi driver to stop in town for some local cuisine. Richard would not rest until he found some dholl puri, which was kind of difficult as most things were closing early for their Shiva celebrations. After a few tries we finally got lucky.

We spent the afternoon lazily napping underneath the palm trees with Elena and James. Then we got ready for dinner at Le Boucanier.

The food was magical, the service, superb. They even made me a special little cake before the dessert course. :)

I made three very important wishes. 

This photo makes me laugh every time.

It was the best birthday I've ever had.

I felt so lucky to be surrounded by such extraordinary people (and animals!) in pure paradise.

The night ended in pirate discussions back at the room.

Yeah, maybe the free champagne won again.

ARRRGGG MATEY!

Having My Cake and Eating It Too

I was never really dying to go to Mauritius Island. Even though it's only a 30 minute plane ride from here, it's still pretty expensive (250 euros for 30 min!! I think it holds the record for the most expensive/shortest flight.) And with all the great wonders of the world to see, why would you go visit another island when you already live on one?

I didn't believe it was possible, but Mauritius is a completely different world. First of all, everyone speaks English, French, and Creole. Second of all, they seem to survive off tourism, so the hotels are just breathtakingly incredible. And third, their beautiful beaches give way to giant lagoons, which keeps the sharks far away from shore. In Reunion, the shores are sadly vacant, while in Mauritius they are full of life.

So Richard, Elena, James and I snuck out of work for a long weekend to celebrate my 30th birthday. We decided on the Shandrani Resort, which is only a 5 minute taxi ride from the airport. The Shandrani is a 5-star, all-inclusive hotel...and it is simply breathtaking.

Reception

The rooms were simple, stylish, and crisply cleaned twice a day by a very friendly housekeeping staff.

We were so happy to be on vacation that we wasted no time! We signed in with reception...

...and dove head first into the glorious silky pool.

 After we were thoroughly cooled off, we decided to explore our new home away from home.

After a few islandy cocktails, we made dinner reservations. The hotel has a buffet, but also offers 5-course dinners through various themed restaurants. All you have to do is book the restaurant in advance. It's still a part of the all-inclusive...and the food is absurdly delicious.

I regret that I didn't bring a camera with me to dinner, because our hard-working boys decided to let off some steam and enjoy (a lot of) the free champagne. 

Every night at one of the bars there is live music, and so we stumbled upon a dance party after dinner. 

If you are wondering, the equation vacation + free champagne + Richard and James + music, equals a long night of hilarious dance moves that can never ever be replicated. I know in fact that they can never be replicated, because there was a group of teenage girls standing behind our guys trying to do just that. James and Richard were so spectacular with their drunk dancing that they had created a following.

I have no idea what time we ended up going to bed...but we had planned to be up at 6:00am to go find some dolphins for my birthday. Who knows how I convinced Richard to wake up a few hours later, (still drunk haha) but I did. Needless to say, we spent the last few minutes of my 20's in a glorious state of pure dancing bliss.