Lycee? Quoi?

Part two of the one month recap:

We arrived home from Reunion at about 10pm Sunday night, and woke up at 7 the next morning for school. Ughh. But it was good, the first day I went with Ouiam to her classes to get used to the huge school. 2000 students, hundreds of rooms. Some students even live at the school. So basically all of those buildings (even the tall one) are part of the school, but this pic is from before they had the huge cafeteria too.


The cafeteria is amazing, it kind of resembles an airplane hanger. Everyone has a card to access it and if you forget yours, its only $4. Basically you swip your card to enter, get a tray, cutlery and fresh bread, then there is a selection of salads and vegetables. Next you grab some cheese (Camanbare!) and then there are two options for the main plate, usually one with meat one with fish and always some sort of grain to go with (yesterday lentils!). Finally you get your dessert and fruit, then you go attempt to find your friends here: (usually it has tables)



So thats school for me. Its not bad, kind of the opposite from home though. I generally do better in subjects such as english and history but here french and history are probably my least favourite subjects. Math and chemistry are the best mainly because I can actually comprehend most of what the teacher says/writes. It wasn't till about Wednesday night when we realised Keely was coming to visit the next week for her March break. From that point on it was a bit of a mad dash trying to figure out when exactly she would arrive, and what we would do since everyone had to work/go to school. After retrieving Keely and Ouiam's mum from the airport (she arrived from Reunion that morning) Keely, Ouiam and I journeyed into the heart of Paris. We decided to eat in the Latin quarter and walked the streets, looking for cheap fondue, while waiters from every restaurant called out to us trying to get us to eat there. We finally settled for the place that offered us free wine :).


Ouiam found us a cheap bus tour of Paris, it was particularily enjoyable having the most stereotypical Texans beside us saying things like "Gawsh, aint it such a shame to be passin all these pretty buildins so faaast." this was the first time Ouiam had ever heard a Texan accent.



Then train home to get ready for the large soiree that night. Keely and I made friends with "New York Guy" a french boy who spoke english and told us he was from New York, everyone lies about where they are from in France, apparently that night Ouiam told everyone she was from Hawaii and didn't speak much french and was believed by most people who didn't know her. Thats how drunk everyone was. Especially me, I remeber lying on the grass outside and then Amoree basically carrying me up Ouiam's driveway. I woke up with Keely on my floor and a mild hangover. Okay well I will write more later I think, I suddenly feel like my entire chest cavity is trying to come out my mouth.

Longue Temps!

So I appologize profusely to the 3(?) people who read my blog for not updating in exactly one month today. I have been insanely busy what with travel and Keely and school and everything else. Alright, part one of my one month recap:

From February 26 to March 28, we went on a huge trip to Reunion. Reunion is a department of France, off the coast of Madagascar, in the Indian Ocean.



It is one of the newest islands in the world, made from many volcanoes, a lot of them are still active. Ouiam's mum offered to work at a clinic while we were there so we stayed in an apartment that one of her colleagues owned. This is the view from my window.



Many afternoons were spent on the beach, Reunion has some of the best coral reefs in the world and they are right by the shore. Ouiam's father came a few days after us and the day after he came, we went into the mountains for the first time. It was amazing, I've never seen anything like it before, the bright green trees with strange flowers and waterfalls flowing from the tops of the extinct volcano.



At the time I didn't know that the biggest volcano on the island, the one we were going to walk on, was extinct and had a bit of a panic attack on the way up. The roads were insane and everyone felt rather sick by the end, but we got there finally and went on a lovely walk. Everyone was supremely impressed with my hiking skills, surprising yes, but only cause they don't have enough nature to truely hike in France. We went up into the mountains another day to do canyonning, its basically rappeling down waterfalls on the side of a volcano (crazy i know). The craziest was the last volcano which you rappel down facing outward directly underneath the falls. So you are basically inside the waterfall surrounded by water pounding on you (it hurts!) and the noise is incredible. So for the second time in the mountains I had slight panic attack. But overall the days in the mountains were fantastic. However, the best part of Reunion was the surfing!


I had never done it before but we were in a school run by 2 guys who didn't speak english but were awesome. Ther first day we went it was pouring rain and the sand on the beach was black, very pretty. In the end I was able to stand most of the time annd even turn. I really miss it alot, aparently they do it in Dieppe but the water is freezing! The people native to Reunion are called Creole and have an amazing cuisine including samosas and carry (rice with special sauces) and grilled chicken.



On the weekend Creole people almost always have picnics and a friend of Ouiam's parents, his girlfriend, Mimose, is Creole and invited us on a picnic. It was beside a small volcano, and a beach where you can't swim because there are sharks (ahhh!) and crazy undertoe. But we braved the dangers and proceeded to eat some of the lovely creole food mentioned above. Also I ate shark when i was there, and no it did not taste like chicken but it was fantastic anyways. The last night was very very strange.



Mimose invited Ouiam's mum to come dancing with her and some friends at a night club, she invited Ouiam and I too, so we figured that even if it sucked we could always drink. The nightclub was amazing, I want to set a movie in there or write a book about it. It felt kind of like being in Fear and Loathing only you weren't on drugs, everything was just fucked. It was this huge building with all these different themed rooms and Mimose and Ouiam's mum left us to explore. First was the jungle themed room that all the youth hung out in, Ouiam and I attempted dancing for about 30seconds, when we realised the dancefloor was basically a giant sex pit. There were cages. So we sought refuge in the restaurant, only to discover there were pornographic paintings of really manly women all over the walls. At this point we ran to the nearest bar and asked for something strong. The lovely bartender said he would make us his specialty but we had to promise not to drink anything else after because it was so strong. Basically it was 2 shots each of some sort of alcohol with baileys and something else, drank through a straw. We were pretty much instantly hammered. On to the next room, salsa! Very good room, danced with one of Mimose's friends, salsa is difficult when drunk! We stumbled across a fifties themed room but for some unknown reason were ushered out rather quickly. The final room was where we spent the rest of the night. Watching all the 40+s dancing like zombies and laughing our asses off. When the song from Pulp Fiction (the one from Jack Rabbit's twist contest) came on, we moved to the dancefloor, impressing all with our moves. The best was when Mambo #5 came on and we basically freaked out. The next day we had our 12h flight back to France. I fucking love Reunion. (more pics on facebook as usual)