Breakfast in bed

I was woken up this morning by Thibault. Thibault had made me breakfast in bed with two slices of bread; one with nutella, one with honey, he then took pride in showing me the little mug that sat on the side of the tray...'Capri-sonne', he said. There was a little cocktail fan decoration stuck into one of the slices of bread and a 'joyeaux anniversaire' confetti piece in the other. Thibault is Nathalie's 5 year old son and he did this all by himself this morning for me, presented on a locally made Reunionnaise tray.

Think my day has just been made, and it has hardly even started!

Last night, we went to Saint Suzanne, to the north of the island to drop off one of Julie's (7 yr old daughter) friends who had been staying with us for a few days. Her mum works in a wine shop so 'apero' consisted of Bollinger which - we were all glad to read - was "by appointment of her majesty the queen"! She had made Confit de canard for dinner, washed down with another very nice bottle of Red. Not to mention the home made profiteroles for dessert...Her husband is a professional chef and 2 months ago they sold up their restaurant in the Pyrenees to live a life in the sun here.

Seem to have had a week of lovely food, as I was also invited to Marie-Francoise, my other 'responsable' for lunch on Thursday. Punch coco, Greek salad, Coq au vin and Poisson Carri (Reunionnaise fish curry) topped off with her English Husband's Trifle and cakes brought from a local patisserie made for a lovely lunch on the veranda.

Housing news...I have hopefully found somewhere to stay until the Christmas holidays. My routine every morning is to search 'leboncoin', ie. French Gumtree, and check out the most recent offers of rental properties. More people searching than houses available makes it a very competitive business, and apparently I haven't been quick enough off the mark up until now. However, after about 2 weeks of searching with nearly no results, yesterday 2 fell on my lap! One of Nathalie's friends is selling his house, apparently it takes 3 months between the signing of the contract and the actual move, so his house is lying empty just over the road from Nathalie's! He was more than happy for me to move in and occupy it, as long as I didn't mind prospective buyers having a look around every now and then! He then rang back and said that he knows of a primary school teacher who lives in a 3 bedroom house in Saint Joseph (where I'm teaching), who's on his own...so that's option two! Will arrange to go and have a nose around and then make a decision.

Sunday today, which means more big meals! We're going to Thierry's (Nathalie's husband) sister's house for lunch....

...you'll be glad to hear that nothing's changed with me and my eating habits.

Lava, Snorkelling and a beautiful apartment

The steaming lava in the rain. The volcano erupted over 4 years ago.

Sunday, we went to the East of the island to see ‘la lave’. That was my word of the day, after seeing the amazingly impressive volcano ‘lava’ that descends into the sea on the East coast. There is an active, very large, volcano in the East of this island...which, from what I understand, is responsible for creating this little rocky dot in the Indian Ocean. Around this huge beast of a volcano, are various other little peaks. One of these little peaks erupted in 2007, spewing lava down to the sea. Nobody lives in that area, so nobody was hurt but it was the process after the eruption that is most impressive for a volcanic virgin like myself! The lava covered a large part of the road that runs around the whole coast of the island, it was 25m deep in places, but in other parts, it was hollow underneath the apparently solid rock. This evidently causes huge dangers for rebuilding a road...not to mention the intense heat that the lava produces. It took 8 months after the eruption before cars could drive on the newly made road...before this point, tyres would explode due to the heat from the lava. Evidently, the depth of the lava had to be tested too, in case of any lurking hollow craters underneath the apparently safe road. The result today is very spectacular. On Sunday, it was raining, even today, 4 and a half years after the eruption, I could feel the heat from the rock and it steamed impressively when the cool rain hit the rock.

I also visited the beach in Saint Leu, on the West coast with family friends of Nathalie. I’ve been told that the safest places to swim here are in lagoons. A barrier coral reef stops any famous ‘requins’ (sharks - there was another attack yesterday, the shark broke a canoe in half and left the man completely unharmed!) It also serves as a wave break so the water is calm and very swimmable inside the barrier. So it was at Saint Leu that I had my first snorkelling experience on the island. Beautiful coral with all kinds of brightly coloured fish, with (a little too much) sun on my back made for a very relaxing swim...when I finally surfaced, Thierry, Nathalie’s husband, asked me how I found the snorkelling and he said that actually the lagoon at Saint Pierre is apparently much more impressive! 

Grand Galet Waterfall: all the water comes out of the rock through a series of tunnels.

My ongoing challenge of finding accommodation continues! Nathalie has very kindly just told me today that she’s happy for me to stay here with her until the end of October. Yesterday I found an incredible apartment in Terre Sainte, the old fishing village on the other side of the river to the ‘capital of the south’; Saint Pierre. Slap bang in front of the sea, mezzanine bedroom, completely furnished and a very reasonable price...I was très contente! It’s available from January, so I’ve booked it for the second half of my time here. Until Christmas, however, I’m still trying to find something. With about 85 assistants on the island, everyone searching at the same time, not enough properties available at a reasonable price, it’s a bit of a competition! But I’m very grateful as I’ve been very lucky with my two mentors at each school, who’ve been so helpful and welcoming.

As for my French, I think it’s getting better! Nathalie knows exactly when I’m tired, she jokes with me every evening as I can’t form proper sentences in French in the evenings! Anything important has to be said in the morning when I’m awake and my brain is working properly, by the evening...I’m not so understandable! But, it’s great because I basically speak French from the moment I wake up to the moment I go to bed. Although I’m getting to the stage where my English brain doesn’t work very well either now! Nathalie enjoys learning new words in English, since she’s an English teacher, half the time, I can’t think of the correct word to teach her in English. It bodes well for my own lessons where I have to teach teenagers! But Thierry laughing at my accent or having a joke about a ‘faux pas’ is what language learning is all about, for me. Going back to ‘school’ next year is going to be difficile!

A Petit Photographic Diary of my trip so far...

Birthday surprise from Mum and Dad :) xx

Not bad eh?!

My new (temporary!) home, Plateau Vincendo, La Reunion.

My room for now, until I find a house for myself.

Madagascar

Madagascar

Blue Bay, Mauritius

Mahebourg, Mauritius

I have a feeling these men sit here on a regular basis.

Mahebourg, Mauritius

Mahebourg, Mauritius

Mahebourg, Mauritius