It's Delicious, It's Mauritius!

The food in Mauritius is spectacular. It is very heavily influenced by the Chinese and Indian cooking traditions. Personally, i prefer the Indian influence. My absolute favorite item was the dohl pourri which is a thin crepe made of yellow lentils and chic peas with curried butter beans, piment (spicy sauce), and some other magic inside, rolled up and sold to you on the street for 7 Rupees, or 0.16 USDollars. Yes, 16 cents! Everything is so cheap there. We had marvelous meals for the equivilent of 8 Euros. Other highlights include farata (a tortilla-like bread) with which you pinch your food and eat with your hands. We pinched a salmon-tomato-eggplant dish, a pumpkin purée and those same curried butterbeans- and of course piment! My favoite dessert was this banane caramelisée with flaming rum sauce---ahhhhhhh! The piranha-looking fish on the plate was the barbeque on Ile aux Cerfs. You can buy coconuts whole, have the top chopped off, stick a straw in and drink the yummy coconut juice. When you're done with your beverage, you take it back to the stand and the man will slice the coconut in half so you can eat the inside and he will slice a bit off the bottom to use as a spoon. The last photo is Stephan's mom (Stephan is this really nice friend we made there who took us all around the island and had us over to his home few times for dinner) who took me to Chinatown in Port Louis for the "boutons chinois," or dim sum sold from a stand on the street. You sit there in the road and eat it, then pay the man. Amazing!

Babouk (Libby, you might want to skip this one)

Everyone, meet Babouk. Babouk, meet everyone.

Babouk first appeared in our house the first week we lived here as this huge spider that kept us all out of the kitchen. When we learned that she was no ordinary spider, but that she had a name and that we should be happy to have her, I can tell you that all the Americans in the house were skeptical. Babouk's second appearance was in Caroline's room. Guess who captured Babouk not once but twice and put her outside? ME! Haha! I was so brave and took care of the matter like it was no biggie. What a champ.

Babouk eats mosquitos, is not poisonous (in fact, there are no poisonous critters on Réunion) and does not harm anything. Babouk should also not be squashed because Babouk is full of hundreds of little Babouks that scatter everywhere if released. Not something I want, poisonous or not.

We have several Babouks in the house (one has recently been living in my mosquito net- call me a wuss, but I sleep on the couch when I can't get her out). My favorite is this little one we call "Babybouk." She is about the size of a fifty-cent piece. She's so cute! (In as far as spiders are cute)

The picture shows Babouk next to a hand to give you a bit of an idea of the scale. This is not the biggest Babouk we have, but this is about the average size.

Back In Reunion, But Not For Long

Dear Friends and Family,

Happy New Year to all. 2007 promises many wonderful things ahead for all of us.

I returned home Monday, January 8 after a looong (12-hr)flight from Paris. I was been a bit grouchy the first few days and I could not tell if it was because I was tired, irritated at being back, missing my friends or what. Luckily my mood has improved the past couple of days. Returning "home" to St-Denis seems odd, but at the same time it is nice to come home and know everything: busses, markets, slow walkers, everything closed from nood to 2:30pm, etc. I spent some time with local friends which helped cheer me up and I also started swimming at the local pool (which I will talk about in another post).

I think the conclusion that I have come to about Réunion is that the novelty has worn off. This is not a vacation, this is normal life. It is hot, cultural differences once thought to be interesting or funny are now just annoying, and I miss my family and friends back home. I can still play the tourist, go to the beach, the markets, the mountains and all that, but I'm not about to return home (to a comfortable bed without a mosquito net and I don't have to search my room for spiders- also a coming post) before I sleep.

Luckily, the travel gods are smiling on me and I leave Monday the 15th for 10 fun-filled days exploring mauritius, our neighboring island to the East. Mauritius is renowned for its beaches, but I have also found some neat museums and activities (like a stamp museum, giant lily pads and an underwater walk) to see. I am headed to l'île Maurice with my friend Rachel, a really nice girl that I have met here. She is one of those friends that you meet and you click at once. She's a doll.

Ranting and raving done. Oh, wait, almost. I wanted to put up a few other Switzerland photos, but I erased them because I'm a dummy. Take care everyone and I'll be in touch. LOVE TO YOU!

Bern

Welcome to the magnificent city of Bern, Switzerland! This medieval village is cute, walkable, and full of interesting things. We went to a great museum, though the Einstein section was closed, walked around the downtown, saw the cathedral, clock, bear pit, and Einstein's former residence (also closed). Celeste's Swedish brother and sister, Tomas and Kristina, were also visiting, along with Jay, and we have been having a blast together.

Beatutiful Switzerland

This is where I am! This is where Celeste lives! Life is rough.

Christmas in Paris

I spent a wonderful Christmas with Morgane and her family. Raw oysters, foie gras, turkey and chestnuts, buche de noel... so great!

Mafate

My housemates, two other people and I went backpacking in the Cirque de Mafate for 3 and a half days right before Christmas. The hiking was phenomenal. The weather was not sunny and clear but that ended up being a good thing. Hot, sunny weather makes hot, tired, dehydrated hikers. Mostly we had cool, semi-cloudy weather, perfect for backpacking. The trails were in good condition and very much uphill. And downhill. And uphill again. I was tired every day and worked a lot, and sweated a lot!, but there was no point that i thought it was too difficult or that I was going to die. I did, however, look forward to the tops of certain hills. We ran into a really nice American named Amy and we hiked with her for most of our trip.