‘La Dodo lé là!’ – First experiences of me island in dee sun

   After a twenty-four hour journey with a pit stop in Paris to meet the lovely Alice Yoeurp, my fellow traveller Becky and I arrived bleary-eyed on the island.  Palm trees lining every road, the city creeping up into the humbling surrounding mountains, brilliantly bright blue skies; in my state of semi-delirium it all seemed rather surreal.
 

The People

  On the first evening a group of twenty or so ERASMUS students decided to go to the seafront of Saint Denis, the capital where the university is situated. Most of us vaguely knew before arriving that the area of Le Chaudron (‘The Cauldron’; doesn’t bode well I suppose) had high unemployment and that there had been tensions between locals and students in the past. What we hadn’t prepared for was walking as, an albeit rather conspicuous group of Western students, and having rocks and glass bottles hurled at us by groups of local men. Luckily, we escaped unscathed except for one who was struck, but not seriously, by a roughly thirty-centimetre diameter rock. We had quickly learned our lesson about the rules of the ‘hood, and the belittling feeling of being negatively treated as the ‘other’.

  With the negative anecdote aside, the majority of local people I have met so far have been very welcoming and kind, including a mother who walked me all the way to campus when I’d become ridiculously lost on the wrong bus route at night. People seem to be very contented with living on the island (‘pfft, naturally!’ you might add); they are very proud of their largely peaceful and unified society.
   Interesting to note that Réunion inhabitants often mix religions – rather than being solely Christian, Hindu, Buddhist etc. , people select different elements from different religions and have a sort of pick ‘n’ mix identity.

The City

   Saint Denis is officially the capital city, but on such a minute island it perhaps wasn’t so surprising to find that there really isn’t the hustle-and-bustle of the dirty great cities that we know.  ‘A slice of Paris in a tropical climate’? Pas du tout! Think more a mixture of wonderfully ramshackle Créole houses and grand colonial mansions, sandwiched between mountain and sea and working on my kind of timetable (what is this ‘time’ you speak of?).
 

The Animals

   I have been rather excited about the wildlife here as it has turned out to be not quite as boring as the guide books make out. The humpback whales (baleines à bosse) are currently on their migratory path so we have seen them breaching very close off the coast pretty much every time we’ve been to the sea! And the google-able birds such as the red fody, common mynah, Réunion bulbuls and village weavers are an ornithological delight!

  A group of went to visit a turtle sanctuary and conservation centre, of course very interesting and a worthy wildlife cause. How pleasantly surprising, I had thought, the French showing a compassion for animals! But of course, they had to include a section of the exhibition about all the useful things you can make from turtle shells, how they are farmed for meat and the deliciousness of turtle soup.  Cue condescending pat on their French heads.

The Challenges 

    As well as visiting the preposterously idyllic beaches to go and pose with the mainly bourgeois French tourists, a group of us ERASMUS girls conquered a miniature mountain in sweltering heat.  Tough but terrific. Named the ‘Chemin des Anglais’, it wouldn’t surprise me if the French thought it some joke to say to their rival colonial Englishmen ‘Ah, yes, eef you go zees way, you will find lots of gold!’ whilst sniggering under their big curly moustaches.

   I am certainly looking forward to getting into zee swing of eet all, lessons start this week. As part of the ‘Journée d’Acceuil’ we went to a vanillerie today. DID YOU KNOW THAT IT TAKES TWO YEARS TO PROCESS VANILLA? Neither did I. Respect your ice-cream, dudes.

  The real challenge will be the next few weeks – so far it’s been a really ERASMUS –based holiday, basically. But I’m really looking forward to flaunting whatever French I do know, and learning the linguistic skills I lack.  

   Onwards and upwards, and I relish the challenge!

Hope you are all well,

Sophie.