‘Mais il FAUT faire des bisous!’ – various observations of the amateur anthropologist

Generalisation-mania

  In terms of the teaching here, I do find it worrying how often sweeping generalisations are used in  both my Geography and Ethnology classes.
  Ethnology particularly, when the teacher refers to various tribes or non-Western societies, she uses terms such as ‘primitive’, ‘exotic’ and ‘just downright bloody weird’. Spot the false one.  Also in describing cultural differences in terms of emotional reactions, here’s a little anecdote she gave us to explain her reasoning:
  ‘I have a European friend the same age as me, and when her husband died she hardly cried! I couldn’t believe this because here in Réunion, as in many other places in the world, we are a lot more emotional. And clearly in Europe, people are a lot less open, emotionally.’

  So here I go with a few generalisations of my own, clearly in-keeping with the spirit:

20^th Century Boy ... wait a minute

   As is commonly known with more isolated parts of the world, there does seem to be a fashion culture here of about twenty years ago – think matching tracksuits and ‘90s hip-hop bright colours, mixed with an overdose of bling and intricately shaved facial hair. As I’ve so far only seen the Westernised side of the island, it’s really rather obvious that Western lifestyles and trends have infiltrated areas where people would claim to be Créole through and through. 

  Though still maintaining different attitudes (for example towards marriage, anything after the age of eighteen is considered getting on a bit), there’s a definite vibe of the youth of the island being sucked in by Western pop culture.

 Georgie Peorgie pudding and pie, kissed the girls ... just the girls

     I don’t know how I’d forgotten about the whole double-kiss French greeting, but I think when you suddenly find yourself having to do it about thirty times a day you notice it. And it also didn’t take me long to realise that men are obliged to kiss the women, the women are obliged to kiss the women, but are the men obliged to kiss the men? No. I feel almost ignorant having not noticed this before – it’s not that I mind this traditional greeting but I’d much prefer it to be equal for everyone. I have therefore, arguably rather indignantly, taken it upon myself to try and challenge these sexist conventions in my own little way. With the young people, the students, I always go for the male greeting (consisting of a side-high-five then fist pump). To the bemused reactions of the greet-ees, I simply say (in French of course), ‘well if you can, why can’t I?’.  Saves a lot of time too, and risk of catching a facial infection.

  Bah c’est tout j’ai rien d’autre à dire maintenant, à la prochaine ! Bisous ... à tous !

'C'est mon paradis, c'est votre paradis' - One month on in Réunion

And what do I have to show for it?

Well...

The Lessons

Of course choosing the most riveting topic to begin with, experiencing the education here has actually been rather interesting. If there would have been a sign over the entrance saying ‘welcome to the University of Dictation’, I would have been more prepared for the mouth-agape shock of the first lecture. In a first year Geography course which I’m taking, a reasonably clueless-looking professor stumbled into the lecture theatre, sat himself at the front, opened a book and read a text word for word as students frantically scribbled down or tapped into their Macs. “What?! No notes? No PowerPoint slides?” I hear you fellow students cry. Nah, nada, zero. And during the intermediary blabberings of the teacher, his sticky uninspiring voice was drowned out by the infantile gossiping of the students.

  Strong adjectives there, I know! Purely for the purposes of recreating a vivid image of our reaction at the time. Apparently it can be like this as a lot of first year students aren’t too bothered about being there, and go just for the bursaries that are available. Though we are supposed to maintain an open mind about different approaches to learning, this method I find particularly difficult to accept as useful or enlightening. Maybe I shall become so habituated to this that the intensity of Sussex learning will be a shock in fourth year!

The Fun Stuff

Waterfalls and Mountains 

  Over the last couple of weeks I’ve seen more of the island, one trip including whale-watching with an au pair we’ve met here, and then going to swim in the plunge pool of an enormous waterfall and climbing round the back of it.

  Last weekend a group of four of us went to Cirque de Cilaos, staying at a local student’s house on the Friday night after going to a little birthday gathering with him and his super-cool mum (one of the first things she said when we met her was that she loves to party ... all the time).  Saturday we set off on the coach journey through the mountains; unfathomably incredible. The photos don’t do them justice. The hike on the Sunday was great too, once the clouds had descended and we suddenly realised ‘Oh! There’s another mountain!’ And I saw a Reunion tec-tec as well, a jolly fellow was he!

Activities

  There’s a first time for everything, including scuba-diving (albeit practising in a swimming pool for now), Danse Malgache (sounds rude? It’s in fact just a traditional dance from Madagascar!) and Improvised Drama. The Improv class was in fact rather an impromptu thing; I was strolling back to campus and some dudes I’d met at the soirée the previous evening invited me to join them, so naturally I went weez zee flow, as one should on the Year Abroad. Turns out it consisted of two hours of running around and being a weirdo, which happens to be one of my favourite pastimes. Sweet.

Music

  When you think of a tropical island, you can’t help but hear some kind of reggae-derived style of music in your head. Then you’d probably think it was just an audio stereotype, just as you’d hear a softly-played accordion if you thought of Paris. But here, there really is NO escaping sega/maloya/reggae! It’s like the soundtrack of everywhere you go, and though it’s all rather samey it’s a jolly upbeat sound which pulses through the island and really reinforces the idea that ‘Yeah, you’re on a tropical island, baby!’

    I had thought that travelling six thousand miles away would mean I could finally escape Rihanna, but alas I was somewhat devastated and terrified to find that she is actually everywhere. Like Jesus.  Only not good. I shall make it my mission to find a Rihanna-less place in the world.

Other blah

- Teaching job for a professor's son here

- So thankful upon the slightly-too-late realisation that one way of saying something in French = ten ways of saying it in English. Easier for us then, technically!

- Dorr

      That’s all for now, it’s a mighty effort to write this blog malarky but I hope it suffices!

Hope you are all well and bracing yourselves for Autumn as I’ll be preparing for the sweat-fest that this summer is going to be (mmm, attractive!).