First Update!

23 Janvier 2009. 7:44am. My balcony.

Hey everyone!

I have a million things to write about. Currently, it is hotter than anything I think I’ve ever experienced so I am going to try not to fall asleep a mon clavier (my keyboard).

Stephanie and I left Nashville at 2pm on Tuesday. Stephanie and I found each other on Facebook and booked our flights together quite a few months ago. She goes to UT, has the same three concentrations of study (Sociology, Environmental Studies, and French), has the same birthday as I do, we’re both vegetarians, we both live in Brentwood, and our mom’s names are both Mary Elizabeth. Weird, right? Well anyway, we had a great time traveling together. The flights were very, very long, but not bad with the help of some Benadryl. Once we got to Paris at 9 am in Charles de Gaulle airport, we took our time figuring out how to get to Orly airport. We stored our luggage, and found the closest way to get into Paris to see some sights! Our first stop was a little café. I had a croquet madame, which is a French specialtie- like the ubiquitous hamburger in the US, le croquet madame or monsieur is a fried egg on top of buttered and grilled bread with a piece of ham and lots of gruyere (swiss cheese) in the middle. I also ordered my first legal glass of wine! I felt very French. The,n we took the subway to the Eiffel Tower! We couldn’t get over how absolutely enormous it was. It really was neat. Up until then, I didn’t feel like I was in France, but seeing La Tour Eiffel was a great experience. At this point, we didn’t have enough time to go anywhere else, so our jet-lagged selves trooped back to Orly after a quick stop for our first crepe au chocolat and did our best to stay awake as long as possible. Here, we met up with Katie, the other American girl studying in Reunion. After an extremely long flight with two really big meals (including complimentary personal bottles of Merlot with dinner) we finally touched down at 11am, two days after leaving Nashville, in what I can only describe as paradise.

St. Denis is the capital on the very northern tip of the island, and that’s where the University is. The airport is right down on the water, so looking southward, one has a view of the whole city. It covers the flat part near the beach, then rolls up several thousand feet to the beginnings of the mountains. The hills are the lushest green I’ve ever seen and are idyllic with little dots of towns and houses tucked in the valleys and lining the ridges. It seems as though every inch of spare green space is overflowing with all sorts of tropical trees, plants, shrubs, vines, and flowers. The whole island is perfumed with the scent emanating from all of the blooms. At night it smells sort of like gardenia. I’d love to take a botany class on native species.

From my balcony I can see the tops of the hills when they’re not shrouded in fog, and almost the entire campus. It’s about the size of Maryville’s, which surprised me for a school of about 10,000 students. Although, this is typical for European universities, especially French ones. The French are very family centered, so it’s unusual for students to live in dorms when they go to college. Even if they go to school away from home, they usually live in apartments that are not rented through the school. There are three dorms here. Us Americans are all in Cite Internationale. I have a beautiful view of the city and the Indian Ocean beyond it. I’m insanely lucky. My room is a small single, with a desk, small bed, mini-fridge, closet, bathroom, and balcony! For my Maryville friends, it’s about half the size of a regular single in, say, Copeland or Davis. The floors are tiled and the walls are stucco. At first I was sort or repulsed by this and expected carpet, but after about 30 seconds in the room I understood that anything that could trap and keep heat was not something you wanted in your room. Last night at around 10pm it was about 88 degrees. I’m not even kidding. I know it’s been hotter in Tennessee, but there is also about 75% humidity here all the time. When I woke up this morning at 7am it was already 70 degrees and 75% humidity. I drank a liter of water before I even got in the shower. Right now it’s about 80 in the shade with a delightful little breeze ventilating ma petite chambre (my little room).

Back to yesterday. The three of us retrieved our bags. This doesn’t seem too exciting, but it took about 45 minutes after the plane landed. We seemed to be the only ones concerned about the wait; Helene, our coordinator, explained that we need to learn patience (I can hear you laughing, friends and family members, at the prospect of me learning patience) because things operate on “tropical island time” which is generally really slow. They walk slowly, the buses may be 10-20 minutes late (or early), paperwork takes days to process, etc. Me and my Type A personality are going to really enjoy this. The only thing they don’t do is speak slowly. Parlez plus lentement, s’il vous plait! (please speak more slowly!) came out of my mouth more times than I can count in the past 48 hours. After a quick ride up the hills, we arrived on campus and hauled our gear up 6 flights of stairs (no elevator). Soon, we had all showered and changed into sundresses to go to our orientation. We met with two coordinators; one gave us paperwork to get our student IDs (“you can turn it in on Monday, or Tuesday, whichever.”) and the other told us about our work study- teaching 5 year olds English. It pays 10 Euro an hour, and we can work as much as we like. We also are paired with a Reunionaisse (a female island native) for the job, so that will definitely help with our own language development.

We had a tour/orientation of the whole campus, totally in French. My comprehension is pretty good, but it’s taking me a while to recall sentence structure and some verb conjugations. Luckily, people here are very, very patient and are glad to help ignorant foreigners. Soon after we all decided to walk down to Le Chaudron (a little neighborhood within St.-Denis). It translates to “the melting pot” because it’s a very diverse section of town- that’s a serious understatement on this island, though. No two people here look similar- skin and hair colors are so beautiful- every shade you could imagine, from very Caucasian (my pale, American self) to the richest cocoa, and hues of yellow from les Asiens (Asians), too. I can’t tell who is a native (called Reunionais or Creoles) and who is from the other ethnic groups represented here: Indian (both Hindu and Muslim), Chinese, Malagasy (from Madagascar), etc. No one’s fat, either, which is a nice break from America. People still stare because we’re really really pale (and Katie’s a redhead, so we get calls all the time from the men in town: “Russe! Russe!!!!” (redhead!!), but other than that we feel very comfortable walking around.

I have had a few instances of culture shock so far, which have been really cool. Par example: before grocery shopping, we stopped to get some sandwiches. I asked what “un sandwiche American” was. I got a jumbled part-Creole part French explanation of something with gruyere, ham, tomato sauce (ketchup, in Creole), and sauce. I chose Reunionnais sauce. What I received, and no, I couldn’t have made this up if I tried: a baguette with ketchup and ham on the bottom, slathered in tobasco sauce (there’s my sauce Reunionnais), covered with FRENCH FRIES with melted cheese. I was astounded and very grossed out! I wonder if they actually think Americans eat sandwiches with French fries on them. It was really funny. I couldn’t really eat it, but it was worth the story.

We rested the rest of the evening when we weren’t searching for the Internet and finally got to sleep in the stifling heat. Today, the last American student, Luke, arrives and we go over more paperwork with our coordinator. I think there are plans to go to the beaches that tease us from our balconies afterwards.

I am sorry this post was so long, but that was the most exciting and lengthy part of my journey so far. I’ll be hopefully making shorter posts in the coming days.

Finally, for your enjoyment, I have included a few nuances of Ile de la Reunion you may enjoy: most businesses close between 12 and 2, public urination is allowed, plastic bags are ILLEGAL!! (catch up, America), there is no enforced drinking age, they don’t sell sunblock or hair conditioner, air conditioning is virtually non-existent anywhere, and pineapples cost one Euro, because they grow like weeds here. I actually have one in my room right now, but I lack un couteau (a knife). Until I find one, its delicious scent will taunt me.

Au revoir pour maintenant (goodbye for now),
Chelsea