Challenge Nature: Allez les Fraizes!!!

This weekend, I participated in "Challenge Nature" (but you have to say it with a French accent: Shah-lahnge Nah-tyure). It was SUPER fun, albeit exhausting and frustrating at times. Here's the breakdown.

Teams of four (that had to have at least one girl on them) assembled at 6:30 am outside the Gymnase. I really had no idea what I was getting into. All I knew was that we were biking, running, climbing, doing some archery, and swimming. All in one day. As a team. Tight.

We recieved team tshirts, gatorade (my first in several months, and OH how I relished it!), and stopped at the table for free cafe (how could you expect the Frenchies to compete without their daily espresso?). We got our two bikes and were escorted to the starting line, which was several kilometers away from the school. Once we started, we had 6 "enigmes" (clues) to decipher at each stop. It was pirate themed, so we had to answer questions about treasure and ships and such. Stephanie was actually part of our last clue; our friend Romuauld is a magician, and did a trick for the last symbol, which magically appeared on the arm of Stephanie the Lovely Assisstant (also dressed as a pirate). Throughout the race, we had to submit our answers to recieve the clue for the next stop and also get a sticker with a symbol on it. Some were cipher based, some were word problems (we let Youssef, the only Francophone on the team, handle those ones), and some were just physical challenges or challenges of wit. It was all fun!

We had a sixteen kilometer run/bike from St. Denis to St. Suzanne, two towns over. We rode through a park that extended along the shoreline. It was a gorgeous, sweltering day. I was excited for the physical rigor of it. It also marked one year exactly since I completed my first marathon in Nashville, so it was definitely nostalgic. While I'm at it, congrats to my friends who ran in the half and full! I am jealous.

We took turns running and biking, solving, and cheering each other on. We ran along the beaches, past goats, in tiny neighborhoods, and through what seemed like hours of sugar cane, taller than any man. They swayed in the sea winds, clunking together lacksidaisically, and sheltering us from the heat of mid-morning. As we progressed, our symbols corresponded to numbers. Team Fraize (Team Strawberry, but a little more hardcore, as we spelled it with a "z") learned some archery (which was more difficult than you'd think) and then ran just a bit more to a waterfall, where I did some climbing to get a clue, and Luke swam to the waterfall to recover another. It all finished with a nice kayak down the river back to the place where we did the archery. We were the second to last team to finish, but that didn't matter to us. We had a blast and just enjoyed each others' company.

I didn't move for most of Sunday, except to go get some ice cream with a friend. In a true Carpe Diem moment, I tried a new flavor, patate douce banana. Yes, I had sweet potato-banana ice cream. Much to my surprise, it was delicious! High five, Reunion Island for making yet another excellent parfum (flavor) of dessert.

This week, I started summer vacation- not that much changes, but I celebrate the occasion nonetheless. Next week, a bunch of the foreign students rented a house in the south of the island before people start getting on planes to leave here for reals. After that, six of us are spending around 8-10 days hiking across the island. I'm will expect to be exhausted but probably see some of the best sights of my life. Then, it's just two weeks more until Paris and my parents!

I hope to accomplish a lot between now and then. I hope all is well back home. Please avoid swines of any sort. I miss you, and love you (especially my family and my dedicated neighbors in Brentwood!) I'll see you all in the second half of June!

Until next time,
Chelsea