Mountains and the sea.

Reunion Island reminds me a lot of Hawaii. No, I have never been to Hawaii but I confess that during my teenager years I pretty much spent all my spare time surfing on the internet and browsing through books and magazines to read about different countries. I also had these notebooks with some of my closest friends where we would always write a letter and then glue beautiful pictures of paradise beaches or other interesting-looking places in the notebook. Therefore I dare to say I know what Hawaii's nature is like and I find it very similar to Reunion Island's nature. First of all; everything is unbelievably GREEN and then the reason why I love it most of all is the fact that wherever you are you can always see mountains and the sea. And you people who know me know that this is the most perfect combination for me. I really love waterfalls and rainforests as well but the ocean is just my love number one. Even though the shores close to St Leu are not even close to being able to compete with Hawaii's pipeline (a world famous surfing spot known for its huge waves) Reunion Island has REALLY good spots for surfing, so yes, even this can be linked to Hawaii in my opinion. Also the volcanic activity on this island is a thing that Hawaii is famous for as well... so quite a few things that these two places have in common I'd say. But enough about Hawaii now, I want to tell you guys a bit of my trips in the streets of St Denis and the surroundings.
Strolling around St Denis is so lovely. Even in the centre you see the lush green mountains and blue water from almost every corner. I guess this also shows how small this island is.I love all the cosy restaurants and bakeries and the smell of the hot air, although it has been a little bit too hot lately I have to say... Even the locals are complaining and the newspapers have been writing about the exceptionally hot weather as well. Climate change really is showing its many faces around the world.

On my way from my place to work I get to see so much real everyday life. I barely see any white people if I may say so... Parents taking their kids to school, others going to work, some are waiting at a bus stop and some are getting their freshly baked morning croissants or Samoussas, similar to spring rolls but more to my taste ;)
One could say that everyday life here is relatively similar to life in Finland but on the other hand, the setting and people's attitudes are very different. It feels like nobody's in a rush and everyone's got time to talk to their friends or other people that are passing by either in the streets or at the bakery. Some days on my way to work I hear a car honk and stop next to me during green lights ;) and it's someone from the office telling me to hop in the car, always a nice surprise.
At the checkout counters in the supermarkets people are also extremely slow and paying with cheques is still very fashionable - just like in metropolitan France. Paying with your card is quite slow as well but on the other hand they also have lots of self service counters which we don't have in Finland or at least I have never seen one.
When I go to Carrefour I feel like I'm in France or Belgium because everything is always written both in Dutch and in French and of course lots of the products are the same too.

Another thing that I find extremely cute and impressive is the stray dogs, and there are A LOT of them here. They are so used to the traffic and the french way of driving that it is not unusual to see a dog cross the street at a zebra crossing - just like people. There are also lots of cats here but I haven't seen them do any special tricks yet.

That's it for now folks, hope you're all having fun wherever you are.

x E

Somewhere over the rainbow

Reunion Island is a multicultural society composed of people originally from France, Mozambique, India, China, Madagascar, and the Comores.

Islanders use their ethnic origins to define themselves as Cafres (African ancestry) Z'oreilles (born in mainland France), malabars or Tamouls (from Tamil Nadu southern India), Z'arabes (from Gujarat in northern India), Chinois (from China), Malgaches (from Madagascar), Comores (from Comores), Petits blancs (poor rural whites living in the highlands), or Creoles blancs (white landowners): (http://www.everyculture.com/No-Sa/Reunion-Island.html)


So I've got a challenge for you people - try to imagine the following;

A place where there are Roman Catholics, Christians, hindus and muslims.

A place where the ethnic groups consist of Créole, French, African, Malagasy, Chinese, Pakistani and Indian; all living together on a tiny island and yet the population is only about 800 000 inhabitants...

Sound interesting? Just a tad maybe?

Well this is the case on Reunion Island and even though there is a tendency for all of these ethnic groups to have their own circles, racism is practically nonexistent on this island.

A mixture of all the possible skin colours are to be found here. You can even meet a person who is both Catholic and Hindu – clearly not your everyday religious people.

Yesterday we were driving from the other part of St Denis into the city and on our way we drove past a Hindu temple, at about 12 o' clock the Islamic call to prayer from the near-by Mosque reached our ears;time for Friday prayers. A little later we walked past the Roman Catholic cathedral in the centre - impressive.

All of the inhabitants who practise their own religions on Réunion do have a big thing in common that they have accepted but which Metropolitan France hasn't.
-> Law before religion.

To sum up this basically means that people are more free to go to school, work etc dressed up pretty much the way they want to. If a certain religion-related habit is illegal people will accept it and not fight against it.
Also "The great burka debate" apparently never caused bigger problems on this island at all and even president Nicolas Sarkozy on a visit to St Denis (where I live) was overwhelmed of this cohabitation of religions on this island wondering why it is not possible in metropolitan France.

Well all of the above was a lot of things my 'boss' told me the other day and not so much my own experiences... I have to say though that this place truly is
a MELTING POT as they say.


peace,

E

I wish I had a mango tree in my backyard.

Being the laziest of all the lazy asses that try to write a blog when overseas, it has taken me almost 2 weeks to finally open this page and write something.

Me? -I am very fine thanks - enjoying yogurt with fresh passion fruit here as we speak. Typically my first days were a bit strange and I needed some time to get settled and get in the mood but after all the hassle I pretty quickly started realising how awesome a place this really is. The first days I was extremely tired because of speaking French all the time - not the language I am used to speaking this much. A lot of sleep, adjusting to the humidity, sun and everything in general pretty much took my first days but that's alright. I'm all super now.

The place? -I live at the university campus area which means there are a lot of students around and always someone to help you even if you don't know anyone. This area is called Sainte Clotilde which is not in the centre (St Denis) but it is packed here and there is a lot of local life to be seen. When I go for a walk I see lots of elderly men and ladies sitting in their back/front yards and a lot of little kids on their bikes. People watching seems to be these people's favourite pastime. In my room I have a little bathroom, a bed, a desk, a mini fridge and I can see palm trees and the sea from my balcony. Not bad.

My job? -It's my second week now and today I had a day off. I follow the journalist lady pretty much everywhere outside the office and as she is responsible for the education section of the newspaper, lots of our days consist of going to local schools for interviews. Last week we also stayed in a class room for a whole hour, interviewed the kids, the teacher and took some photos.
Every morning at the office starts at 9 o' clock with a meeting where everyone explains what they're working on or are going to start with. At the office I have been doing "research" on the Finnish school system and I've spent lots of time on different kinds of discussion forums and I have learned a lot myself too that I didn't know about education in Finland. The lady writes lots of her articles concentrating on France but a big part is also comparative texts where she often brings up Finland and other countries whose educational system is statistically seen very good. After I've written and translated the texts to her she sometimes also prints them and corrects my French explaining my mistakes - which I like very much. I had never expected they would actually concentrate on me this much as it is mostly very busy at the office. All the people are very nice there and the atmosphere feels very relaxed.

Other things that have happened? -I've spent a lot of time walking around taking pictures. I have been to St Denis which is a lovely town by the way and even though part of it is very old and looks like a typical tropical city, most of the shops are French so at some point you might feel like you're in a normal little town in the middle of France and after a few minutes of walking you'll realise you're nowhere near France. Also Carrefour (typical French big supermarket) is very big here and a few days ago I bought lots of fresh fruits there and oh god you might have guessed it -they were delicious!! Mangoes, pomelos, passion fruits... Yummy

This Belgian guy I got to know on my first day here knows how to get around pretty well so I suggested we'd do something today and he took me to these wonderful waterfalls (Bassin Boeuf) today and we had a great time even though it started raining at some point.

Oh one thing, this morning on our way to the waterfalls when we were waiting for our bus we noticed lots of things falling off a tree and we soon realised it was mangoes. There we were sitting in the sun, picking mangoes while waiting for our bus. <3

xxx E