sunday 8/31

well last night was the first night that I actually slept well and what a difference it makes! It was quite a long day yesterday even though there wasnt much excitement. I went for another walk on the beach with Stephanie to look for shells but she showed all kinds of stuff that I have never seen before. For example, I have never found a sea urchin tentacle on the beach before but I found several along with several shells that had purple on them. I had a lunch of venison, greens, and rice yesterday and surprisingly it was pretty good. I'm really making a effort to try things I would normally not. It was kind of a lazy afternoon so I just sat around and read and watched tv. I ended up going to watch antoine and dominique play golf along with his wife. A bit of trivia for all you golf enthousiasts, the belle mare golf resort is the best outside of North America and Europe.
We went to dinner at a hotel with an excellent buffet called le touessrok. Everything there is open air and it was the perfect temperature to sit outside. The food was excellent-they had everything from chinese to pizza. We walked around a little bit afterwards on the hotel`s private island. The whole place really was a work of art.
After coming back-Antoine and I stayed in last night and watched hours and hours of french tv including CSI, Sex and the City, and My name is Earl. It was certainly an experience to watch all of these in French.
We are leaving the beach house today and going back to the other house. I start work tomorrow as well as move into my boarding house. I will try and write some more later-hope u are enjoying reading so far!

saturday 8/30

just thought id update a little bit more today...I had my first meals here yesterday. For lunch it was a mushroom tart which was surprisingly good and for dinner some sort of meat, potato salad, calabasus (mauritian vegetable), and curry along with some red wine. we had foie gras as an appetizer along with champagne because it was my first night here and their daughter Celine`s last night. I had my first experience in a Mauritian "boite" or night club. I went with their son antoine and got to meet some of his friends. I can describe it in four words-techno and strobe lights. It`s very different than anything in the states-it reminds me a lot of Europe. I got to meet a lot of people and practice my french. The only part that was frustrating was the fact that they wanted to practice their english while I wanted to practice my french so there was somewhat of a communication barrier. I`m doing ok speaking french right now but i forget some vocab words from time to time.
We got home pretty late but for the sake of certain family members who may be reading this I will omit the time. I didn`t sleep much at all last night and was up at 8:30 this morning. No one else was around so I decided to go for a walk on the beach. It was absolutely beautiful. The water is a clear blue and it was just the perfect temperature outside. There were some people riding horses in the distance and a few others walking dogs or just walking by themselves. The beach is really interesting here as it has a very pronounced curve so you get an idea of what the coastline looks like. I came back and had some cereal and have been relaxing all morning. I will try and post some pictures a little bit later....

finally here!!!!

Please forgive the errors that are about to occur as i am typing from a french computer. I flew out of dubai at around 3 am this morning and got here around 930. I told customs after a long ordeal that I was a student vacationing here at a family friends house. Customs said that I could only be here for 60 days but I will actually be here twice that amount of time. They made me show my invitation letter and return ticket info along with my passport. It was definitely the strictest customs that I have ever experienced. Luckily my bags came in a timely manner and I was able to find my boss Veronique who came to pick me up. I am staying with my other boss Dominique his family at their beach house this weekend. His three children are all around my age-22, 24, and 26 so it should be a fun weekend. It is absolutely beautiful here and the water is a clear blue and all of the windows in the house are open so the breeze just sweeps on through. I am so exhausted though and the french everyone is speaking to me tires me out even more even though it is fun. More later.....

Oh wow

Where in the world do I begin....it feels like so much has happened in the last day or so. I left from Pittsburgh after an hour long delay and flew to NYC where I could not get anyone to help me find where I needed to go so I had to ask about 3 different people where to go in order to find the gate to go to Dubai. I had to go through security yet another time after being forced to throw away the diet coke that I had just purchased. I got on the plane for Dubai but we ended up sitting at the gate for over an hour. When we left babies started to cry like clockwork. I don't understand why people travel internationally with babies. They start to cry because they do not know how to pop their ears and end up being in extreme pain causing the rest of the passengers ridiculous headaches and sleeplessness. However, United Arab Emirates is a great airline. They provided us with eye masks, toothbrushes, and socks in case it got cold (which it did). I watched several movies and dosed in and out. After arriving in Dubai, I had to go through security yet again. I tried to shop and peruse the duty free area but I stopped after a few minutes because it was so overwhelming. Presently, I am sitting in the "Irish Pub" where I have befriended a few americans. I don't fly out again until 3 in the morning so I will be here for a few more hours. More later...

I am officially one step closer to becoming an expat....Due to Tropical Storm Fay, I stayed in Jacksonville a few extra days and couldn't leave until Saturday. I drove out on Saturday and visited my Dad up in Atlanta. My grandparents also stopped over to wish me well. I left my Dad's on Sunday morning at around 8:30 and made my trek up to Pittsburgh. I made excellent time and arrived at Mom and Steve's at around 7 pm. I am getting excited but I am also a little bit nervous. It still feels like there is so much to do but I know that I will get it done somehow. More later...

Just wanted to let everyone know that I am leaving on the 27th and will be landing in Mauritius at around 9:30 am on on the 29th (Friday morning). I am flying out of Pittsburgh at about 6 pm and then to New York where I will take a 13 hour flight to Dubai and then another 7-8 hour flight to Mauritius from there. I will try and write again from Dubai!

Love,
Kallay