Last Monday in Mauritius

Well I am exhausted today - sickenly so. I had a wonderful last weekend here in Mauritius so it is no surprise to me that I want to keel over right here at my desk. This post may be a bit lengthy...

Friday afternoon was the same as it is every Friday - everybody was itching to get out and go in search of after work cocktails (hey its always 5 o'clock somewhere). It was a particular special happy hour as it was Alex's last as an employee for ATS. He and I arrived first and ran into his friend Toby. We sat with him for awhile and caught up while waiting for the others (hey its island time). Toby had a particularly interesting story to tell as he has only been going out with his girlfriend for two months and is already moving in with her. So we of course gave him a hard time.

The rest of our friends from work arrived about an hour or so later. We had a great time together and Alex actually seemed emotional for once in his life - like he couldn't believe that we all cared about him that much. A bunch of people got together and got a pen engraved for him so that he would remember (fondly) his time with the company. He didn't cry or anything but I imagine he was close..who knows. We all went home around 9:15 as we were all tired and I was home by ten. I heated my dinner in the microwave and went to bed.

I have gotten quite used to waking up at around 7:30 or 8:00 even on weekends. I woke up around 10 on Saturday to a missed call from Carol as we had plans to go shopping in Rose Hill and Quatre Bornes to do our christmas shopping. I groggily answered the phone and told her that I would get up and get dressed and head out.

So I drove out to Pointe Aux Sables where she lives and couldn't quite remember where her house was exactly because there are tons and tons of tiny streets. She eventually found me and we went back so she could get her purse.

We went to Rose Hill and I am a person who has no patience for crowds when it comes to shopping, rapidly found most of everything I needed. She was on a mission to find a dress for a christmas party that she was going to. Nothing at all seemed to work...on top of it all she kept get annoying text messages from her little sister to buy her something.

We ended up leaving Rose Hill to go in search of lunch and more shopping. Neither of us could decide what to eat so we settled on sandwiches. While in Quatre Bornes we ran into Greta who was shopping for her business trip to Madagascar (ATS has offices/factories there). After failing to find THE dress, we gave up and made our way back to Pointe Aux Sables. We stopped at the grocery on the way and ran onto Elizabeth, another coworker. After all this, I did not feel like driving the 25 minutes back to Tamarin so Carol let me hang out at her house for awhile and chat with her family. We went for a short walk where she showed me where her grandmother, various aunts, uncles, and cousins lived.

I left around 7 so I could stop at the grocery store (again) for Audrey. I got home around 8 ish and did not feel like doing anything - I just wanted to enjoy the feeling of getting christmas shopping out of the way as it is one of my least favorite activities. After dinner, Audrey's nephew of sorts (shes good friends with his aunt) Vincent and his girlfriend came over to chat - they are both still in high school. I was too tired to stay up and chat late so I decided to go to bed.

I woke up at around 9:30 on Sunday morning and remembered that I need to go BACK to the store to pick up chicken that Alex had requested for the BBQ at his place that afternoon. It was hell on earth trying to find parking as the parking lot is small - even witnessed a fender bender (no I was not involved).

My only dilemma was trying to decide exactly how much chicken was necessary. I ended up overbuying as it is always good to have more than one needs. I went home and killed time for awhile before taking a shower and getting ready to head to Alex's.

As I was leaving Katheryn and Yannick were coming so I of course stopped to chat for a few minutes as my friend Yannick (Kathryn's son) never goes out and is one of my only friends that I have to make a concerted effort to see here. We chatted for awhile and then headed to Alex's. It was funny because I had never actually been to his house but Hugo had pointed in the vicinity several times - so I took the second right and stopped when I saw Alex's car.

Since I was one of the only ones who was local I was first. Of course I still have yet to learn that everything here actually starts an hour later than the time stated. So everyone else arrived at around 1.

I luckily knew or knew of most everyone there and we spent a great but tiring afternoon of eating, drinking, and swimming. Alex and Hugo were great hosts as they made sure that everyone was having a great time and were comfortable.

We didn't leave until around 8 pm. I was completely exhausted when I got home but forced myself to eat dinner even though all I really wanted to do was go to sleep. I went to bed around 11 or so only to wake up 3 hours later.

I had a very restless night last night as I kept having random thoughts going through my head - my life in Mauritius was flashing before my eyes. It seemed like I had literally thousands of dreams in 3 different languages - english, french, and creole (this was particularly strange as I have great difficulties in understanding creole but I find myself knowing a few words now).

I finally fell back asleep (I think) around 4 or 5 am. I was late coming into the office this morning and later discovered that everyone else was too. Since Greta is in Madagascar, I helped Alex and some others finish wrapping presents and I think (I hope) that we are finished now.

I am feeling just awful right now and want to go home to my bed right now...

Some little things:
-Toby mentioned in conversation that "he was no spring chicken" anymore (hes only 31). I never knew the story before but from what I gathered the term originated in the the UK because at one time there were always lots of hens born in the spring - Alex thought it was funny
-It was fun to have Carol with me at the Suffren on Friday as she was somone to explore with
-I noticed that Carol was wearing 7 jeans on Saturday and asked how much she paid for them - only 800 rupees! That is about $25 for $150-$200 jeans!
-Carol knows everybody - everyone she introduced me to was some sort of cousin - they are everywhere
-I ran into facebook guy on Saturday as well (the guy who was upset that I didn't add him on facebook)
-someone else said "hi kallay" and I of course didn't remember him until Carol told me that I probably met him through Rajnish - I swear I have the hardest time keeping up with everyone's names here
-Carol bought me a present when I wasn't looking even though I told her not too - its a cute little mounted friendship poem
-When we got back to Carol's her sister said that everything was ugly because she was mad that she didn't get anything
-my friends at work continue to think that I will forget them when I go home
-on Sunday I pointed out a house on the side of the mountain in Tamarin where I wanted to live when I was rich one day - Rajnish said that I was already rich because my Dad is good friends with Paris Hilton
-Audrey's sister Pascal, her husband Bruno, and their two kids came over for dinner on Saturday - the most riveting topic of discussion was Britney Spears and her comeback
-someone commented on Sunday that the mauritians were on one side and the europeans were on the other - I said well I am neither so what am I? turns out I am a just a jerk
-the definition of insanity (so I've heard) is the act of doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results - I should have know better when trying to get on a float in the pool from the stairs


More later...