Last Tuesday in Mauritius

If you have been keeping up then you may gather that the titles of this week's post will all be somewhat similar - i.e. they will follow the same theme.

My Tuesdays normally aren't anything special as you might remember. I usually have nothing exciting to report and my life's happenings since Monday are normally mundane and uninteresting.

Today is really no exception - I just am feeling reflective and I find that when I have a lot of thoughts running through my head that it is best that I document them somehow.

I felt awful yesterday so I went home an hour early - I could not get any work done and my stomach and head hurt like crazy. So I left at around 4 and made my daily stop at the grocery store. I arrived home and lied down to read and relax. Before I knew it, I had dosed off.

I awoke to my phone ringing - Mom wanting to say hello and catch up. I find that I am spending less time on the phone as it is expensive to call and I often forget to buy calling cards - I text message like a crazy person however. Steve called a few minutes later wanting to go over a few things related to my departure and what my plans were as starting school was concerned. After reading again, I soon dozed off for about 45 min to an hour.

I am one of those people that can't stand when things intangible things in my life are in disorder as they seem to be right now. I always fear that I will not accomplish what I need to accomplish but I find comfort when I give myself a pep talk (ok now I sound psychotic) that I will surely get things done. Lists have always helped a lot too - I have so many floating around my desk and in my purse. It is way of turning things from intangible to tangible - thus further enabling my control freak ways as one of the things that I hate most is to ask for help - even though I shouldn't I view it as some sort of weakness. I guess I still have to grow up a little...

Emmanuel came back from his weekend in Reunion yesterday and the 4 of us (Audrey, Emmanual, Benjamin, and I) had a quiet dinner of lamb and vegetables - very tasty. Benjamin is an avid football (soccer) fan and there seems to be a game every day - so he excuses himself from the table. The rest of us sat around for awhile as we normally do.

I eventually climbed into bed at around 11. Again, thoughts of everything were running through my head - in english and in french - what I have to do, what souvenirs I still have to get, sadness that I am leaving, moving to a new apt, etc.

I eventually fell asleep and sure enough the morning came and it was time for me to get up, shower, and head to the office. I spent the morning working on my final project and answering emails.

Alex was occupied for lunch today so I went in search of a sandwich. I ran into my friend Kannen en route who was also going in search of something to eat. He asked me if I had ever been to the central market in Port Louis. When I said no he offered to show me.

We took the short walk and found ourselves among a plethora of different types of fruits and vegetables and various venders trying to get our attention. He suggested we get a juice from a juice bar that he knew about. I have never seen so many kinds of juices available in my life - over 20.

We both decided on "tropical" which I'm guessing is a mix of orange juice, pineapple, passion fruit, and banana. It is completely fresh and the only ingredients are the various blended fruits.

We left the market, grabbed a quick sandwich, and braved the heat on the walk back to the office.

Some little things:
-Some vender called me "Princess" to get my attention
-Kannen ran into some friends with his and they all asked him who the girl he was with was - this has never once happened in the thousand times that I have eaten lunch with Alex
-over the weekend I was talking to a south african at the BBQ at Alex's - my friend Jean - Francois on hearing this said he just wanted to speak english with me the rest of the day - when I started in my rapid fire english (in my american accent) he gave up and switched back to french
-Alex's friend Toby said on Friday that he used to date a Latina but he forgot what country her family was from - the only thing he could remember was that she was from New Jersey - to which I responded "gross"

More later....