some more observations:
-at the grocery store-you have to pay for a plastic bag (i was shocked at first and then I thought maybe the people of Mauritius were doing their part to fight global warming-less to end up in a landfill somewhere if people are forced to pay for it)
-the motorcyclists here scare me most of all-Stephanie and I saw one ram into the back of a car on our way home-luckily he was not hurt and the car didn't even have a scratch
-Port Louis is full of narrow one way streets that are just wide enough for one car
-the office is going through a major renovation right now-im convinced there is a construction worker code-at the construction worker convention they deemed it necessary to stare at every female that walks by and make her as uncomfortable as possible
-all of the shower heads detach from the wall and it is quite difficult to hold it while washing one's hair at the same time
-for $1 you get about 28 Mauritian rupees-not a terrible conversion rate
-there is pizza hut everywhere too-im not completely sure that I would ever try it after eating pizza in France that had ketchup instead of tomato sauce
-there are dogs everywhere and people on bikes everywhere-it is a wonder that they are not all dead
-none of the houses have numbers on them and most of the roads are not named-I guess the mauritian government has other priorities and perhaps they dont collect enough tax dollars but it could also be due to the recession that is going on here as well (when i know what they are-I will let you know)

Yesterday was quite an interesting day. Stephanie and I left the office at around 5:15 and she drove me home. I work in the capital city of Port Louisand its about a 45 minute to an hour commute to where I live-a region called Riviere Noire (black river) and in a town called Tamarin (Ta-ma-ran).

I moved into the boarding house where I am staying. It is run by a single woman who is not married and has no children. The house is pretty big by Mauritian standards so she rents it out to young people who are here for a short time for an internship or vacation. There are three others staying there right now-a french guy named nicolas and a french young couple whose names are Sarah and Thaimes (no idea how to spell it). Everyone was really nice.

We had pasta for dinner-its the go to dinner for Americans and Mauritians alike.

There are so many people here-and they are all in a hurry. I get my car today and I am a little nervous about navigating the roads. Everyone thinks its really funny that I don't know how to drive a stick shift-my coworker Alexandre says that if you don't know how to drive a stick then you don't know how to drive-I just told him I didnt care. More later...