Last time I checked cut-off jean shorts were completely hideous

GO GATORS!!!!

Why yes - my favorite team won this weekend absolutely crushing the puppies that call themselves DAWGS. Although there may be a few ACR's (Alachua County Residents) who still wear jean shorts, at least I can say say most of my fellow fans have dumped their beloved jorts into yesterday's garbage never to be seen or heard from again...I hope.

Also - the time difference between Mauritius is and EST is 10 hours (we are ahead) due to daylight savings! It is going to be awful when I come home and am exhausted for a week!!

Anyway - back to my existence in Mauritius.

On Friday afternoon/evening aka halloween (BOO!! - Did I scare you?) I went out for happy hour with my coworkers like usual. This time around, the place was decorated for halloween. The mauritian people have only started to celebrate the holiday a couple of years ago. I have no idea if the children were out trick or treating as I was not home to see it. They did a decent job of decorating though!

I went to the north for a little bit to hang out with Jean Christophe but I decided that I was too tired so I went home.

I woke up on Saturday morning and relaxed until about 1 o'clock when I hopped in the shower to get ready for the halloween party that I went to that night with my friend Nathalie. I met them in Curepipe and left my car at her brother's place (I know that very few of you probably know where the places I mention are and probably think that I am making this up, but trust me, they exist). We then drove to the south to a small beach town called Point D'Esny.

A lot of Joel's family (Nathalie's boyfriend) spend the weekend at their respective beach houses in this little town each weekend and during vacation. They are all close together and all of the cousins are always outside playing together on the beach. We hung out for the afternoon along with Joel's brother Yannick and his girlfriend Petra who is from the Czech Republic. After they all were finished getting ready, we went over to Joel's cousin Vanessa's house for a glass of wine.

We got to the Point D'Esny club house at around 9 or so and were starving for dinner. We had shrimp, rice, lamb, veggies, and then a strawberry mousse cake for dessert. All in all, it was pretty good. There was not in fact a live band as I originally thought their would be but a DJ. The important thing is we got to dance! At the end of the night I left with my friend Yannick (Nathalie's brother) as my car was at his place. I was too tired to drive all the way when we got back to his place so he let me sleep on the couch.

We watched a few hours of BBC on Sunday morning and I of course loved it because I don't get to watch too much TV where I live! I went home around lunch time to shower and relax.

Nothing too eventful happened last night - just made myself a quiet dinner because Audrey already had plans to have dinner with friends.

I had a meeting this morning in the northern part of the island in a town called Trou Aux Biches with the purchasing director from the Casuarina Resort and Spa. I first went last Monday but he ended up not having the time to fill out the whole survey. It was quite an adventure driving back up there as the way that I normally get on the highway was blocked so I tried a different way. There was an accident at the round-a-bout where I wanted to turn around so I ended up having to drive 1 HOUR (!!) just to be able to turn around to go the other direction. Luckily - when I finally got to Trou Aux Biches I got what I needed - my survey!

Another intern is coming today to stay with Audrey for six months. He is french and going to work for the same company that Nicolas worked for. Hopefully I can make a new friend!

Some little things:
-I chatted with someone saturday night who loves that song "What's Up" by the 4 Non Blondes as much as I do
-Joel's little cousin Armorie (age 3) reminds me a lot of my brother Taylor at that age - into everything and a pest (he ran into the ocean with the nanny chasing after him and yelling)
-I ran into somebody at happy hour that I filled out my survey - I didn't recognize him at first and had to ask who he was - oops
-its Alex's birthday today but he could care less - personally, I view my birthday as a holiday just for me and to cebrate that I am in fact alive and well
-Election day is tomorrow - someone on the BBC put it so well - "the election that you will see even if you don't want to"
-it weirds me out when these purchasing directors that i talk to start to flirt with me (it happened again today) - do you have a boyfriend here in Mauritius?? (this particular guy has a wife and child!)
-i was "put in my place" today in that someone informed me that I only speak two languages - the USA is behind the times

More later...