Well-today is my birthday and it is not exciting-I am at work. I guess I'm getting old!
A few things out of the ordinary (at least for me):
-stopped at the grocery store on the way home yesterday and saw a man with one leg pee against a wall near the grocery store. When I got out of the car, he promptly asked me for me money which I responded by getting in the car and driving to the grocery store closer to home
-a lot of the women that work in my office wear the same outfit everyday-it is a navy suit with short sleaves with a green blouse underneath. I wonder if its some kind of uniform they have to wear-no one said anything about a uniform to me-oh well (If it is in fact a uniform that they have to wear, it seems kind of sexist to make women wear one whereas the men can wear whatever they want)
-gas stations don't take credit cards and as there is no ATM on my way to work I was unable to get cash-my tank is on E
-i dont think that a single paper towel exists here
I made alot of progress at work yesterday-I was able to get most of my survey questions finalized so now I am in the process of figuring out how I will determine my sample size. I will let you know how it goes if you are interested.
Went to lunch with Alex and Stephanie yesterday and the place where we were eating did not have what I wanted-I spontaneously said a word in french that loosely means "darn!"
Audrey and I went to her friend Kathryn's house last night for her daughter's 21st birthday. They wanted me to come so that I could have a celebration too. We had shrimp, rice, salad, and some sort of pineapple upside down cake which was excellent.
More later..
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
Monday, September 8, 2008
Hi Everybody!
Unfortunately, I can only get internet here at work so I am sorry for the delay in posting.
On Friday, I went out for lunch with some of my coworkers for Indian food. It was a crepe of sorts with curry, vegetables, and whatever kind of meat you wanted (I chose chicken). I was quite proud of myself for being so adventurous and it actually tasted pretty good. A few others that I was with ate 2 or 3 but I could only manage one because of they were huge.
I spent the rest of the afternoon back at the office trying to plug along at this survey. I was one of the last people here and everybody else cut out a bit early. I thought it was better to stay a bit late so that I could get ahead a little bit and show that I'm trying to be dedicated.
Right after work, I went with some others to a hotel here in Port Louis called the Suffren. Every Friday evening, they have happy hour in the bar area and everybody under 30 who works ibut n Port Louis or in the surrounding area goes there to unwind. They also have little appetizers to snack on. Later on, I went up to Grand Bay ( in the north) to hang out with some friends because we were going out later that night. I spent the night out there because it was too far for me to drive all the way back down south.
People don't go out until much later here-around midnight or so. We hung out at the apartment and played ring of fire (I had no idea that this was a worldwide phenomenon). Some of the rules were a bit different than what I am used to but it was no problem catching on (4 to the floor, 5 to the sky, etc).
We later went to Zanzibar which is the techno and strobe light place that I mentioned a few posts ago. After, we went to some place called Les Enfants Terribles (The Terrible Children). It was a slighlty older crowd but I liked the music there a little bit better. We were out all night and even saw the sun come up!
I went home later in the afternoon and took a nap after stopping to grab a diet coke at the grocery store and to buy an international calling card for my mauritian cell phone (I tried to call a few of you the other day but no one picked up-pick up all strange numbers until december as it might be me!) I didn't do much of anything the rest of the weekend except relax. I caught up on some reading and tried to go to bed early. I tried to go to the local internet cafe to get on facebook because if you bring your own computer and it has wi fi it is free. It turns out that it is closed on Sundays so I sat at a table outside and tried to connect anyway. No such luck.
Two of the people that I have lived with for the past week left this morning to return to Paris. So excited to have my own bathroom for a time!
As you all know (I hope!) my birthday is tomorrow and I will be 24! I have tried to tell everyone that I possibly can. I actually share it with a catholic holiday here called Pere Laval. It is for a french missionary that did a lot of charity work here in mauritius and he is being considered for saint hood. Unfortunatley, I still have to work.
A friend of Audrey's (the woman who owns the house where I am living) has a friend whose daughter's birthday is today (21st but not a huge deal here in Mauritius). I am invited over there for dinner tonight tonight as well so I am excited about that. More later....
Unfortunately, I can only get internet here at work so I am sorry for the delay in posting.
On Friday, I went out for lunch with some of my coworkers for Indian food. It was a crepe of sorts with curry, vegetables, and whatever kind of meat you wanted (I chose chicken). I was quite proud of myself for being so adventurous and it actually tasted pretty good. A few others that I was with ate 2 or 3 but I could only manage one because of they were huge.
I spent the rest of the afternoon back at the office trying to plug along at this survey. I was one of the last people here and everybody else cut out a bit early. I thought it was better to stay a bit late so that I could get ahead a little bit and show that I'm trying to be dedicated.
Right after work, I went with some others to a hotel here in Port Louis called the Suffren. Every Friday evening, they have happy hour in the bar area and everybody under 30 who works ibut n Port Louis or in the surrounding area goes there to unwind. They also have little appetizers to snack on. Later on, I went up to Grand Bay ( in the north) to hang out with some friends because we were going out later that night. I spent the night out there because it was too far for me to drive all the way back down south.
People don't go out until much later here-around midnight or so. We hung out at the apartment and played ring of fire (I had no idea that this was a worldwide phenomenon). Some of the rules were a bit different than what I am used to but it was no problem catching on (4 to the floor, 5 to the sky, etc).
We later went to Zanzibar which is the techno and strobe light place that I mentioned a few posts ago. After, we went to some place called Les Enfants Terribles (The Terrible Children). It was a slighlty older crowd but I liked the music there a little bit better. We were out all night and even saw the sun come up!
I went home later in the afternoon and took a nap after stopping to grab a diet coke at the grocery store and to buy an international calling card for my mauritian cell phone (I tried to call a few of you the other day but no one picked up-pick up all strange numbers until december as it might be me!) I didn't do much of anything the rest of the weekend except relax. I caught up on some reading and tried to go to bed early. I tried to go to the local internet cafe to get on facebook because if you bring your own computer and it has wi fi it is free. It turns out that it is closed on Sundays so I sat at a table outside and tried to connect anyway. No such luck.
Two of the people that I have lived with for the past week left this morning to return to Paris. So excited to have my own bathroom for a time!
As you all know (I hope!) my birthday is tomorrow and I will be 24! I have tried to tell everyone that I possibly can. I actually share it with a catholic holiday here called Pere Laval. It is for a french missionary that did a lot of charity work here in mauritius and he is being considered for saint hood. Unfortunatley, I still have to work.
A friend of Audrey's (the woman who owns the house where I am living) has a friend whose daughter's birthday is today (21st but not a huge deal here in Mauritius). I am invited over there for dinner tonight tonight as well so I am excited about that. More later....
Friday, September 5, 2008
Adventures in driving on the wrong side of the road
I finally got my car on Wednesday afternoon. It is a small european looking silver car...it's a little bit bigger than the silver bug I used to have. I must have asked the woman at the dealership so many questions that she was glad to see me go (Is there insurance?, Why does it beep when I back up?, etc.) I followed Veronique back to the office and got my first little bit of practice in. When I got back, my boss Paul really wanted me to drive Stephanie all the way the home, pick her up in the morning, and take her all the way back to the office to get her car the next day. I compromised and said I would follow her even though I knew the way well enough to go by myself. Also, we had off yesterday because of the Indian religious holiday Ganesh (involves an elephant and making sacrifices in the ocean) so I did not want to drive to the office on our day off and neither did she.
Since I had off yesterday, I took it as the perfect opportunity to explore a bit and practice driving on the left. I decided to be ambitious and resourceful and use my map to find my way all the way to the north end of the island (I live in the south-but no rednecks to speak of). I got a little turned around at points because the roads are not well marked at all so it took me about 3 trys before I actually got on the highway. But I got there successfully! I had some difficulty coming back because I didn't know that you have to get off the highway at different points than you get on. So, I ended up driving all the way south pretty much before I could turn around...at least I know now.
Other tidbits I didn't feel like putting in to complete sentences:
-I don't actually think to myself "ok I have to drive on the left"-I just look to see which direction the cars are going
-Everything is opposite-I have not broken the habit of reaching to my left first for my seatbelt and I walk to the wrong side of the car to get in the drivers seat
-Often when I attempt to flick the turn signal-I turn on the windshield wipers instead
-I have always been taught to stay in the center of the lane-not too close to the edge and not too close to the divide (thanks mom!) but here-because there are no sidewalks and there are dogs everywhere, I have to keep more towards the middle of the road
-people like to wander aimlessly in the streets
-on my way to and from work-there is a sign that says "Stone Crushing Plant"-it took me a second before I realized that it was factory
-i ran over a chicken with my car yesterday
-there are no lights on the road at night
-you must tailgate if you want to move at all when there is traffic
-yesterday while in grand bay, i saw a sign for a cybercafe and followed it but it turned out to be someone's front yard-oops
-i saw the only mcdonalds that exists in mauritius-no time to take a picture because I was in the car
-the radio is horrible-too much talking
-I heard that song "Love don't cost a thing" in French
-I had an intensive discussion about the pussycat dolls and britney spears with 2 of the people that i live with-they wanted to know how to translate "pussycat dolls" in to french-i told them i had absolutely no idea how
-its funny to listen to parisiens sing american rap songs
-i'm starting to get sick of pasta
-found out most of the french hate nicolas sarkozi and carla bruni
Since I had off yesterday, I took it as the perfect opportunity to explore a bit and practice driving on the left. I decided to be ambitious and resourceful and use my map to find my way all the way to the north end of the island (I live in the south-but no rednecks to speak of). I got a little turned around at points because the roads are not well marked at all so it took me about 3 trys before I actually got on the highway. But I got there successfully! I had some difficulty coming back because I didn't know that you have to get off the highway at different points than you get on. So, I ended up driving all the way south pretty much before I could turn around...at least I know now.
Other tidbits I didn't feel like putting in to complete sentences:
-I don't actually think to myself "ok I have to drive on the left"-I just look to see which direction the cars are going
-Everything is opposite-I have not broken the habit of reaching to my left first for my seatbelt and I walk to the wrong side of the car to get in the drivers seat
-Often when I attempt to flick the turn signal-I turn on the windshield wipers instead
-I have always been taught to stay in the center of the lane-not too close to the edge and not too close to the divide (thanks mom!) but here-because there are no sidewalks and there are dogs everywhere, I have to keep more towards the middle of the road
-people like to wander aimlessly in the streets
-on my way to and from work-there is a sign that says "Stone Crushing Plant"-it took me a second before I realized that it was factory
-i ran over a chicken with my car yesterday
-there are no lights on the road at night
-you must tailgate if you want to move at all when there is traffic
-yesterday while in grand bay, i saw a sign for a cybercafe and followed it but it turned out to be someone's front yard-oops
-i saw the only mcdonalds that exists in mauritius-no time to take a picture because I was in the car
-the radio is horrible-too much talking
-I heard that song "Love don't cost a thing" in French
-I had an intensive discussion about the pussycat dolls and britney spears with 2 of the people that i live with-they wanted to know how to translate "pussycat dolls" in to french-i told them i had absolutely no idea how
-its funny to listen to parisiens sing american rap songs
-i'm starting to get sick of pasta
-found out most of the french hate nicolas sarkozi and carla bruni
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
Some idiosyncracies I keep noticing around the office:
-there is never any toilet paper in the bathroom-everyone has their own roll to take with them so its plainly obvious when anyone has to go-not sure how I feel about it
-there is a woman who works here whose only responsibility to stop by all the desks every few hours and ask you want some hot tea-i am not a tea or coffee drinker but maybe I will venture and try it out one of these days
-when it is time for lunch-there are not very many places to go and choices are limited. Would you like a sandwich or a sandwich? (Sadly I'm not kidding)
-A lot of people here have unexplainable absences-they leave frequently for hours at a time and I have no idea where they go-I on the other hand might as well be chained to my desk
-Often times I can hear 3 languages being spoken at once (French, English, Creole-they like to have a choice I guess)
Other things in general that I keep noticing:
-I am the minority-almost 70% of the island is Indian. It is totally new experience for me but it is really interesting to see all of the different cultures. At the same time, even though there are many different kinds of people-Indian, Chinese, Creole, Muslim, Franco-Mauritian-none of them mix together at all-they all keep to themselves.
-all of the dogs here are malnourished-it is really sad to see
-where i live-there are locks on every single door and it doesn't clost except when it is locked-when not locked-the doors swing open (this can be a problem while showering)
-everyone thinks that the absentee ballot is a totally bizarre concept. No matter how many times I try to explain it I always resort to "In America, we all have the right to vote no matter where we happen to be living"
I went to bed really early last night-at about 9:45. I woke up at 5:30 this morning on my own-no alarm clock. This NEVER happens to me. I couldn't watch tv for go on the internet because neither exist where I live. I just read a book until Stephanie came to pick me up. I love to read while I am here because even though speaking french is fun for me-I still need my daily dose of English-its very comforting.
Tomorrow I have the day of off work because it is an Indian religious holiday. I don't know what its for but I plan on exploring a little.
I hope that those of you in Florida don't blow away due to the approaching hurricane but get a few days of off school or work instead!
More later...
-there is never any toilet paper in the bathroom-everyone has their own roll to take with them so its plainly obvious when anyone has to go-not sure how I feel about it
-there is a woman who works here whose only responsibility to stop by all the desks every few hours and ask you want some hot tea-i am not a tea or coffee drinker but maybe I will venture and try it out one of these days
-when it is time for lunch-there are not very many places to go and choices are limited. Would you like a sandwich or a sandwich? (Sadly I'm not kidding)
-A lot of people here have unexplainable absences-they leave frequently for hours at a time and I have no idea where they go-I on the other hand might as well be chained to my desk
-Often times I can hear 3 languages being spoken at once (French, English, Creole-they like to have a choice I guess)
Other things in general that I keep noticing:
-I am the minority-almost 70% of the island is Indian. It is totally new experience for me but it is really interesting to see all of the different cultures. At the same time, even though there are many different kinds of people-Indian, Chinese, Creole, Muslim, Franco-Mauritian-none of them mix together at all-they all keep to themselves.
-all of the dogs here are malnourished-it is really sad to see
-where i live-there are locks on every single door and it doesn't clost except when it is locked-when not locked-the doors swing open (this can be a problem while showering)
-everyone thinks that the absentee ballot is a totally bizarre concept. No matter how many times I try to explain it I always resort to "In America, we all have the right to vote no matter where we happen to be living"
I went to bed really early last night-at about 9:45. I woke up at 5:30 this morning on my own-no alarm clock. This NEVER happens to me. I couldn't watch tv for go on the internet because neither exist where I live. I just read a book until Stephanie came to pick me up. I love to read while I am here because even though speaking french is fun for me-I still need my daily dose of English-its very comforting.
Tomorrow I have the day of off work because it is an Indian religious holiday. I don't know what its for but I plan on exploring a little.
I hope that those of you in Florida don't blow away due to the approaching hurricane but get a few days of off school or work instead!
More later...
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
Address
My address here in Mauritius is:
Grain de Sel
Morcellement Carlos
Tamarin
Ile Maurice
(There are no street numbers outside of the capital city-weird I know)
Grain de Sel
Morcellement Carlos
Tamarin
Ile Maurice
(There are no street numbers outside of the capital city-weird I know)
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...
-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...
Monday, September 1, 2008
some observations i have made:
-KFC is everywhere and there is only one mcdonalds in the whole country
-i have never seen such crazy drivers anywhere in my life-Europe included
-salad is eaten after a meal-i can never eat it because i am too full
-there is a mountain here that is referred to as "la pouce" (the thumb) because of obvious reasons
-people don't drink diet coke before lunch time-something i will have to get used to
-there is no pavement-i already disfigured the stiletto on my shoe a bit
-almost everyone has a maid-it only costs about $100 a month
Above are some things that I keep forgetting to mention in here so i thought i would go ahead and put it in.
Yesterday, we took the Boston Whaler out on the ocean and pulled up to a hotel where Prince William stayed along with a helicopter. I still can't get over the color of the water-it is so clear that you can see right to the bottom.
We left the beach house yesterday and went back to their principal home. It had the biggest backyard that I have ever seen and has one of those wrap around porches.
I woke up this morning and left for my first day of work. It turns out that I am the first ever person from an english speaking country to intern here. So there is a lot of pressure resting on my shoulders. I was assigned to the marketing department where I am working with 2 others-one french and one mauritian. My assignment is to help develop a customer survey for the companies clients-mostly in the hotel industry. It sounds interesting so far. If you are interested the company website is www.ats.mu. It was all a bit overwhelming this morning because I get the feeling that my direct boss Paul thought that I already knew what I was going to be doing when in fact I didnt. I think that he understood in the end though. I went to lunch with Stephanie to an outside cafe for paninis. She's going to take me to my boarding house this afternoon because she lives close by. She's going to show me where the Supermarkets are and other things of importance. I get my car tomorrow and I promise to write about my experience of driving on the other side of the road. I'm not sure if I will get internet where I am living but I definetly have it at work along with access to my email. Unfortuneately-I can't get facebook here at work but maybe its for the best-we shall see.
I have a local number here now-+2309857262 so if anybody gets a call from a strange number it might be me!
More later...
-KFC is everywhere and there is only one mcdonalds in the whole country
-i have never seen such crazy drivers anywhere in my life-Europe included
-salad is eaten after a meal-i can never eat it because i am too full
-there is a mountain here that is referred to as "la pouce" (the thumb) because of obvious reasons
-people don't drink diet coke before lunch time-something i will have to get used to
-there is no pavement-i already disfigured the stiletto on my shoe a bit
-almost everyone has a maid-it only costs about $100 a month
Above are some things that I keep forgetting to mention in here so i thought i would go ahead and put it in.
Yesterday, we took the Boston Whaler out on the ocean and pulled up to a hotel where Prince William stayed along with a helicopter. I still can't get over the color of the water-it is so clear that you can see right to the bottom.
We left the beach house yesterday and went back to their principal home. It had the biggest backyard that I have ever seen and has one of those wrap around porches.
I woke up this morning and left for my first day of work. It turns out that I am the first ever person from an english speaking country to intern here. So there is a lot of pressure resting on my shoulders. I was assigned to the marketing department where I am working with 2 others-one french and one mauritian. My assignment is to help develop a customer survey for the companies clients-mostly in the hotel industry. It sounds interesting so far. If you are interested the company website is www.ats.mu. It was all a bit overwhelming this morning because I get the feeling that my direct boss Paul thought that I already knew what I was going to be doing when in fact I didnt. I think that he understood in the end though. I went to lunch with Stephanie to an outside cafe for paninis. She's going to take me to my boarding house this afternoon because she lives close by. She's going to show me where the Supermarkets are and other things of importance. I get my car tomorrow and I promise to write about my experience of driving on the other side of the road. I'm not sure if I will get internet where I am living but I definetly have it at work along with access to my email. Unfortuneately-I can't get facebook here at work but maybe its for the best-we shall see.
I have a local number here now-+2309857262 so if anybody gets a call from a strange number it might be me!
More later...
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