FINALLY AN UPDATE

right so it has been a ridiculous amount of time since i updated and a coherent account of the month of December would take forever. Instead i'm going to provide a series of fragmentary details of everyday life in La Reunion/stream of consciousness-esque meditations. Enjoy!

This morning i had a mango and a passion fruit for breakfast because i was out of muesli, and when i left the house and walked down the main street, three overripe orange mangos were splattered on the pavement, filling the surrounding air with their scent.

Lately ants have taken themselves to drowning themselves in our bathtub.

Reunionnais LOVE fireworks. Every festival is an excuse for a fireworks display, and people have been setting off personal fireworks in the neighbourhood arround our house every night since Christmas Eve.

Yesterday we went on a hike to a waterfall and i went swimming in the incredibly cold water. When my friend Alex got up the courage to go in, everyone cheered for her. I said, "hey, no one cheered for me when i got in," and JJ replied, "yeah, but it's expected of you Monica." That was one of the nicest things anyone's said to me in a while.

About 1 in 10 cars that i see on the streets belongs to a driving school - this is a frighteningly automobile-based culture.

An "Americain" at a Reunionais snack bar is a sandwhich with French fries and ham. No one knows why.

The road to our house is unpaved, and a continual stream of wather runs across it. Every time i walk down the road, bathing birds fly up out of my path.

love y'all