The Parc Exotica

What follows is an account of a trip Vanessa and i took last Sunday to what we thought was a "Botanical Garden." When i sat down to write a blog entry on it this week, i found that the whole experience was so rich and surreal that i had a need to hand write it first, and when i sat down to hand write it i realized that the only way i could really do it was in third person. So here it is, and i hope you enjoy it, tho, as i said to Vanessa after rereading it, it's a good thing i think i'll make a reasonably good lawyer, because i could never make a living as a writer.

The Parc Exotica

They had been out late the night before, and so it happened that they were in the perfect mood for the visit that took place: tired, perhaps a little hungover, and that Sunday Morning freeling that the world does not quite exist, or that you do not quite exist in it.
The first thing that met them after walking in the gates was a water slide on which a young woman was playing with a small child. Except perhaps in its unexpectedness, this would not set the tone for the entire visit. Walking on a ways they fround a ticket booth, where a creole man, just shy of being elderly, who gave the impression of being taciturn despite having welcomed them several times, sold them their tickets.
The entrance sign directed them up a set of stairs, but there was a ramp to the right with such an alluring air that they decided to ignore the suggested suite de visite. Walking up the gentle slope, bushes on each side, they were both filled with a sense of expectation. "Well this is very..." Vanessa trailed off. "Like a Ray Bradbury short story?" Monica suggested. They had developed a disturbing tendancy to occasionally finish one another's sentences.
Everything seemed reasonably normal in the cactus garden at the top of the ramp, though they were somewhat displeased to discover that the only information provided about the plants was their latin name, and rather pleased to discover that one of the cactii bore the latin name "notocactus." It was on descending a set of stairs, near what appeared to be the back of the park, that they came across a sign post bearing the word "dragon." "That must be the name of that dog over there," suggested Vanessa, pointing to a German Shepard chained up in a grassy area beyond the park fence. Monica was unconvinced. She thought maybe it was a nickname for a particularly large and evil cactus. But a few steps later it became clear - rising above them in slender green glory, born aloft on columns stylized to suggest waves, was a ceramic statue of a Chinese dragon. Curiouser and curiouser.
The next section of the park was a terraced bonsai garden which they drifted through wordlessly until attaining a small hut at the far end containing a wall display of large shining butterflies and a few extraordinarily menacing stag beetles, which Monica tried to avoid looking at. The butterflies all bore labels with things like "FROM S. JAVA" and "FROM BALI" written on them. "They're all from Indonesia," Monica observed, then a beat later, "hold on, why are all the labels in English?" "I reckon this entire display was just stolen whole from some museum in Indonesia," Vanessa responded. It seemed like a reasonable assumption.
They turned a corner, went down a set of steps, and found temselves facing what at first presented itself in Monica's head simply as a jumble of pinkness, then resolved itself into a pile of rose quartz in the centre of a pond, and finally, on closer inspection, into a model of Reunion Island rendered in semi-precious stones. There was nothing they could do but stare in wonder. "Do you know what's sad?" asked Vanessa, "I reckon this was somebody's dream."
It was almost a relief to come to the orchid garden - this was something they had been expecting to see - and they lingered through it, and through a chamber of waxy red anturia, taking pleasure in the simple joy of looking at the flowers. "Do you think they only employee here is they guy who sold us our tickets?" Vanessa mused. "No," Monica replied decisively, "There are four others but they all look just like him; they're the neglected and slightly psychopathic quintuplet sons of the eccentric billionaire who built this place." As if to confirm her suspicion, they came out of the anturium hall to discover that the entrance-way had been built in the shape of a giant gorilla sitting over the door.
To avoid being snatched up and taken to the top of the Empire State building, they hurried down the path to a pond dominated by a malevolent black swan and a small waterfall flanked by a stone crocodile. White and orange koi drifted below the surface, and one floated at the top, its colourless and ravaged corpse in the dark water seeming to embody everything that was sad and strange and broken about that place. "Do you think we should tell them there's a dead fish?" Vanessa asked, but Monica was filled with a sense of the futility of such an endeavour and quickly distracted by the park's next marvel: "What IS that statue? It looks like a rhinocerous on acid!"
By this time they hd come in a circle back to the King-Kong replica and were unsure as to where to go next, but a suggestive gap in a hedge proplled tem past two wooden statues reminiscent of early 20th century anthropological depictions of Fiji-islanders and a fiberglass statue of a man on a turtle reminiscent of late 20th century video game depictions of working-class Italian men, onto an open space filled with empty round tables and covered by two white tents. "I might get married if i could have the reception here," commented Vanessa, at the exact moment that Monica was opening her mouth to say something along the lines of, "wouldn't it be insane to have your wedding reception here?" This was another disturbing trend that they had noticed in thier conversation.
Walking past various statues of Buddha and through a Chinese-style gate, they came into a completely different world - that of the park's attached hotel. Here neat white bungalows and perfectly trimmed hedges encircled a pool filled with happily shrieking children and lazily lounging adults. This was clearly not the place for them, and so they went back the way they had come. To the side of the reception area was the park's restaurant and bar, and by this time Monica was mpore than ready for a cup of coffee, but the building was locked and appeared deserted, despite the fact that the tables on the terrace were set. At the exact moment that Vanessa was daring Monica to steal a wine glass, a man appeared and informed them with words and gestures that they should not be there, and ushered them back through the gap in the hedge. Disappointingly, he bore only the vaguest of resemblances to the ticket-seller.
At this point they were at an impasse - the trail seemed to have ended, but they park quite clearly had not yet delivered itself of all its secrets. Blaming this on their choice to ignore the signs at the entrance, they retraced their steps all the way back, and mounted the previously spurned staircase to find themselves once again surrounded by cactii. Here, at the front of the cactus garden, was a faded and strikingly unedifiying sign explaining the worldwide spread of succulents in the golden age of navigation. At the back of the model of the island, and equally fading and unedifying sign listed the general properties to be found in minerals, and then the specific minerals used in the model, without ever relating the two. At the back of the dead fish pond Monica experienced a mild thrill when a sign indicated an "island of crocodiles," but of course they were statues.
Rounding a new corner, they started walking drown a tree-lined path. Ahead of them was a building that they would soon find to contain more minerals (including a piece of agate the exact colour or a "electric magenta" in a box of Crayola neon Magic Markers) as well as a woman who looked nothing like either of the two previous employees and who asked, surprisingly, to see their tickets. But before all this, suddenly and yet inevitably - as if they had known somewhere deep inside that there was only one thing keeping the experience from being complete - there at the right, in all the glory of the March afternoon, was a brightly coloured Nativity scene, complete with sheep.
After Christ had made His appearance there really didn't seem like anything else could be added to the afternoon. They completed their tour of the mineral hall, made their way back through the park, and out past the now deserted water slide. They passed a young Indian man playing guitar by the side of the highway, and went home.



love y'all

La Réunion zoologique

Note: This entry would be MUCH better with pictures. Unfortunately, i'm still experiencing camera issues.

When i was telling people this summer that i was coming to Réunion, i would generally describe it as being off the coast of Madagascar, and the people who didn't respond, "you mean like in the movie!?" would often say, "oooh, are there lemurs!?" Well no, we don't have lemurs - the island's a little small for indigenous large mammals, but that doesn't mean we can't have plenty of fun with our fauna, as was made abundantly clear to me this week:

Episode 1:
Last Sunday was apparently "let your farm animals roam free day" on the island. Vanessa, Karen and i went for a hike and were surprised to discover upon returning that an entire heard of goats had taken over the picnic site where we'd left our car. Then driving home there were about 5 cows grazing - by the side of a highway OVERPASS. Bad francophone joke: Last Thurday was "La Journée de la Femme," last Sunday must have been "La Journée de la Ferme."

Episode 2:
Yesterday morning i wandered out to the kitchen, stuck a mug of water in the microwave to make tea, and picked up the box of muesli off the shelf. Thinking that it was getting low and that i'd have to buy a new box soon, i started to pour myself a bowl...and saw a tail starting to come out of the box. That's right. There was a flattened, crystalized LIZARD that had apparently been COOKED INTO my muesli. As in, it had clearly not just gotten into the cereal on my shelf, but had been in the box when i bought it, and while i was eating a good 3/4 of it. This is not the first time this has happened - Vanessa found a lizard in one of my muesli boxes while i was in India. I'm thinking about going to the newspapers - in November people found a mouse in a can of beans and it was headline news here for a week. And i have GOT to find myself a new breakfast food.

Episode 3:
Yesterday when i was at Jonathon and Katie's place about to go surfing with Jonathon, two birds had wandered into their house and couldn't get out. Katie and i watched, clueless as to what to do, as the poor panicked things hopped around their kitchen and fluttered aimlessly up and down their steps. I'm actually not sure if they ever got them out.

So there are my wildlife adventures for the week - e-mail me and tell me yours!

love y'all

No more excuses

They have opened up a new free cyber center in my town, with blogs unblocked, so i no longer have any excuse not to update. So if i am not updating frequently enough you have every right to yell at me. And please do. In long and frequent e-mails and/or letters that also include updates on your life, book recommendations, and (in the case of snail mail) jars of salsa made in Texas with roasted tomatoes and peppers.

What should i tell you about my life since i last updated? How about i describe my morning today?

I woke up around 8 and went into our common room to have a mango and the last cup of cardomom tea that i'd brought back from India for breakfast. After showering, Vanessa and i took my locally made straw shopping bag and went to the market, where we wandered the stalls comparing prices on peppers and limes, buying tomatoes, potatoes, and pitayas, a cactus fruit endemic to Reunion that is neon pink and spiky on the outside and either magenta or white with little black spots on the inside. After we'd taken care of our groceries, we flanner-ed briefly through the sovenir/non-food side of the market, joking about potential birthday presents for Vanessa's brother - my suggestions of Hawaiian shirts (joking) and spice mixes for making flavoured rum (serious) were eventually rejected. But i did find a five euro pocket knife, which makes me happy.

After the market, we separated at a roundabout with a bust of Ghandi in the center. Ness walked home with the groceries, i walked in the other direction to the local temple of the Hindu Goddess Kali, where Tamil lessons are offered on the weekends. I was a little early for my meeting with the people offering the classes, so i wandered around the temple grounds, reveling in the peace, the sunshine, the bright colours, and then sat down to read the copy of The Sound and the Fury that i'd checked out from the library.

When the man who organized the classes arrived he led me to a low open building, where the woman who gives the lessons was leading a small group of men and women in learning to sing Tamil-language Hindu devotionals. The class seemed quite good at it, and also looked to be having fun, laughing and smiling when they made a mistake. While we looked on, the organizer explained to me how the classes worked - for a flat monthly fee i could do as many classes as i liked - in language, singing, dance, indian cooking...only the first and last of those appeal to me, but it still seemed like a good idea. With about 10 minutes left in that class, the organizer interrupted and asked if the teacher would sing for us before the session ended. A few minutes later she began. It was absolutely lovely - the kind of music you would hear in an Indian art film, accompanied by images of women in saris in rice paddies. Everyone in the room was clearly captivated. Outside the sun was shining on the temple and the palm trees. And i remembered why i had decided to spend a year travelling.

I love and miss you all

loopholes

so there's this room in the library that has extra computers and you're not supposed to be able to access the internet on them. But you can get on the internet through microsoft word. And then the blocks that are on the internet on the other computers don't apply so... I CAN UPDATE MY BLOG! YAY! (not sure if i can get pics up this way, but i'll try.

So the hurricane came back after i updated last, and we ended up having two more days stuck inside the house, during which Vanessa and i went slowly insane. At one point i built a fort using Ness' bedsheet and two of our dining room chairs.

And then we ended up with a week off of school, so even though we could leave the house we still didn't have that much to fill our days with, and by yesterday were just about dying from boredom. I feel better today - don't really know why, maybe because i know work starts again next week. Oh, and they managed to fix the bridge, so we don't have to move, thank god.

In other news, today i made guacamole with two avocados off of a tree in my garden. How awesome is that?

Miss/love y'all