Getting Into the Swing of Things

I’m back! It has officially been a little over two weeks now, and I still have plenty of moments where I have to stop and take a moment to appreciate where I am and how lucky I feel to be here on this beautiful island.

This week I’d like to start off with some fun facts about Reunion Island.

1. People here have actually heard of Ohio! I have travelled a fair amount and rarely when people ask what state I’m from do they know what on earth an “Ohio” is. Well, not here! The response I usually get is an excited “Oh! Ohio!” which warms my heart. I’m sure they know very little if anything about Ohio or where exactly it is in the US but hey, I’m still impressed.
2. The only way to get around this small island is to drive on the highway that circles around the coast. There are a few roads through the mountains in the center of the island but they’re not really a reliable way to get around. A project is currently underway to build a giant highway right off the coast aka held up on really tall pillars in the ocean. It’s very controversial because a giant suspended highway on an otherwise beautiful ocean view is kinda hideous, but supposedly the highway congestion makes it necessary. Oh, and since this is France, the EU is paying for it. I bet non-French Europeans living in small landlocked European villages are thrilled about it.
3. Speaking of highways, everyone here does actually obey the custom of driving in the right lane except when passing (my dad would be ecstatic), but even more fun than that is they leave their left blinker on for the entire time they are passing. Even if they pass 20 cars in a row. It’s really funny but also kind of cute.
4. French people make a lot of sound effects to express certain emotions or reactions. There are quite a few different ones but to me it feels like everyone just goes around making fart noises with their mouth all day, and I love it.

What have I been doing since my last post? Well, I moved from my temporary housing into my permanent housing, more on that later. I’ve been working, aka goofing off with a bunch of middle school and high school kids in the most educational way possible. I went exploring a little bit last weekend with two other English assistants. We saw some waterfalls, did a little hiking, drove around Hell-Bourg, which has been voted one of the most beautiful cities in France, and of course ate lots of creole food. That’s basically it, but let’s go more into depth about a few things. Starting with…

Language

I haven’t really gone into detail yet but I’ve mentioned to a lot of people that I was excited to start on this journey mainly to improve my French. My French skills are not where I want them to be, nor are they at the level of most of the other assistants. I knew this would make my first couple weeks here a STRUGGLE. Well, I’m happy to report that while this has been the case, I haven’t gotten as down on myself as I worried I might. Don’t get me wrong, there have been times where even my most basic French absolutely refuses to be produced by my mouth, but with the help of very kind locals and assistants alike, it’s been manageable. I owe a lot especially to one of the other American assistants Kristi, who has helped me so much and not gotten annoyed when I rely on her to be my guide and/or my transportation (because she has a car which is clutch since the busses stop by 8pm, also that pun was not intended but yes all cars here are manuals which makes all of the steep and narrow mountain driving all the more impressive). I also owe a lot to the English teachers at my schools who are so friendly and fun, and though I hope to slowly start speaking in French with them, I’m still getting the hang of my schedule and the way the schools operate etc so the fact that they all speak near-perfect English has been a huge relief.

What’s really incredible about language is that it’s only been 2ish weeks but I already feel like my brain is starting to get more and more into French mode each day. I still don’t know what people are saying more often than not, but it’s getting easier and even my speaking is starting to come a little faster. Just a little though. So this week I started a new challenge for myself where Monday through Friday, I only consume French media. So any TV shows I watch, any music I listen to, any news I read etc must be in French. Then, starting 5pm on Friday I let myself have a breather and allow English media back in for the weekend. This was only my first week of doing that, but it was easier than I thought it would be and actually pretty fun!

One interesting thing I’ve noticed about both French and English is just how much pronunciation matters. You can having amazing vocabulary and grammar but if your pronunciation is too far off people will have absolutely no idea what your saying. This goes both ways too. When I speak French with too much accent or when someone speaks English with too much accent the conversation gets nowhere. It can be frustrating but also kind of funny, especially because I’ve found the hardest things for me to understand have been when an English word is thrown into a French sentence (but is of course said in a French accent). I’ll be racking my brain for a French word that sounds like that until I finally realize it was an English word, and by then I’ve completely lost track of the rest of the conversation…

Lastly, no matter how much your language improves, there will still be moments where it all completely fails you. That happened to me two days ago when I went to the post office to mail my overseas absentee ballot (which is already not a fun process). But also, YAY I REMEMBERED TO VOTE IN TIME (thanks for all the reminders, Mom!). You have to print things a certain way, seal them in an envelope and attach certain things to the outside of that envelope and then put all of that in a separate envelope and all that jazz. I completely blanked on how to explain all this but luckily I had google translated the instructions ahead of time and taken a picture of that so I just gave that to the two kind post office dudes who were trying to help me and let them figure it out. We got it done with only a few injuries to show for it.

Where I Live Now

So, like I mentioned, I moved. I now live closer to the schools I work at, which is convenient so I don’t have to leave quite as early especially on the days I work at 7:30am. As of last Sunday, I’ve been living with a very nice French woman and her 30 year old daughter. They are both amazing and I spent two nights this week with my host mom, Simone, just talking and watching TV and drinking wine. I also was graciously invited to join her daughter Emilie and two of her friends for aperitif (similar to happy hour or a pregame, includes wine and snacks and in our case later in the night, champagne and pizza) the other night which was also very fun. Simone only speaks French which is great practice for me, and she is remarkably patient with me which I’m very appreciative of. Emilie speaks some English and one of her friends lived in New Orleans for 2 years so I spent the first half of the night still trying to speak mostly in French and by the second half got a little lazy and let myself fall into English more.

As for my room, I have a private room with a small semi-kitchenette and desk downstairs and a spacious bedroom upstairs in a loft-like situation. It’s very nice and did I mention it has that amazing view pictured above? That was taken from my window. And I can’t wait to utilize that pool when summer hits here very soon.

Whew…

Okay so this post ended up being much longer than I intended and I still didn’t touch on quite everything so I’ll either have another mini post during the week or just touch on things next week. Though prepare yourself because after two not-even-that-hard weeks of work we now have a two week vacation!!! I’m very excited and am spending the first week hiking one of the three big calderas on the island, called the Cirque de Mafate (ps if you don’t know what a caldera is, check my First Impressions post). Then the second week we are going to Mauritius!!! I’m soooooo excited and will surely bombard you with photos on any and all media platforms. In the meantime, I’ll leave you with some photos of food: