out of date, will post more, oh the lack of free time!

School from Africa to Mauritius:
Basically my week sucked. 7 days straight of school, 2 big tests, one quiz and 3 papers totaling over 21 pages. It sucked. Plus I was very homesick during this stretch. I had no time for anything and what time I did had I devoted to sleeping. Mauritius is definitely a spring break and going to be filled with snorkeling and relaxing.


My Mauritius nightmare:

I was truly looking forwards to this port. I had a bunch of awesome plans made and none of them went through. Originally I was going to do this underwater safari in a submarine but we had a storm hit Mauritius before we got there so the water was really rough so we had to slow down. People were getting really really sick. We arrived into port around 1200 and disembarked around 1300. Originally we were to get there at 0800 but because of the time change my safari got canceled. We got into port and we just walked around and enjoyed being on land. Mauritius looks really pretty coming in but it is very dirty and messy. We had to pay a dollar to get to and from the ship or walk 25-30 mins through a not too safe round about road. Mindy, Tyler, Greg and I all got a villa in Grand Bay which is on the north west side of the island. It was about a 30 min drive. There were a ton of sugar plantations along the road and the views of the ocean were amazing. We got into Grand Bay and had the cabbie drive us around until we found (number 3) a villa/hotel that wasn’t gross and filled with bugs or too small. Once we found it we dumped our stuff nad went to go get dinner at this little restaurant. Dinner wasn’t too bad, the waiter gave me the creeps but the food was ok. After that we went back to the villa cause we were all tired. There was only one room with air conditioning so we pulled the other mattress in and placed it on the floor. Mindy and I slept in one bed, and Tyler and Greg slept on the one on the floor. We stayed up talking and playing games, I crashed early though because I wasn’t feeling too well. We woke up around 930 – 1000 and got dressed and headed to the beach. We went to this little grocery store and bought some snacks for the beach and bought croissants for breakfast. Mauritius was first inhabited by the Portuguese, then the French so there is a huge French influence. I tried speaking French but they didn’t understand me which sucked, but I could read most things still, which is exciting. We headed to the beach which was only about 2 blocks away. It was a small beach but the water was very blue. Because of the recent cyclone (hurricane) the water was all turned up otherwise I guess you can see all the way to the bottom. Greg and I forgot towels so we went and looked for sea shells while Mindy and Tyler laid out. We found a whole bunch. Mindy came and joined us for a bit and she and I decided to take a walk around. We headed north and found huge sections where the coral had washed up from the recent storm. The beach got more and more beautiful as we walked around. It was incredible. The water was so blue and the sand was so white. Sometimes it was a bit shelly but we were ok. After about an hour of exploring we headed back to the main beach. The guys went out next to explore and mindy and I chilled in the sun. I went swimming some and enjoyed alone time. At one point mindy and I were laying out and we had just untied our tops so as to not get lines on our backs and a wave came up and hit the bottom of our towels and stole Gregs shoe and got our bags wet. It was hilarious cause as mindy and I were jumping up we realized are tops were undone so we were frantically trying to tie those while keep an eye on gregs shoe before it got too far out. A lady grabbed it for us and we moved all our stuff up farther. It was pretty funny. Go boobs! Lol no we were ok. The guys showed up after awhile and we went swimming. Mindy doesn’t really like salt water or sand so she chilled and watched our stuff. We all went for a late lunch then and got some Chinese. It wasn’t too bad. Greg is a beast. He can eat more than anyone I’ve seen and I know he’s restraining himself. After that we packed our stuff and headed back to Port Louis and the ship. We were going to go to Flic en Flaq, the beach most of the SASers went to but decided to save the money and just chill at the ship. It turned out to be a great and bad idea. Most the people who went to Flic en Flaq got robbed ( big stuff- at least 6 i-pods, a lab top, speakers, wallets, backpacks, clothes, toothbrushes ect. Anything and everything was taken. (ps. We were warned about this happening but they didn’t listen. The one photo I saw, the robbers bent the steal bars on a gate and crawled through. I wasn’t like they just walked in, they literally pried the steal gates apart.)) also everyone got super drunk and went skinny dipping. Now imagine at least 300 hundred drunk college kids naked in the sea… it was an orgy. Everyone made out with at least 6 people. A lot of people impaled their feet on coral which is super dangerous because of how infected it can get. The other big thing was a girl got raped by a local owner of one of the villas. They were all at the clubs and three girls left the bar because they were really feeling the alcohol. I guess the local guys who owned the villa followed them and had keys to break in and the girls were all too drunk to really know what was going on. The one who was raped was blacked out and she woke up to the guys rapping her and she and her other really drunk fiends all tried to shove him off. It’s really scary. I know she’s ok but she may be going home- her choice. I know all this because while staying away from Flic en Flaq was great, we ended up going out to idnner on the pier and I got food poisoning-maybe. I woke up around 3:30am with my stomach really hurting, I laid in bed for a bit but I guess my moaning woke my roommate up and she got me some water and pepto but it didn’t help, so she called the doctors and I was down in the infirmary from 4-7am. I’ve never been in more pain in my life. Breaking my arm was a piece of cake compared to what I went through. My stomach was convulsing so bad my back muscles were hurting. The nurse massaged my stomach some and gave me a stomach relaxer but I was honestly laying there on my side or back when I could screaming. I was crying so much and just screaming it hurt so much. They gave me more stomach relaxer and then finally gave me this shot of pain killer in my butt. That kept the spasms from coming but it was still a constant 5 on the scale. I’ve never hurt more in my life. Ever. I had to skip my catamaran trip because I couldn’t move come 8 am. I slept till 11 or so then tried to move about my room. By 1200 I went to go get a little soup broth and potato stuff. I did ok with that and after awhile I felt ok. By 1:30 I felt well enough to wander so I went to the pier. Ran into Justin so he and I wandered, shopped, talked to other SASers till about 6. I went to dinner with a few friends and got a sandwich. I did ok with that for a bit but then was back on board by 1930 because I wasn’t feeling too hot. Lied down and watch some tv and talked to a few people but that was about i. I didn’t even watch the ship sail away. I helped with signs for Sea Olympics and then went to bed.

Mauritius was ok. Don’t plan on coming back because what it offers is just the same as anything off the US coast. It was relaxing given my previous hell week but not worth the time or money.