Mauritius

Hey All,

I just got back from Mauritius, which is an island off the coast of South Africa. If you hold up your left hand with your palm faced toward you that is the shape of Mauritius and so you can always find it on a map–or so my cab driver told me. Have any of you ever been in the MAC store and seen the screen savers of the white beaches with the perfect umbrella and endless turquoise water? Well, that is EXACTLY what Mauritius looks like. The first day that we got here, a group of us just threw a dart at the map and picked a beach to go to. For those of you that know me well, you know I am not fond of swimsuits and so you all would have been so surprised to actually see me in the ocean—even I couldn’t resist passing up the warm water and white sand! At one point I was chasing after a vollyball and actually fell into the water and got soaked from head to toe. However, I did end up talking about how much I miss cold Cannon Beach, warm chai, big bonfires in the rain and sweaters and boots (as I re-applied sunscreen).The rest of the day we just relaxed and had time to catch up with each other because we had all been so busy on various trips in South Africa and had midterms on the ship. We went to this really good Indian restaurant for dinner.

The next day I went on an SAS trip to see the volcano and the largest waterfall in Africa. We stopped at the Ghandi Center and learned about the do-do bird that went extinct a trillion years ago and all about the flora and fauna. We went and saw the 7 sands, which are the 7 sands of the world and they are all different colors. Then we got some free time at the beach before heading back to the ship. This was a short stop because we were only stopping for fuel. It was like a tiny spring break.  Now I am back on the ship and we are heading to India. I have a lot of presentations and tests coming up and so there is lots going on! I want to send a special thank you out to mom, Emma, Eli, and Julie for sending me “REAL” mail! You are the best! You made my day and all of your notes are up on my wall! I am half way to home! More to come soon! Love to everyone!