Time flies here and it's really hard to keep track of it. It's both wonderful and terrible at the same time.

So last week, I was going to go on a hike, but they told me that the trail I wanted to use was closed (I found out later that it wasn't - meh) so I spent the weekend at the beach snorkeling. I found so much cool stuff; one of my friends bought me an underwater disposable camera, so lots of stuff is already on it. One thing I couldn't get was the octopus that I saw. Octopi (?) can camoflauge themselves with their surroundings, and its impossible to tell them from anything else. I saw his little suction cups, so I knew what he was, but after he stuck his head out, it was impossible to tell him from the coral he was hanging out in. Anyways, it was really cool. The second day I went alone, so I could just go and snorkel wherever I wanted to without having to worry about someone else, and I saw this family of fish (there were two bigger fish and about 5 or 6 tiny, tiny fish hanging out in this coral thingy). It was so cool to think that something about the size of a grain of sand is not only living, but has organs and organ systems and all that jazz. So cool!!!

Last week was rough because I had more classes than I usually do (I still didn't have nearly as many I would have if I was home, but you know). So nothing really happened during the week...

But this past weekend, we (me and david and melina) tried to hike to this wonderful view point called 'La Roche Ecrite.' All was going well at first (we got lost a couple of times, but what else is new?), and even though we couldn't see the big views because of the clouds, there was plenty to look at right next to us. The trail was beautiful red mud at times, and reminded me a lot of home. When it was cut out of the mountain instead of placed on a ridge, the walls were dressed in moss and tiny little plants, ressembling a miniature mountain range with miniature trees. Spiders made their homes there as well; big, shiny spiders, black like the aliens in "Aliens." And the whole time, the Tuit tuit, a native to Reunion, flitted past and around us and filled the air with its songs. Enormous fallen trees told us that the polluting noise of a chainsaw had never reached these glades, and it sat well with me.
Sadly, the poetic qualities of the day were spoiled in the night, when a steady rain, along with a 40-50 mph wind kicked up and absolutely soaked us because the tent we had wasn't actually waterproof. Of course, taking the tent down was the worst of it all, but it wasn't so bad, because the gite sells hot chocolate! I think I'm beginning to get spoiled, because at the end of every day, you don't find a cozy little shelter in a clearing with a picnic table, you find a mini hotel, complete with a restaurant, cabins and everything else you could possibly need (usually including a wonderful house 'rhum arrangé'). So maybe I ought to not get used to that. :)
Anyways, the next day was magnificent, despite its beginning, where I fell down because I was so numbed by the cold and I forgot to put in my contacts, (Plus I wanted hot chocolate) and the fact that we decided not to go to the actual view point because we were sure that we wouldn't want to walk that far on the trail the way it was (it would've added another 8 Km). But as we descended, the sky cleared up, and we got our first view of the ocean from the mountains. It's big. Also, where we had camped the night before is called La Plaine de Chicots, but its not really a plain like we know, its more of a bunch of rolling hills, a place where people can live. So we had these gorgeous rolling hills spilling out before us and in the distance, razor-sharp ridges and immediately afterwards, the sea. It was stunning. So stunning that I'm glad we didn't have it for two days straight, because I would not have paid attention to the small stuff the first day. So that was cool.
Speaking of the geography of Reunion, I found out that this island is not like Hawaii (I think) and its not simply a hot spot. The lava underneath the earth forced it upwards, and thats why you can find the kind of geological formations that you do here, because the island is not only composed of new igneous rock, but also ancient ocean crust that had been forced upwards into the air. After that, there were all kinds of fissures and seams that split up the bed rock and caused it to slide all around on it self, and there were other smaller volcanoes that helped too, and its very, very complicated and very, very cool. For those of you who know him, tell Dr. J that I'm thankful that I had his course right before being here because I remember more about rocks and can understand more here. :)
So right now, life is good, and I'm actually beginning to really, really enjoy life here. Plus I'm becoming a pretty good cook!

I love you guys!

Cyclone, hiking, etc.

So, for starters, embedding the pictures in the text was too hard, so I'll just put them at the end from now on. :) Or, if you wanna see more, go to this right here http://uncg.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2065914&l=b2f51&id=25006720
and that will have more and prettier pictures. So that's that.

So we had a big nasty cyclone here weekend before last and everything was closed for about four days. It was terrible because we couldn't go outside, but it was wonderful because no one was there to stop us from having very loud parties throughout the dorm. :) Needless to say, we amused ourselves quite well. Plus the cyclone was really only a really big thunderstorm and was nothing like hurricanes back home. So for me it was no big deal at all. Anyways, we had two days of courses last week, so that was good too.

At the end of the week, I decided that I was going hiking: end of story. Whether the trail was destroyed or not, I was going. So I told a few people that, and eventually about 11 people wanted to come. So I headed to La Maison de la Montagne in St. Denis to ask about which trails were usable. They told me that there was one...on the whole island. So at 8 AM saturday, we headed off for adventure. It was almost perfect. The water from the hurricane filled up the waterfalls and made all the plants really green. also, at night, the sky is really clear here (usually) and you could see the milky way perfectly. I woke up at about 3 in the morning and couldn't go back to sleep because the stars were so beautiful. It gets better: here the eclipse that night lasted for four hours and I stayed awake long enough to watch the moon go from a deep dark red to shining white. Plus it was nice and cool, but compared to the heat that we've been dealing with lately, I was freezing. The only thing missing was Laura... : / Regardless, that was an amazing night.
The next morning we all got up (except me, I was up already) at 7 and walked down this boggy path, haphazardly paved with planks of wood, to the Trou de Fer. It was magnificent not only because of its size and beauty, but also because the terrain rendered all of that area uninhabitable. Something that size that will stay that pure for that long is amazing.

ok, right now, the computer lab I'm using is closing, so I'll finish later! :)

love yall!
_______________________
Ok, I'm back now. Anyways, the whole deal about the forest being pure, there's so much of it that is too steep for humans to stand on it, much less live there or log it, and it is just very satisfying to know that that will stay virgin forest for thousands and thousands of years. So it was awesome.
Then we hiked out, ate a sandwich at a local place, and hopped in Mats' car for the ride home, which was fun because the car would cut off if Mats wasn't pressing the gas , but it would restart everytime he put it back in gear. Thank goodness it was all downhill. :)

And now, a new entry about this wonderfully run university I am attending: I just learned that there are courses that I was supposed to be going to this whole month. yesterday. "asroruighasofdivnmsdfnvishffgnerg," is close to what I felt. So now I have to make up all of my work in those courses I'm sure, which is not terribly serious, it just means that I have a lot of work to do.
Also, yesterday, I completed the climbing part of what is called "l'ecole de vol," or flight school, for climbing class. Yes, I said flight school...for climbing class. It consisted of me climbing as high as possible on the wall, holding on with one hand, pulling off some rope, and then pushing off of the wall, dropping me and lifting my partner (who was a little 110 lb. girl) high into the air. And that wasn't the scary part. The scary part was that for a time while I was hanging on the wall, they were changing belayers, and I was completely unsecured. Had I fallen, it would have been my last. I will never do flight school again. So I had an interesting day yesterday.
In other news, my french is very, very much better than it was when I left. You could almost say that it is good now! :) Oh, and I think I'm going canyoning again this sunday. That means more pictures!!!
So all in all, I'm doing pretty well here, even though every day I am increasingly surprised at how inefficiently the french bureaucracy works. Things are looking up. :)

I love all of you and I miss you very, very much!!!

The moon!













Trou de Fer













A cool fallen tree covered in moss and orchids!


















A grove of tamarin trees.









A cave that me and Mats found.






















Here's a video (just paste it in the browser dealy)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fM72ejbwItM