Alison's Adventures in Wonderland: First Week in Paradise

So we've now been in Réunion a week after 40 hours of travelling. The only small set back so far was missing my flight from DC to NYC and when they double booked our seats from Istanbul to Paris but then we got put in Business class so all was forgiven. And the lounge in Turkey was incredible, I could have spent a week there but sadly only had 15 minutes to take some fruit and drinks and whatever I could stuff into my purse.

Business Class Istanbul to Paris

Layover in Paris:

Quick jaunt over to la Tour Eiffel during our 12 hours in Paris. Then we had to find a different train back to the airport because the RER station was closed due to a "suspicious package". A nice policeman gave us bad directions but we figured it out.

Take the picture already!

Finally a picture Dennis approves of

So far Reunion is awesome! The water is clear and blue, there's lots of fish and coral in the lagon down the street, people are friendly and the creole food is good! Lots of rice, fish, vegetables, hot peppers or piments, and lots of fresh fruit I've never heard of. In a week, I've already been on a boat to see dolphins and whales, although didn't see any whales because the season ended about 2 weeks ago. I also have been snorkeling a bunch, to the beaches at St Leu and Trou D'Eau, and all over St Leu.

Dolphins!!! This made up for not seeing any whales. At first we saw 2 and we're happy but then we saw sooooo many. Shout out to Raf and Greg and CatAlizé for the awesome day!

These two followed the boat for a good 15 minutes!

CatAlizé

The first week we stay with the super awesome family of my reference teacher who treated us like family. Now we're settling into the home we're sharing for the stay. We're loving our little low key surf town of St Leu where already I run into the people I know at the super market or weekly Sunday concert and students already recognize me at the beach (ah gotta be careful what I do!). Here's some pictures because a picture is 1,000 words and I don't feel like writing more.

St Leu lagoon