To my excitement and surprise I found out just over a month ago that my second cousin (the daughter of my mother’s cousin) was doing a term of study at University in Reunion Island. I remember meeting her once before briefly at my grandmother’s wedding last October. It turned out that after her 3 month study period she planned on coming to Mauritius for a holiday with a couple of her ‘copines.’
So, yesterday afternoon after having experienced a little trouble finding the house, four beautiful young English University students elegantly stepped out of a silver hire car in our driveway and came through the gate and knocked on our door. We welcomed them in with ‘bisous’ (French kisses- one on each cheek- it’s very normal in Mauritius) and showed them around our house a little bit.
All four of the girls, young women really, are studying some combination of languages at the University of Bristol; two straight French, one French and Spanish and my second cousin, Emma, French and Italian. She is going to go and do a term at University in Verona, Italy soon. Lucky girl. Katie, Chloe and I were all taken back by their presence- all very tall, beautiful, brown and extremely English girls (accents like I’ve rarely heard before!)
We planned on taking a picnic to Spiritual Gardens as it was a nice day and it would any awkwardness about paying at a restaurant. We had prepared fillings- onions, cheese, sweet corn etc and packed them in a bag along with knives, two large bottles of juice and two baguettes that we had already bought. All we needed to do was nip to the market and purchase a couple more and we would have been sorted.
Our plan was stunted. We arrived at the market at 1.30pm and it was closed- Sunday- I should have expected this. The supermarket had literally just closed too… We must have been quite a sight. They were all so tall and stunning (and two of them blonde… as well as Katie- all Westerners)- we attracted a lot more attention than normal. It was also partly due to the beachwear of our friend from England. We decided to change plans and go to the street vendors by the bus station and purchase some local cuisine for lunch- rotis! Savory flat bread filled with vegetable curry and rolled up like a wrap. Lunch for 7 was on me; they were all very grateful…and I had only spent the equivalent of 1Pound 40pence!
After a pleasant walk to Spiritual Gardens and an interesting and friendly chat, all seven of us sitting a long a step and drinking cold water and juice beneath the cool shade of a tree we headed back home again. Katie and Chloe had a work ‘ball’ (party/dance) to go to and the others wanted to head back up North to enjoy the beaches for the last time! They are going back to England on Thursday and will be met both with the love of their families and the harshness of winter.
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