Reunion Island Trip
On March 22, 11 of us together with Mr Toussaint, Mrs Pacifique and Mrs Clancy, left for the island of Mauritius and Reunion, where we would spend 18 days on an exchange program with the Lycée Sarda Garriga, in Reunion.
We arrived in Mauritius on the same day and spent 3 days sightseeing and learning about Matthew Flinders’ time on the island.
On day 4 of our adventure, we packed our bags and left for our exchange program. After a 25-minute flight over the Indian Ocean, we landed in Reunion, where our host families, Monsieur Saïd and other hosting teachers from the Lycée greeted us with Australian flags and Geelong Cats attire.
Homestays
This was the start of our homestay experience. We left the airport and drove off separately to our new homes to spend the next 15 days totally immersed in French. The homestay experience was certainly an unforgettable one. We had the opportunity to stay with a Reunion island family and to go to a French lycée (high school). Our families were incredibly welcoming, sweet, thoughtful and wonderful. Our host families provided us with great hospitality, delicious meals and life-long friendships. Spending time with them was certainly one of the highlights of the trip. Exploring the island with our host brother or sister was so much fun and we learnt so much from one another. It was extremely difficult to say goodbye because by the end of the trip, our host families had become our Reunion island families.
School life
School life on the island is very different to that in Australia. Firstly, classes start at 7.20 a.m., and finish at 5.00 p.m., sometimes 6.00 p.m. The school gates are kept locked during class times. They can only be opened electronically upon request. The school is co-ed, and it often seemed to us that public displays of affection on school grounds were allowed.
In class, students sit and take notes quietly while teachers are at the front. They are given a lot of homework, which certainly kept our host sisters and brothers very busy in the evenings. The school has two canteens, one where you can buy fast meals, and another where you can sit down and eat a warm meal. Everyone preferred the faster version since we could buy baguettes with various fillings such as chips, or dim-sims, or cheese and chips, or dim-sim, cheese and chips… to name a few.
Among other things, we went to Monsieur Saïd’s English classes where we did presentations on Australia, and ran some group conversations both in English and in French, in a way to get to know the Reunion students better.
The Hike
Our group was lucky to go on an overnight hike on Reunion, the first one organised since the beginning of this exchange.
On day 8, we drove into the very small town of Hell-Bourg, situated 1500m above sea level. This was the starting point of the 4km Bélouve hike, up a steep incline of 500m. We started climbing after lunch and after what seemed like forever (4 hours), in a hot and humid climate, we arrived at our accommodation, Le Gîte de Bélouve (bed and breakfast).
When we made it to Le Gîte, we all lay on the grass and admired what we had accomplished. We then settled in for the night. From the restaurant of our accommodation, we had beautiful views of Le Piton d’Anchaing, a rock formation in the middle of the Cirque (caldera) de Salazie. The caldera was peaceful and quiet, and we could not hear either cars, or music, or any of the normal noises of the city.
After a fun night in our dormitory, we left for our second hike through the forest of Bélouve, a rainforest with century-old Tamarind trees. We hiked up and down to the Trou-de-Fer viewpoint, a large valley and canyon filled with waterfalls and trees 250m high. This was a much easier hike, and concluded that part of our adventure. We then took the long and winding drive home. The hike was an amazing and rewarding experience.
The Mauritius-Réunion exchange was an adventure of a lifetime. We all challenged ourselves in one way or another, made memories as well as lifelong friends, and came back richer for our experiences. We will never forget this trip, the things we did, people we met along the way, and the laughs we had.
