Three months here

The day before yesterday was the three month anniversary of our arrival here in Réunion and oh my, what a three months we've had.  From being in super holiday mode staying in the hostel to settleing in our new home and having to deal with the relaxed Réunion way of doing things (we called to a government office on friday to sort some stuff only to find out that they close at 11.30am on fridays, admittidly they opened at 7.30am, but still!) it's all been good.

We're all very happy with the move so far, we've been lucky enough to make some friends here and now that we seem to have won the war against the fleas in the garden (see Aurélie's previous post) we're really enjoying the new house. Of course now there are the termitesin the house to deal with, but nevermind - there are a lot more beasties about here.  And of course there is the weather, we should be into the wetter part of the year by now (when it's supposed to be hot with some rain most days) but the rain hasn't started yet so for now it's still glorious :).



Some of our new friends, Jean-Fabien and Laurence, with Sam n' Ela



Our new home!

One big event over the last month was Sam's first day at school, which he is loving, long may that last.  Dropping Sam off to school in the morning is one of those times that reinforces the differences in culture.  The vibe at the school seems different to that of an Irish school (mind you it's been a long time since I had any experience of an Irish primary school).  For one thing the schools is very open plan, no corridors, just classrooms opening out to the outside (the benefit of living in a warm country), for another the principal stands at the school gate and greets and shakes the hand of all the parents who go into the school to drop off their kids which seems very formal though he is very relaxed about it.  A lot of the parents sit about in the sun outside the classrooms for a little while after dropping off their kids giving each other the french cheak kiss hello and chatting, of course I've no idea what they are saying most of the time since they are all speaking creol rather than french!