Hello, all readers. These four weeks in the Réunion Island have passed quickly. Amazing views, the warm weather and huge waves will be in our memories forever. We have seen huge turtles. We have scuba dived, gone to the volcano, visited the rainforest and planted many trees.

We have gotten to know the French education system which is very different from the Finnish education system. The days are longer and usually the school days are regular. We have particpated in the english classes and P.E. classes, and we also had at least two hours of independent study in the school library every day. The last week we were able to get a two days free from school, when we went to Saint-Pierre and did paragliding.

All of us had a good host family and everyone got along. And now we have friends from the other side of the world. We got to know the local culture properly up close by following the host family’s daily routine. We got to taste local foods and fruits, for example samosas, bouchons, letchis and cari with fish. We also ate a lot of rice. It was a surprise to us that in here people eat more rarrely than in Finland. Here people eat dinner at 8 pm and don’t eat anything after that. In Finland we eat dinner at 6 pm and after that we have an evening snack before we go to sleep.

Baguette with fries was a shock to us.

In our free time we usually hang out in the beach and we did sports, for example basketball, football and running. Some days we just stayed at home because we were so tired after school. We went to the musée Stella Matutina and did a lot of snorkling. Coral reef was amazing, we saw a lot of wonderful fish species and corals.

The  one month exchange in the Réunion Island was immemorial experinece and we will miss our host families and friends from Réunion. Now, we are leaving for Finland to spend wonderful christmas. Bye and maybe we will see you again!

Sincerely; Ilona, Veera, Seela, Simppa and IIvari.