This week, I attended a world premier movie. Last Thursday, one of my professors, Jeffrey Kottler screened Dear Mr. Gacey, a movie based on one of his books. It was produced by the same producer who did Monster, and is based on a true story. A kid in one of Kottler’s classes a couple of years ago tried to get into the heads of serial killers and get them to confess their secrets. He developed relationships with seven of them at the same time by posing as people they would have been interested in, had they not been in prison. The movie focused on his relationship with John Gacey, the Clown Killer. There were no famous people in it, and the movie was OK at best. I may be a harsh critic because I don’t like Kottler, but other people seemed to share my reaction. It is cool that it was a true story and I was at the world premier though.
Today (2/27), we arrived in Mauritius, probably the most random place I have ever been. It’s a really small island southeast of Africa, past Madagascar and near Reunion. Because of the actions of the previous voyage (literally drinking the country dry, trashing some hotel rooms, and basically causing havoc…according to rumor), we only spent the day here. Also according to rumor, the Mauritian government has asked us not to come back, and because the itineraries were already in place, the government worked out a deal with ISE to only stay a day, and we’re the last voyage to go. I spent the day on a catamaran, sailing around the island and snorkeling over coral reefs. We took a bus through the capital city, Port Louis on our way to the catamaran. It’s a nice city, a little small and everything was closed on Sunday, but the locals were preparing for a Hindu festival for the God Shivah (spelling) so on our drive, we passed several people in white carrying elaborately decorated shrines. It was pretty cool. Also, their festival is coming up, and everything will be closed for four days so it’s probably good we only spent a day there. The city is kind of like a combination of Hawaii, Africa, and India (from what I hear). We passed a bunch of buildings and shops, some big, some small, some sugarcane fields, all while viewing the extinct volcanoes that are all round.
I went on the catamaran cruise with Semester at Sea so we were probably the only sober catamaran on the island that day. We sailed around and stopped over some coral reefs, about fifteen feet underwater. After snorkeling around for forty five minutes or so, we were treated to a BBQ lunch, probably the best food I have had on an SAS trip, and sailed to another spot, where the water was only a six feet deep, but had a strong undertow. Some people went to the beach, where the water was too shallow to swim, but me and some other people chose to hang out by the boat where we could swim in the water and jump off the boat into the ocean. People from the beach joined us an hour or so later and we spent another hour or so listening to music, jumping into the ocean, trying to pull ourselves back on the boat without using the ladder, and hanging out before heading back to the ship.
All in all, a good day, but I can’t help but feel like I didn’t do as much as I could have in the country. We were only there for a day and a lot was closed, but I had hoped to explore the city. It was still a great though. I didn’t step on a sea urchin, something we were warned about several times, I got to snorkel and have a great lunch, I got to sail, something I have missed, and I got to do all this in a beautiful place. This place is one of the most beautiful places I have been. I felt like I was living in one of my desktop backgrounds with beautiful skies, beaches, and oceans. I also got to meet some new people. I really like how on SAS trips, you get to meet new people, rather than stick with your same group of friends. I am glad I got to visit the country, but I’m not sure how much else there really is to do there.
Next stop, a place where there should be plenty to do, India!
Festival for the Hindu God of Destruction, Shiva
Volcano
Pictures from the catamaran
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