10.18.09
I got up this morning, grabbed some breakfast and went to the bus for my FDP. I went on a sugar adventure! We were taken to an old sugar mill, which has been converted into a museum. I never thought that I would learn so much about sugar and colonialism. I bought the book that tells all about it. The museum was so long that I just gave up on reading everything.
At the end they had about 8 different kinds of sugar that we could try. They ranged from dark to light and they had different granulations. They were all pretty good. They also had about 4 different kinds of rum we could try. They had a pineapple one that was really good. I really wanted to bring some home, but damn those SAS rules. It was really interesting because they gave you the straight rum to try and it was pretty disgusting. They then put a little sugar in it and let it dissolve and that made it about 10 times better.
We had some mocktails that were pretty good and then we walked out to the sugar cane field. We met some guy named Sonjay and he cut all of us some sugar cane to munch on. Since I really didn’t like it all that much the first time around, I passed this time because I figured round 2 wouldn’t be any different.
Mauritius is really resourceful when it comes to sugar. Roughly half the island is dedicated to growing sugar. They plant 40 different kinds of cane to produce 8 different kinds of sugar. They also produce rum, burn excess for power, produce ethanol, and use the leaves from the sugar cane as thatch for roofs. It has really allowed their economy to flourish. The weird thing is that despite that they are known for their sugar, they don’t actually use it domestically. They export everything to the European Union and then import sugar from South Africa for their own use.
After fulfilling our sugar rush, we boarded the bus and headed back to the ship. We got back at 12:30ish and on ship time was 1800. I really didn’t want to deal with water taxis and plus everything was closed because it is Divali, so I just decided to hang out on the ship. I grabbed some lunch and a book and camped out on deck 7. Julia joined me for a while and we just laid out and read. After a few hours I moved inside and met up with Rosario. We went back out to 6th deck and did some homework and ate dinner. Everyone somehow made it back by on ship time. Although, I wish we were leaving some in Mauritius. For some reason people think that it is a good idea to get shitfaced before coming back onboard. Why? I have no idea. There is this one girl who shall remain nameless who I really want to push overboard. Not only is she one of the people that ate the Oreos during Operation Hunger, but tonight at dinner she is completely wasted and practically falling out of her chair and hitting me while I am trying to eat. I left and went upstairs to take pictures of the sunset and when I walk back inside I am greeted with her making out with another girl…classy. Oh and she slept through 3 of our 4 game drives while we were in Kruger. Knowing my luck, she will probably be on my Cambodia trip too. But I really want to know her motive for going on SAS. I don’t care if people want to drink, but don’t do it when we are trapped on a ship with your drunk ass.
The rest of the night we played yet another game of pish-posh and watched the end of High School Musical 2 and High School Musical 3. We have officially left Mauritius and we are now on our way to India!!