My amazing trip to Reunion Island

Erasmus+ project “Too Bee or not to Bee in Nature”

My amazing trip to Reunion Island

Traveling is not only about moving your location, because I didn’t just go to Reunion, it’s about living through it and I lived through it. I saw it, I tasted it, I heard it, I smelled it, I touched it, I felt it. This project gave me the opportunity to do it and I became a part of this island, one true citizen of it.

For fourteen days I was living in the home of my partner and her friends, who I now could proudly call my friends. These people with their big welcoming smiles and big hearths not only showed me the beautiful views like the one you would probably see in the internet, they introduced me to the new culture. I had a chance to see their life, their homes and their school. The school facilities of our partner school from the island surprised us not only with their perfect for the students state but also with a completely new educational system in comparison to ours.

          We visited a lot of towns and places – each with its own story. In Saint Paul I tasted the strangest yet now my favorite ice cream flavor, in Saint Denis one of my dreams to visit a manga store came true, in Salazie cirque I saw the biggest bamboo tree I have ever had the pleasure to see.

As I said in the beginning it wasn’t only traveling to La Reunion, it was a chance to see it – to see the crystal clear water of the Indian ocean and the peaks of the volcanoes reflecting in it, it was a chance to taste it – to taste the creole cuisine and the sweetest fruits ever, it was a chance to hear it – to hear an unknown language, to hear the stories of the people there, it was a chance to smell it – to smell the freshly prepared tea of one of the last tea gardens on the island, it was a chance to touch it – to touch the hands of the people holding them out for a handshake to welcome me on board to this amazing adventure. And last but not least this project to Reunion gave me the chance to feel – to feel this little smile on my lips from the moment when my first flight took off, to feel the fatigue of one truly lived day, to feel my heartbeat in my chest on my 18^th birthday which took place away from my home, away from the closest to me people and yet it was the best birthday ever…Thank you!

Polina Predoeva

Science and Maths Secondary School

Vidin, Bulgaria