Easter at La Pirogue

So we are a little behind....again.....
Something I learned when home this summer is that even though things here may seem same old same old to us, to those of you at home they are still new things. So, I/we are going to try to update our blog with the things that we missed, and keep up with it again for our last 10 months here. So, I'm going to start with Easter weekend, which we spent up north at a resort called La Pirogue.

La Pirogue is near Mahambo, which is a place Matt and I have gone before. We stayed at Le Recif last year, and we often go to Foule Point for a Sunday at the beach. Mahambo is about 30 minutes north of Foule Point, and is much quieter. The beaches are private, so we aren't constantly bombarded with people selling shell necklaces, massages, and weaved baskets. To be honest, we both prefer Foule Point because of all the action, but for a nice quiet weekend away, Mahambo definitely takes the cake.

We went with our friends Alex and Dave, and arrived bright and early Friday morning. We had rented the deluxe bungalows, which looked like this:

Pano view from the second story balcony

Upstairs was where we slept - no power means no fan or air con,
so you sleep upstairs with the balcony doors open for some air flow.

Pretty stones and gigantic boat hanging from the ceiling

Main floor living room area. The door on the left is the toilet, the
area on the right is the shower room.

The stairs to the second level - extremely terrifying in the middle of the night
with no lights. Just ask Matt.

We spent two nights in the resort, and had lovely quiet days. Lots of beach time, tasty food, and great company. Alex and I decided to try to drink our way through the cocktails menu, but got distracted by the drink called Sexy In The Drink.....

About a 40 minute walk from La Pirogue is the spot where the Marahiboha River meets the Indian Ocean. It's really a neat place, because the fresh water meeting the salt water allows for some amazing plant growth right in the middle of the mouth of the river. It was a lovely walk near sunset and we got some beautiful pictures! I even managed to avoid stepping on the sea urchins!

That night we went to dinner at the resort and had a lovely evening sitting and chatting. 

Unfortunately this was also the evening of the Huntsman spider incident....

After many bottles of wine and some scotch, conversation became about politics. Alex and I decided it was late and boring, so we headed off to our bungalows to read and catch some zzzz's, while the boys stayed at the restaurant and chatted. I got to the room, went upstairs, and attempted to close the curtains on the balcony so I could put on my pjs. As I pulled the curtain closed, in the folds was a GIGANTIC SPIDER!!!! I said some choice (not very lady like) words as I hopped back and tried not to cry. I had to work myself up to walk past it down the stairs to get help, as there was no way I was going to be able to move knowing that thing was anywhere near where I was going to be. For those of you that don't know what a Huntsman spider is, here are some pictures I found on the internet:

So ya.....

Anyway, I went running to the restaurant because I literally couldn't get away fast enough. Of course the closer I get to the guys I see they are laughing, because they've been able to see me for a while. I explain what is wrong, just saying there is a big spider because at the time I didn't know what kind it was. Both Dave and Matt rolled their eyes, Dave asking Matt what the chances were that it was as big as I said it was. Matt said that there was no way, and he would deal with it so Dave wandered off to get some more drinks. As we approached our bungalow, from the ground I pointed up to the second level and showed Matt that we could see the spider through the curtain, and that I in fact was not making it up. Matt's response? "I'm not touching that!!".... so I ran off to get help. I didn't get far, as Dave was on his way over to see if we needed help. The both stood on the ground looking up, trying to figure out exactly how to deal with this. They went inside, found a container I had brought with cookies, and decided to catch the spider with it. I stayed on the ground yelling as I heard them banging around. It was a Glad square container, one of the sandwich sized ones, and the spider was too big for it :( I kept yelling to see if it was dead, and they kept banging around trying to catch it. After a couple seconds of silence I asked if it had been killed, and they told me it had. I demanded proof...obviously. They then had to admit that it was too fast, but they had chased it out of the bungalow under the thatch roof. This was unacceptable to me, as I was convinced that it was in fact running away to get all it's other 8 legged freak friends to come back and exact it's revenge. 

The boys, sure that the problem was sufficiently dealt with, left to get their beer and come back to hang out on our patio, because I wasn't going to be able to sleep. I sat on the couch unable to move until they came back. Matt then had to come in the house and wait for me to get in my pjs, and then ensure that once I got on the bed I was completely engulfed in the mosquito netting with no possible points of entry for the spider, or exit for me. I still basically laid perfectly still for the rest of the evening, terrified that an army of gigantic beasts was on its way. Not to mention there was a rager of a party on the beach that kept me awake. 

Turns out that Easter in Madagascar is quite the party. Everyone arrives at the beach on Saturday and begins to party - and I do mean party - around noon. It's basically rave music for the next 24 hours. Sunday morning has a lovely brunch and fancy breakfast, and the party continues. Those that can't do the whole weekend spend the whole day Sunday at the beach. I seriously couldn't believe it. When we rolled out of the resort on Sunday after breakfast, the amount of people on the road walking to the beach meant that it took us an extra 1.5 hours to get home. You simply couldn't drive. 

All in all it was a lovely weekend. A little expensive for where we are, I believe our bill for the two nights was 1.2 million Ariary, which is about $600.00. That was a little hard to swallow when we only spent $25 a night at Le Recif, just up the beach. And Le Recif had solar power so we had fans all night - and most importantly, I didn't have an incident with a spider. That being said, it's probably the "fanciest" place we have found in a relatively close proximity and it made for a great weekend out of camp. 

A Different Kind of Christmas

I know it's March - but my first time being away from home for the bulk of the holiday season deserves some recognition I figure.

The Christmas season started here in Madagascar around the middle of November. I was happily shocked when I walked in to ShopRite (one of the local grocery stores) and there was a large Christmas Tree lit up and surrounded by toys right in the entry way of the store. Not only that, but there were many new things in the store that I have never seen here; things that we would normally get at home no problem. It was a big day! I of course called Matt hollering about the amazing discovery - he pretended to be as enthusiastic as I was, and agreed that we could buy a tree and put up decorations.

We also then had the wonderful idea to introduce our friends here to our traditions back at home. We had to do a little different, but they turned out to be fantastic. I don't think Matt and I have ever decorated our tree by ourselves. We have always involved friends or family. This year was just us and it felt a little strange. Luckily our friends Alex and Dave came over just as we were finishing and we decided to make angels for it. Matt and I did a great job but unfortunately it died a horrible death in which the glue couldn't hold up to the constant barrage of air conditioning. We put up lights in the all the windows - something Matt won't even do for me in Canada! - and had a great time bringing a little bit of Christmas here.

Taadaa! You'll notice our sad, mostly decapitated angel on the top

Alex, Dave and Miles putting their angel on the tree

Alex and Dave's much more sturdy angel. You can tell because
of all his muscles..obviously

Another amazing (to me) discovery is that Boney M., the creators of my most cherished Christmas album, are very popular here. So I know many of you complain when the radio stations start playing Christmas music right after Remembrance Day and play it through the New Year - quit complaining! At least it varies! I was in my glory, but someone like Matt, who only listens to Boney M. because I love them so much, was not impressed with them only playing Boney M. for two straight months.

2014 would have been our 10th (!!!) annual 'Lisa and Matt Christmas Party'. Can you believe that?! 10 years! I was very upset that we wouldn't be hosting that this year, and then realized that we could still do it, we'd just do it here! So we invited everyone over and I went to town baking all my typical Christmas baking. We had sugar cookies, peanut butter blossoms, shortbread, gingersnaps (thanks to Kent who brought me back Molasses), rice krispie squares (thanks again to Kent, who brought me back marshmallows), goofballs, and I even ventured into the land of making my own caramel corn. To top it off we had a hot chocolate and latte bar, and as per tradition everyone left with their own little package of baking. We didn't play games this year, instead we all curled up and watched Christmas movies. We started with the classic 'How the Grinch Stole Christmas' cartoon, then watched 'Elf' and 'Arthur Christmas'. We were going to then watch 'A Christmas Story' and 'National Lampoons Christmas Vacation', but as per usual there was a bit too much Baileys in the hot chocolate and no one had any more attention to pay to movies. It was a fantastic night!

The stockings I made for Matt and I. 

Merry Christmas from Matt

Look at those pretty lights! We had them on the front window as well. Hooray!

My scrapbooking stuff even made it here! CTMH treat bags

Hot Chocolate Bar

All the baking! 

I promise, Ryan was having a good time. 

Nom Nom Nom

Our youngest guest! 

Several of our friends here were not going to be able to make it home for Christmas, some for the first time in their lives. This made me very sad. So we decided to give them a full blown Canadian Christmas Dinner. I know many of you have seen our sad little turkey that wasn't......thank goodness I also bought some chickens. Again we invited everyone over, I believe we ended up with 18 people! Matt and I worked all day prepping and cooking and we put out quite the feast! Turkey, chicken, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, roasted carrots, stuffing, buns, gravy, and then apple and pumpkin pies for dessert. We even found Christmas crackers, and once we got everyone seated around a huge table, we showed everyone how those worked. Matt and I were the only ones that had ever done them - and the few Malagasy friends that joined us thought we were nuts! We even made it a requirement that everyone wear their paper crowns. So much fun!!

After the meal, I was surprised by our very generous friends who bought me a chair that I had wanted since I moved here. It is a lovely bamboo recliner - perfect for sitting in the yard and reading my b...I mean doing my homework. It was so kind and very unexpected.

Matt and then left two days later to start our journey home for the holidays. We had planned a two night layover in London, as it's Matt's favourite city and we'd never seen it at Christmas. I can definitely say it did not disappoint! It's quite a magical city. This visit we stayed just outside of Covent Garden, in the 7 dials in a lovely hotel. We walked Trafalgar Square, St. James park, saw the changing of the guard, went to the Hyde Park Winter Wonderland, and drank copious amounts of coffee. Well, I did anyway...At the Hyde Park Winter Wonderland there were huts that served hot drinks with alcohol. Hot chocolate and Baileys with whipped cream and chocolate sprinkles?? Yes Please! We also tasted chestnuts roasted on an open fire for the first time --- belch! Do not recommend. We also saw The Book of Mormon. That is seriously one of the funniest things I have seen in my entire life. We spent 2 hours laughing so hard that our cheeks and stomach hurt. If you have delicate sensibilities then don't go see it - mostly because the people you go with don't want to deal with you being all offended.....it's seriously amazing and actually has an incredible message.  We walked Trafalgar Square, St. James park, saw the changing of the guard, went to the Hyde Park Winter Wonderland, and drank copious amounts of coffee. Well, I did anyway. The weather was quite nice - though we were very chilly. It was above zero, but nothing like what we had been experiencing in the middle of summer in Madagascar. Canada was going to be fun....

Trafalgar Square

The London Eye

My tasty Baileys drink

 St. James Park might be my favourite place in London

This is what London looks like a week before Christmas

Regent Street

A lovely fair we found. So beautiful

Ready for a night on the town!

The Book of Mormon! Prince of Wales Theatre

After London it was time to come home. We picked up our rental car at the airport and decided what better way to arrive home then to stop and surprise Matt's sister and her family. We literally drive past their place on the way home from the airport and it seemed almost silly not too. So we pulled up and knocked on the door unannounced at 7:00 p.m. on a Saturday and our nephew Jack, and niece Coralynn come to the door and lift up the blinds to see who it is. It took a minute and then Jack started hollering "AUNTIE LISA'S HERE!!!!". We had to remind them to actually let us in, and the first thing Jack said was "Why are you here??". It was exactly the reaction I had hoped for. We caught them right in the middle of the pre-Christmas purge and thoroughly enjoyed completely distracting the kids from whatever they were supposed to be doing. We got a tour of their newly cleaned rooms and the play room, and then Jack sat in the middle of the stairs asking why we had to leave and why we couldn't sleep over.  With much assurances that'd we see him soon we headed home.

I finally understand what it was like for Matt all those times coming home. The closer you get the harder it is to sit still. I have never been away for that long and I couldn't wait to see the dogs and sit on my couch and just be home. The dogs did not disappoint either, being so excited to see us that Toby just eventually flopped over on his back and wiggled, and Clutch couldn't stop running in circles, being with each of us just long enough to get a small pet on the head.

The next 2 weeks went by in a blur. We were able to see A Christmas Carol at the Citadel with Nikki and Nolan, after a lovely dinner at the Hardware Grill. They even surprised us and picked us up in a limo! So much family time, and as many friends as we could get to see in between all the family commitments that typically accompany Christmas.  We spent New Years with Niels, Amanda and Kevin in Canmore as per usual and had a fantastic time. The dogs weren't huge fans of the fire works but they survived and didn't even hate us in the morning!

Champagne and limos on the way to The Christmas Carol. 

Matching onesies that we found in London.
Aren't we fashionable!

Coralynn and I, Christmas Day

Doesn't Matt look happy to be back in winter?
Sleigh ride at Christmas Reflections at Fort Edmonton Park

My two favourite nieces and I. 

Lunch at the Grizzly Paw - our favourite eatery in Canmore

On our way to a day of shopping (ladies) and beer drinking (gentlemen)

Seriously - can they get any more beautiful? I love the mountains

 Then all of a sudden it was time to head back. It was such a strange feeling. I was sad to be leaving home - very, very sad.....but once we were on that first plane I was looking forward to getting back home, and back to routine. I loved all the time with family and friends, but there is so much guilt when you leave because you know that there are people you didn't get to see, and people you'd have loved to see more of. We put special emphasis on family time, allowing a lot of visits, a lot of time with the kids, and a lot of time with the dogs. This is what we wanted, and it was fantastic though exhausting. I'm hoping I'll be a bit more of a pro at only being home for short periods of time next Christmas - that is if we get to be home for Christmas next year.