Day 1: We landed in Mauritius at around 6am on July 12th after almost 24 hours of travel. It felt great to finally get out of the cramped plane. When I got to baggage claim, I was sad to find my bag hadn't reached Mauritius with me, but they said they'd send it the next morning so hopefully it's not that big of a deal. We had to wait at the airport for 3 hours to get picked up with the other volunteers who landed at around 9am, so I decided to go for a jog after being stuck on a plane for so long. I ran out of the airport to the direction of the ocean about 2.5 miles away. I was hoping to be able to reach it but I ran into a fence that surrounded the airport property. I ran along the fence until I found a door that I went through to exit the airport area. Outside was a pack of stray dogs, which is very common in Mauritius. They didn't seem dangerous, but there's always a chance of rabies and they were barking and coming towards me. I ran around them and luckily they didn't follow me, but since I didn't really know how they'd act, I was a little worried. I kept running, through some sugar cane fields and farmland, but couldn't find a straight path to the ocean so I turned around and headed back. When I got back to the door in the fence this time, it was being guarded, so I couldn't go back in that way. So I kept running but I got to a dead end with the barb wire fence blocking me from getting back into the airport. Luckily there was a metal bar sticking out of the wall next to the fence and I was able to climb up and hop the fence to get back into the airport. Luckily I wasn't spotted and I got back safely. After I got back Lissy (our program director), and Mel and Miken (brothers who live in Mauritius who will be hosting 2 of the volunteers) picked us and the other volunteers up and we went across the island to Albion where Mel and Miken live. We just stopped by there so Miken could lend me some clothes for our meeting with the U.S. Ambassador the next day since all my nice clothes were in my suitcase which I didn't have. We also stopped to check out the small beautiful beach in Albion. Then we went to our bungalow in Flic-en-Flac where we'll all be staying for the week before moving in with our host families. We spent the rest of the afternoon at the Flic-en-Flac beach, a large popular beach with beautiful, clear, sparkling water and soft sand. Our group has gotten along really well, all getting to know each other and having a lot of fun hanging out. We spent the evening talking and hanging out before the jet lag got the better of most of us and we went to sleep. Day 2: We woke up early the next morning to bus into the capital, Port Louis, to visit the U.S. Ambassador. I woke up extra early to go for a run on the beach and it was incredible. I was running as the sun rose and it just made me feel so free and happy. There's something about being on the beach as the sun rises that just leaves me in awe of the world. The Indian Ocean stretching out into the distance, then sun sprinkling the early morning sky with color and the knowledge that I am on a tiny island hundreds of miles from any other land put me in a meditative mood, even while running. It was a great way to start the day. When I got back I cooked eggs for the house as everyone else woke up and came down to eat. The meeting with the ambassador was very interesting and informative. She talked to us a lot about the Mauritius culture and school systems and things that we couldn't have known from Google. After that meeting we went to eat at Miken and Mel's food shop, "Ken's", which sold a Mauritian specialty called "Boulettes", which are similar to Chinese dumplings. They were really good. We ate out by the water before getting back on the bus to head back to Flic-en-Flac.