Italia

Wow. Been way too long by the looks of it. About time to wrap up my voyage to Italy. It was an interesting week here for sure.

So I left last Wednesday, leaving Lyon and all the tasty french goodness in the rearview mirror.. if trains had rearview mirrors. A good 12 hrs later I arrived at my first stop, Florence! It was basically a little slice of America with some italians sprinkled on top. Very pretty but wayyyy too many tourists, specifically Americans. WE are soooo annoying as tourists. I thought it was just a stereotype, but no. You can pick us out a mile away, and still probably hear us as well. Though to be fair, its mostly annoying northerners and midwestern accents. So yea, but Florence was cool. Rained, and rained and rained. But that was this whole week really. Stayed at the best hostel ever. Within two minutes of walking in I had met three cool guys who I would spend the next days with. And over these next few days I had to have meet close to a hundred people.. many frenchies as well. So home away from home a little bit. Most nights were spent having some beers and chilling in the courtyard just getting to know people from all over the world. I didn't want to leave... but, Rome was calling. So I went to Rome. Wasn't impressed. Stayed in two really tiny hostels that were sausage fests. However, one day was interesting because there I was.. looking at some old thing, and I look to my left, and it is a guy from the hostel in Florence I had stayed at. Love small worlds. We decided to hang out together the rest of the day. Then we're waiting in line for the Colosseum and we see three more guys that were at our hostel in Florence.

So I get the heck out of Rome and down on to Napoli, headquarters of the good ole Mafia.. You pretty much don't go out after dark. But Pompeii is here and that was cool. Not as many dead people in the streets like I thought though.. bummer. However I did run into even more people. For instance when I walked into this hostel I saw a guy I had met in line at a Museum two cities before.. last week. So we hung out, then today on the train to Pompeii I saw the three same dentist guys I had run into at the Colosseum haha. I think they're CIA... yeah. But besides Pompeii and the other archaeological sites Napoli doesn't have a lot to offer. I did meet a really cool Russia chick at the station. She was lost, I was nice, then boom, spent the day together exploring. And now I'm back in the Hostel chilling, about to head to the common room see if I can't meet the last few foreigners of the trip, maybe get some pizza up the street from this mafia restaurant. So yea, that was the very very abridged version of this week. Looking forward to getting back to France! Ciaoooo.

J'arrive

Well... I'm here! I've successfully escaped from crazy family and am living with my friend Quentin in Lyon. His family is amazing. Ridiculously nice and good hosts. The food here is just as good and there is more of it. Finally I'm sampling some drinks in France. I had just water before so its nice for a change! There are also two dogs here which are crazzzyy.. they're love in life is to eat and chase tennis balls. If I don't see one, usually two, in their mouth something is wrong. They're dumb but adorable haha.

Yesterday Quentin took me around downtown for a little bit. Lyon is a very pretty city around two rivers and mountains. So I think I'm going to try to find one more climbing expedition before I leave :)

Edit: Started writing this earlier but not motivated so I'll finish lataa. In the mean time watch some Eddie Izzard!

:) Just about covers it

Man oh man things are looking up. This past weekend was nothing short of amazing I think.

Friday was a day full of trains for me. I went to meet the girl I'm seeing here, in Montpellier down on coast for the day. I wasn't going to be able to because I didn't think I'd have enough time but things always seem to work out for the best. We met at the station and she showed me the city... we spent a good part of the day looking for a park to just relax in but couldn't find one that wasn't 'hyperbondé'. But nevertheless, good times were had and I was sad to say goodbye. I then headed to Marseille for the weekend. So it was... take train from my town to Avignon (40min), wait, take train to Montpellier (2hr)...zippiddy zip day goes by.. then anotherrr train to Marseille (and another 2hrs). Can get expensive, but I'm starting to not buy as many tickets as before and take my chances with the conductors.

SO, got to Marseille and took about 3 hours to find the place I was staying. In fact, its only a 10 minute walk from the station I just decided to choose the wrong direction. Typical fashion for me. I stayed with the same couple I had couchsurfed with a month ago. In France it is not polite if you come to someone's house empty handed so I stopped by a bakery and picked up a baguette and some mille feuille <-- delicious delicious scrumptious cake.

Saturday we headed out early to the Calanques to do some climbing! The hike was a long one from where we parked but it was worth it. It was my first multi-pitch climb... the cliff was probably around 500-600ft, and over 1,000 from the water, which made for beautiful views. So we reviewed a little bit at the bottom for how to set up the anchors and belay someone below you (normally when you belay they are climbing above so its different). As amazing as the climb was I did poop my pants twice... or at least I almost did. Two close calls: The first was a rock slide that happened just to the left of us. Verrrry unnerving because you're hundreds of feet up hanging off the side of a cliff and you hear what sounds like thunder with nowhere to go. The second was when I was climbing and took a fall... but when I fell my leg got tangled in the rope on the way down and when I stopped it flipped me upside down and I almost fell out of my harness :/ At that point I began to get a little nervous because that particular section was very difficult climbing and I didn't want to fall again haha.

But after we reached the top we hiked alllll the way down to the water to this little bay with beach shacks and boats and people laying out. And it was there I witnessed my first nude beach in France! it didn't disappoint, though it was quite awkward at first just because it caught me off guard. We took a dip and the water was like the titanic minus life preservers and not enough boats.. oh and the sinking ship. But it was a nice break from the heat. Speaking of which, I got toasted... and walked through a million prickly bushes just to aggravate it :) The rest of the day was spent climbing a shorter cliff but much much harder, on the other side of the water. However there was a peculiar site, one I haven't seen climbing --v

The hike out was again brutal, especially being a lobster by this point. But ahhh it felt so good to climb again after two months off.

Now I'm back 'home', Sunday. It is mother's day here so some people were over, but I just avoided them and took a nap. I needed one after the train I was on decided to pass my town and go to Avignon... so I had to wait 2 hrs before I could catch yet another train back to my town then walk that oh-so-lovely mile or so to my house :) But hey, I'm leaving Thursday.. and I get to see homegirl again Tuesday so I'm not complaining! So until then, cheers :)

La Feria!

Oh man, j'ai la flemme parfois, et à l'heure actuelle, j'en ai. Mais je suis de bonne humeur encore :)

This weekend was the best I've had by far in France. The festival in Nîmes was just ridiculous and crazy. Basically a weekend of enjoying friends (which I now actually have some here haha), drinks, music and excessive amounts of dancing.

Europeans love to party, and party with everyone. Especially this guy. --v

All in all, in our group, there was me, and English girl, and a bajillion germans. The communication consisted of speaking Frenglemandish. Going back and forth from three languages is interesting, but I loved it. I had met some of them the week before at my friend's going away party, but there were a lot of new faces. Saturday we spent the day eating in the gardens over looking the town, or just walking around until later at night when the real fun starts. I was sad however I didn't get to see a bullfight. None of the girls wanted to pay :( It was even in the old arena from Roman times so it would have been really amazing. I think after seeing the photo of the matador having a bull's horn rammed through his chin and out his mouth had something to do with it.

The sleeping arrangement was.. tight. One bedroom with 6 or 7 of us in there.. got pretty toasty. We were staying at one of the German girl's apartment where she is au pairing. The family wasn't there but all their friends were, and would come and go at all times of the day and night. You wouldn't be surprised to walk into the living room to see five new strangers, dancing to techno, smoking and carrying on. I got a very big hippy vibe from the house. And the all bio kitchen kind of solidified that.

However, the thing I think that made the weekend really special to me was meeting a certain girl the first night. Well, re-meeting I should say, I knew her from the weekend before. One minute we were dancing and the next, bada bing. Romantic european movie moments commenced lol. Ultimately ending of course with the kiss goodbye at the train station. (insert sappy music). So I'm kind of in a pickle with that now, I don't know the next time I can see her because she does not live close to me. Still trying to figure out what to do but we'll see where it goes! Kind of relying on facebook for communicating.

So now I'm back in L'isle sur Sorgue, just chillin. Got word that the climbing expedition is a go for this weekend! Still stoked of course. Expect many a pictures.

Oh, and remember that guy Jean-Luc I was talking about? Here is a video. Can you guess which one he'd be?

Whew it worked! Just testing out a video I snuck on their computer somehow? and for some reason? and good news my charger is on its way so i can post pics n video and all that again.

Gettin excited for this weekend! oh and the fact that Matt has appendicitis haha. i want to show him my scar from when I had it to scare him but the mom won't let me. Oh well.

Bull dookie

I figure about time for an update. I'm also writing this with the taste of window cleaner in my mouth... Matt thought it would be hilarious to spray me in the face while eating lunch haha. Of course that caused me to deliver a beating on him as much as I could legally do.. then spray him relentlessly. I then went to the bathroom to rinse my eyes and he locked me inside. I think he won that one. I know where he sleeps though. Dealing with 14 year old boys is no easy task. I've givin up on the english lessons. But to be honest I could care less at this point. Oh, and the mom is back to being a sneaky you know what. Its two days in a row now she has walked right in front of me on her way to the gym and didnt ask if I wanted to come... knowing full well I paid 100 euros for a membership there. The ONLY thing that has kept me from absolutely exploding on her in a frenglish tirade is the fact that she brings home tasty treats that put me in a sugar coma.

But hey, two more weeks and I'm living with my french friend in Lyon and having a blast again. This past weekend I went to Nîmes again to see off my american friend. Had a chance to meet some german girls who I'm going to meet there this coming weekend for the festival! Its one of those where bulls run through the streets and there are bunch of games going on. There is one that I want to do where a bull chases you through a pool and if you make it to the other side you win money. I say this now, we'll see when the time comes.

Also can't wait til this Mistral ends. 50 mph winds alll day everyday is getting old. Though it did cause me to notice all the trees here. I couldnt help but notice them because its me who has to sweep the leaves up. But still, they are very pretty. Id say perfect but there are no elves baking cookies inside them.

Languedoc

Two to Nil. That was the score of my dictation battle with Matt. I'm just one of many tutors he has. The other day his French tutor came. I was surprised that he was struggling a little bit with his own language. So I challenged him to some dictation and we played best of one lol, until he lost. Then it was best of three. Needless to say I spanked him ;) But I write this because I'm noticing first hand what Ive heard... that the French are losing their language with the youth. I think all the modes of technology is to blame, like text and chat. It tends to be the way they are the most exposed to their language written down. If you see it, it looks like they're typing half the words with invisible ink.

Yesterday I headed down to Martique on the coast to work on the boat with the dad. We sailed it to a dry dock and spent the day scraping, scrubbing and painting. I forgot how gross barnacles are alive... and how sharp. Jean-Luc was there as well! You probably aren't excited like me but he his one of the most hilarious people i've met. i have video but i dont know when i'll be able to upload the next one... freaking chargerrr.

Oh, also got my first french haircut today, and i gotta say, the hairs fell the same way they do in america. It was a little awkward because I thought Valerie was taking me to a salon, but nope... definitely some lady's basement.. a basement with the little toddlers staring at me or trying to eat the hair on the floor haha. And once again, I left somewhere without paying. I felt bad when I remembered and ran back. I'm surprised no one has yelled at me yet?