Started typing this post multiple times and kept getting cut off. Here we go again!
Sorry I've been out of action for about a week, but we (thought we) didn't have internet access for a while there. Turns out that Freebox (the company they use for internet access) should stick to internet access and let people set up their own networks: wireless and this weird USB connexion Pascale uses to connect her computer weren't working, but as soon as I connected my laptop by USB, everything ran smoothly.
Anyway, here's what you missed...
Kelly s'en Va
Kelly was supposed to leave on Wednesday, but finally received an email from her host on Tuesday saying that he wouldn't be there and that she'd have to come Thursday. Fortunately, Christian took her to Le Buisson to change her ticket and (I don't think) they charged her anything for the exchange because she made it before the scheduled departure.
Of course we'd already planned a goodbye dinner, so Noriko prepared a Japanese dish and Jacques came by to say farewell to Kelly. Oh, and by "a Japanese dish" I meant curry prepared using a Japanese curry mix and (perhaps) cooking style.
Thursday morning Christian, Noriko, and I accompanied Kelly to the train station, where a bus picked her up. Hey, don't look at me--comprennez-vous les français?
Les Vélos Sont Dur
Apparently an uncle of Christian's is quite ill, so Friday evening Pascale and he went to Bordeaux (I believe) for the weekend, leaving Noriko and I to fend for ourselves in this strange land.
With the parents gone for the weekend, of course we had to have a party. By have a party, of course I mean plant strawberry plants in the garden like they'd asked us to, check on the animals, and take the bicycles for a spin.
About two o'clock we broke out the bikes, only to discover that the tires were flat on one and the seat too high on the other. Luckily, I'm a genius, so I solved those problems right away, and we were on our way.
The trip started out pretty well, being downhill and all that, but about a half kilometer into the ride we discovered that--lo and behold--France has hills, and fairly large ones at that, considering they have these things called valleys and whatnot. Also noteworthy at this point was the fact that we had to go another 9.5 km to get to Le Bugue.
The next two kilometers were uphill, followed by a short downhill stint, and a bit more uphill. After that it was pretty much downhill to the Bugue. I'm not gonna lie, rolling downhill for that long a period is pretty fantastic, especially in scenic Dordogne, not that I'm shamelessly plugging for the tourist bureau or anything.
Arriving at Le Bugue, we headed toward Intermarché, a run-of-the-mill super market, because Christian'd told us that we could find a wine-tasting-and-sales-type place there. We wandered around looking out of place for a while, trying to comprehend the massive variety of alcohol in the world, until one of the reps asked us if he could help. We tried five or six different wines from the region and got to practice our French. Half-an-hour (or some equally arbitrary amount of time less than two hours) later, we headed out with three bottles of wine and some little tin of some duck product that Noriko got for Christian and Pascale (I think). She bought one of the bottles of wine.
For those of you who're good at math, you've realised by now that I bought two bottles of wine, obviously with the best of intentions--no, seriously, one's a gift for Christian and Pascale, and I'm pretty sure I'm not allowed to bring wine back to the States, so the other's for us to drink before I leave.
Those of you who're good at math and logic and can hang onto a thought for more than 10 seconds have realised something else: six kilometres downhill heading to the Bugue means six going UP on the way back. Ouch. And I mean that--my rear still hurts because of that accursed seat.
On the cool side of things, though, we found the opening to a small cave along the roadside, and I wandered in to explore a little, though I'd left my flashlight at the house, so I couldn't go too far. As a keepsake from this cool little moment, I've got a few photos and a couple of exemplary stones from the cave. w007 ^^
Ils Reviennent et Je Suis Malade
Last night, for no apparent reason, I started to feel ill, possibly because the pigeonnier is colder than I'd like and I road a bike 20 km or so. Or something like that.
Anyway, today I was feeling kinda under the weather, which is saying something since it rained most of the day again today, but I'm doing fine and will probably be ready to continue working tomorrow. Yet again I was unable to make it to Mass this week, but I have a feeling that He'll understand if I didn't want to hop on that bike for another 20km trip today.
This evening Pascale and Christian returned as I was asleep on one of the beds they use like sofas here. We had a nice dinner, and I came upstairs to write this. Should be writing again tomorrow, hopefully with some retrospective stuff about the first (more than) half of my trip and more character descriptions (if I can think of anything interesting to say). Time to watch Doctor Who...
Have a good one ^^
Showing posts with label Kelly. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Kelly. Show all posts
Sunday, June 8, 2008
Monday, June 2, 2008
No Church Again
...and this time I didn't even listen to the readings or read up on Islam or do anything spiritual to make up for it; I'll have to take some meditative-focus-type time during the week. (It's not so bad, but I am mildly superstitious that I have a bad week when I don't go to Mass.)
La Japonaise Arrive
Yesterday was fairly laid back, being a Sunday. I just managed to haul myself upstairs by noon, so we could go pick up our new arrival, Noriko, at Le Buisson. Considering the fact that I'm travelling to Japan soon and there's a tri-cultural mix about to occur, I was a little uneasy as to what would happen: would we all understand each other and get along well? would I be expected to speak Japanese at some point? would something cultural make the ride awkward for all of us?
Turns out I do take after my mother somewhat, because my worrying was entirely unfounded. Noriko arrived and everyone exchanged bisous--the traditional French cheek-kissing gesture you (probably) all know about--and introductions went briefly and well. An uneventful car-ride later, we'd had a brief chat and discovered that, in fact, Noriko has already been in France for eleven months babysitting in Paris.
Rien à Dire
Which is to say, that I have nothing to say, really. Kelly, Noriko, and I had a nice conversation yesterday after lunch and, all in all, we're getting along pretty well. I feel like I'm speaking enough French now and all that jazz, too, though there'd been a brief slump about a week after my arrival (maybe the end of that "honeymoon phase" Daniel wrote about in his journal).
Japanese accents are a little more interesting in French, and Noriko's keeps throwing me off--I either anticipate Japanese because of the sound quality or I just don't understand at first. This normally happens with short phrases that come out of the blue, fortunately, and not all the time, though I occasionally do a mental double-take when listening to her. The mélange, though, is feeding my linguistic curiosity, which I'd count as good (wouldn't you?).
Today was rainy so we didn't do too much work, though we de-mossed the well and did a little weeding. Kelly and Noriko painted some (new) chairs, and I did some research for Christian and Pascale regarding how they can improve their web-presence. Other than that, we basked in the sunlight during a pleasant conversation this afternoon and enjoyed a great lunch together, too.
Les Personnages - Christian
Christian's nearly sixty, but looks like he's closer to my dad's age. He grew up in Paris, learning to cook there--not only did he work at a few restaurants for his first jobs, but he actually attended a professional cooking school there, too. Sometime in that mispent youth of the late sixties--he and his friend Jacques talked to us about the classic free love generation outlook on youth--he took up photography and he seems to be pretty good at it. Friday his photo club met here at his house in the morning for coffee to plan an exhibition in Sainte-Alvère in August. You might've noticed that I mention him fairly frequently; he's usually our task-master around here, telling us what to do during the day and randomly taking us to the market or to nearby sights.
***
I'll try to post with a little more style later this week, but the main thing today was just to get some thoughts down and work on habit-forming (y'know, the good kind?).
A Bientot!
La Japonaise Arrive
Yesterday was fairly laid back, being a Sunday. I just managed to haul myself upstairs by noon, so we could go pick up our new arrival, Noriko, at Le Buisson. Considering the fact that I'm travelling to Japan soon and there's a tri-cultural mix about to occur, I was a little uneasy as to what would happen: would we all understand each other and get along well? would I be expected to speak Japanese at some point? would something cultural make the ride awkward for all of us?
Turns out I do take after my mother somewhat, because my worrying was entirely unfounded. Noriko arrived and everyone exchanged bisous--the traditional French cheek-kissing gesture you (probably) all know about--and introductions went briefly and well. An uneventful car-ride later, we'd had a brief chat and discovered that, in fact, Noriko has already been in France for eleven months babysitting in Paris.
Rien à Dire
Which is to say, that I have nothing to say, really. Kelly, Noriko, and I had a nice conversation yesterday after lunch and, all in all, we're getting along pretty well. I feel like I'm speaking enough French now and all that jazz, too, though there'd been a brief slump about a week after my arrival (maybe the end of that "honeymoon phase" Daniel wrote about in his journal).
Japanese accents are a little more interesting in French, and Noriko's keeps throwing me off--I either anticipate Japanese because of the sound quality or I just don't understand at first. This normally happens with short phrases that come out of the blue, fortunately, and not all the time, though I occasionally do a mental double-take when listening to her. The mélange, though, is feeding my linguistic curiosity, which I'd count as good (wouldn't you?).
Today was rainy so we didn't do too much work, though we de-mossed the well and did a little weeding. Kelly and Noriko painted some (new) chairs, and I did some research for Christian and Pascale regarding how they can improve their web-presence. Other than that, we basked in the sunlight during a pleasant conversation this afternoon and enjoyed a great lunch together, too.
Les Personnages - Christian
Christian's nearly sixty, but looks like he's closer to my dad's age. He grew up in Paris, learning to cook there--not only did he work at a few restaurants for his first jobs, but he actually attended a professional cooking school there, too. Sometime in that mispent youth of the late sixties--he and his friend Jacques talked to us about the classic free love generation outlook on youth--he took up photography and he seems to be pretty good at it. Friday his photo club met here at his house in the morning for coffee to plan an exhibition in Sainte-Alvère in August. You might've noticed that I mention him fairly frequently; he's usually our task-master around here, telling us what to do during the day and randomly taking us to the market or to nearby sights.
***
I'll try to post with a little more style later this week, but the main thing today was just to get some thoughts down and work on habit-forming (y'know, the good kind?).
A Bientot!
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