and the journey continues.......

Life in France has become strangely normal, after being here for 2 and a half months. Most of the time, life is pretty mundane. I have gotten used to twisting my thoughts around so that I can say the things that I want to say in French. I have gotten used to waking up to the sound of roosters and suprisingly, I have even learned to live closely with spiders. (don’t know how long that one will last). But then……there are moments that are very much out of the ordinary, moments where France comes alive and I feel as if I am in some kind of weird dream. Last night was one of them….

So, last night, Cyril, Dominique, and I went to this town fair for dinner. Apparently, its something they do every summer. It’s a small town so everybody knows everybody. We got there kinda late (being farmers we work kinda late) and were starving. We all talked about how we were going to eat right away when we got there and then afterward, walk around and look at all the booths and see what people were selling. But, if there’s one thing I have learned about French culture its this : Friends are FAR more important than food. (which is kind of strange because the French are extremely passionate about food.) So as we arrived, starving bellies and all, we ran into some people that Dominique knows. (Surprise, Surprise ! I’m saying this with a sarcastic tone) So we greeted everyone, which meant we all went around and gave air kisses to each person in the group and then proceeded to chat for a while. This same ritual occured, at least 5 times before we actually got food. Making it an 11 pm dinner !

There was a moment last night that, to me, was magical. Surrounded by beautiful old buildings, the town had come alive with people gallore eating, drinking, and in general just having a good time. Then, I looked down one of the streets and there was a man playing the accordian and what of course was he playing ? He played a song from Amelie ( my most favorite French movie in the world ! ! for those of you who don’t know). And it was one of those moments that just made me love France.

The rest of the night was pretty fun. Cyril and Dominique have a lot of friends from the netherlands and so all night long I heard French in one ear and Dutch in the other. I was adventurous and ate something I had never eaten before…..I believe it was cow intestine. Dominique asked me and one of her Dutch friends if we wanted to try some. The Dutch friend declined…..I said « pourquoi pas ? » (why not ?) After that, Dominique exclaimed…. « see, Americans are just MUCH more adventurous ! ». I made my country look good last night ! After that, another family arrived, who also had some wwoofers, like myself. After realising that he was American, Dominique brought him over to me and said «Kelly, he’s an American like you, now you guys can speak American together ». Dominique loves to find people who speak English, so that I will then talk to them in English. I think it’s so that she can just listen to us talk, even though she doesn’t understand English all that well. To her….I am something very exotic.

Well, it’s strange to think that in just a little over a week, I will be back in Michigan. I think I will feel the same about leaving as I did coming here. There are things that make me want to go back home, things that I miss, but on the other hand, there are things I am really going to miss about France.

Until next time……

Kelly