sun and sweat

June 21, 2008

Today I feel so much better about this whole experience. Even though I worked all day today, I felt too accomplished, like I had followed instruction completely, and like I was finally getting the hang of everything. I might have helped that I was listening to the Adam Carolla Show all morning and This American Life all afternoon while mowing the lawn. I don’t know what it is. I feel like my first couple of days here was just me experience a bit of culture shock, you never expect it to happen and you don’t know quite how to deal with it, until it’s over, then you can look back and say, “aaaah ok I get why I was freaking out”.

I’m starting to catch on a bit more to the language, I’m a little more confident when it comes to asking how to say something. The kids that live on the property are starting to get to know me more too. Jean Christophe, who’s 19, came up to me and had a brief half French half English conversation about where I’m from, what kind of sports he like’s blah blah blah. The sports came up because I said I was from Chicago and he says “aaah Chicago bulls.” But apparently he likes Rugby and American football better than anything. I tried to express that I didn’t really care about sports much at all, he could probably tell. Then after I was done working I went swimming at the outdoor pool, and after being ambushed by one of the English families that just got here, it ended up just being me and Mary, who’s the other Grand-daughter. She’s 16 and asked me if University is “cool” she said “Celine, (her cousin who’s coming tomorrow) says that you do nothing.” She might not have meant “nothing” but I explained to her that it’s fun but there’s lot’s of studying involved. She taught me the word for Jealous and there were a couple times where she was trying to explain something to me and I was trying to explain something to her and we would both be so confused we’d just laugh. That put me at ease. Then I fell asleep in the sun for a little. Thankfully not too long to get any damage…I don’t think.

I ate really well today because on Saturday’s The Suave’s feed me Lunch and Dinner. They always start dinner with half a melon filled with red wine covered in some sort of sliced meat. I’m not sure quite how to eat it correctly, so when I sat at the table I munched on bread and cheese until I could observe Mr. Suave eat his. The food here is really good. And when the Suave’s feed me, they push a whole lot of food in my face. At first I was reluctant to eat it all, but then I figured I might as well. For lunch today though, Mr. Suave offered me whisky, and I kind of wanted to laugh and say “Whisky?! Don’t you want me to drive a tractor mower later?” I took a little bit of sweet white wine instead, not too much though, or else I’d fall asleep at the wheel ;) . They drink wine for every meal here. So when ever I’m done with my wine I fill my glass up with water pretty quickly so Mr. Suave doesn’t have the time to fill it back up with wine. Heheh. I’m hoping to get out to a vineyard pretty soon and maybe bring some wine back for Bonnie’s 21^st!

So thing’s are looking up. Benedicte is coming in with her daughter who’s bringing a friend tomorrow. Benedicte’s daughter just graduated highschool. I was explaining to Mary today that in England and Australia they call it “college” in America we call it “highschool”…I didn’t bother telling her what we usually call “University”. It’ll be nice to have some English speakers to talk to. Not to mention that Ben is going to be here on Monday, I just need to figure out when we’re picking him up. I told Mary that Ben speaks better French then I do so she’ll be able to communicate with him (us) more efficiently. It’s funny because I think since I’m so used to hearing French spoken, when I hear the families from England talking it takes me a couple moments to figure out that they’re speaking English…that might also be because their accents are so thick.

I still feel the same way about cutting my travel time at the end of the month short. I’m going to try and get a hold of Karen Brooks who is my best friend’s older sister who is practicing law in London right now. Maybe a free place to stay? I just dread having to wander around by myself, having to spend money, and overstaying my capacity.

Well I hope everyone has a lovely day, sorry I don’t have any pictures up here. Maybe when Ben get’s here he’ll have a camera and I’ll take some pictures and load them up.