WOOP!

So last night we had a wine tasting. We do every Sunday. The adults from both of the families showed up. And it was nice, it was nice to have some conversation in English, but it was enjoyable in a kind of way that felt like I was with my extended family. Making funny and vaguely innapropriate jokes like (said in a scottish accent) "Watch out, the first time we came out here we had 1 kid and now we have 3!" this was of course said to the Canadian couple with one baby. And there was a Scottish Gran-dad that brought over some Scotch from his distillery and poured me maybe way too much of it. And there were also Canadian Grand Parents that were encouraging the whole grandchild thing, it was very cute.

It's funny how when you're traveling the country, you size up a country by the few people you meet. Like this is the first time I've met Scottish people and they are very friendly and humorous and golf a lot! (there's a golf course on the property). I'd like to assume that most Scotts are a rowdy out going people..mostly because I have a lot of Scottish in my blood. Anyways they have a daughter named Olivia that's probably about 3 and she is THE cutest thing I've seen in a while.
But more along the lines of judging a country by the few people you meet. All the English famlies I've met so far have been friendly but in that fabricated, painful, fake smile sort of way. And mostly didn't have any interest in talking to me. Unlike the Canadian Family here and the other family who shout my name when ever I see them and have a genuine interest in why I'm here blah blah blah.

And another thing. Why do I always feel like I have to prove myself to Canadians? It seems that when I hang out with them in Canada or when I meet them while traveling it's always "I've spent a lot of time every summer at our cottage in Canada" and "I'm from Ohio" and they respond with something like "Well at least you're not from like Texas or something" and I smile and say "uuuh yeah! hahahaha....wait what?" I ended up going along with this whole vague theory that Midwesterners are practically Canadian.....When really there is nothing MORE American than a midwesterner...I think. I think the guy was just trying to say that I don't seem like the usual American snot that you can come across, I guess I appreciate that. But seriously I immediatly put a guard up when ever i meet a Canadian, because I don't want them to think I'm like "them" hahaha, when really I am and I'm ok with that, because we're not that bad really. Plus the guy speaks fluent French and got me out of a couple confusing situation. A nice people those Canadians.

Today the Pool was disgustingly dirty because Frederique (Jean and Michelles Daughter) had a picnic and there were like 30 something people here. And there must have been almost all of them in the pool at some point yesterday. It usually takes me about an hour to clean, today it took 2. It'll probably be like that next week when there are 10 kids here, unlike the 4 that are here now and barely make a noise above a sniffle. Kids with Scottish accents are sooo damn cute. And apparently the Scottish accent is the one The French have the WORST time understanding, so that's fun.

I went into Jarze today. Rode a bike into town and took some photos. It was good exercise and it was good to get off the property for a while. It was a beautiful day and I got some great photo's. And a nice addition to my tan. The above photo is what it looks like all the way into town, which is about a 10 minute bike ride. The town is very small... very small, it takes about 3 minutes t bike the length of the town to get to another wheat field.

Also. My ipod is dead. It died today from unnatural causes. For about a month now it's been fishy by only putting sound into one ear of ANY set of head phones you put into it, that is unless you want to hold it at a certain angle while you listen to music. But Today I was cleaning out the filthy foot bath that you step into before you go into the pool and *plop* my ipod dives right in. at first it showed no change and continued to play the podcast I was listening to...theeeen it froze up, told me it was charging and then diiied. so I might be shopping for a new one when i get back home. So it looks like I'm going to be left to my thoughts when it comes to mowing the lawn and cleaning the pool..no more portable music device for Leigh. R.I.P ipod. I bought that thing by saving up money from my 5.25 per/hr job at North Park. it took about a month and a half. Then my sisters both got one the following Christmas...I'm not jealous, I earned mine. It lasted me a good 3 and a half years...and it really only died because I killed it, not because it was a piece of shit. Yeah.

Tomorrow I have almost no work to do. Gaaaaah, I'm dreading it. My Schedule on days like that usually look like this.

7:45 am wake up
8:00 Start Cleaning pools
9:30 Finish Cleaning pools
9:45 Go back to sleep till about Noon
12:00 Get up and walk around the property, seeing if some one needs me
1:00 Eat some kind of lunch
2:00 maybe nap, maybe tan, maybe read, maybe watch tv I can't understand.
3:00 find something to do till Dinner time
6:30 Eat Dinner
7:00 Go on line and Blog, chat, what have you
12:00 go to bed

I actually do have to clean one of the cottages for Saturday so maybe I'll start doing that tomorrow....and if the guests aren't around I can start mowing the lawn again...yaaaaaaaaay!

Here's the address I'm at. Sorry it took me so long to give it to you all, but I didn't realize that they didn't have street names or numeric address's out here in isolation town.

Leigh Culbertson
La Vary
49140 Jarze
France

it takes anywhere from 3 to 5 days for stuff to get here and I'm only at this address until the 18th so I suggest sending it soon if you are so inclined.

Much love

Leigh