The Cow Story Or: How Allegra and I Almost Died in France

Disclaimer: If you care a great deal about my health/well-being, maybe don't read this because it might scare you.

Transcribed from my journal 21/09/2010

So. I'm in the country living the country life. After the hard work of the day was done, Allegra and I decided to g for a walk. We made our way down a big hill and into a field. To our left, I thought I spied a bunch of sheep. We walked up to the barbed fire fence surrounding the field and upon further examination discovered that they were actually cows. I think it was mostly my idea, and we were both thirsting after some adventure, so we deiced to shimmy our way under the fence, through some prickly bushes, and a bunch of stinging nettle. Allegra was wearing flip flops. Flips flops! Oww. We finally got to the actual field, take some pictures of ourselves, and approach the cows. But we weren't really paying attention because we were concentrating too hard on not stepping in the very large cow pies. I realized it before Allegra but when we were, I don't know, thirty feet, maybe? away, that all the cows were staring at us and slowly making their way towards us. I nudge Allegra and say "um.. Allegra? The cows are all staring at us." She looks up and now they are trotting directly at us. Allegra starts springing, but something in the back of my head remembered that running from big animals is a bad idea. So I crouch behind this bush thing but quickly discover that cows are smarter than they look and they all know I'm there. So I run as fast i can, directly straight so as to not leave time for the cows (who are charging now, no big deal) to catch up with us. Directly straight is into some sort of thorny berry bush, but we just charge right into it because there's no where else to go and the cows are almost on top of us. We sort of found a place of respite for a little bit, but I was still unsure if we were going to live through this adventure or not. Even though we were surrounded by thorny berry bushes, we had left a trail behind us, and the cows were still sort of edging closer. So Allegra finally plunges ahead of me and we just make our way through those bushes despite the pain. And finally, THANK GOODNESS, we made it back to the fence. Thank goodness we are alive! Oh my gosh. We are soo stupid. Anyways, as we walked through the other (cow-less) field, we saw all of the cows gathered around still staring us down.
This all went down about half an hour ago. I'm still all shaken up. So freaked out. But thankful to be alive!

What a crazy experience. Aside from that, this past week was absolutely amazing in every aspect. I loved every second. I think I have a new goal in life to own a farm. I'll post some more beajolais stories soon, but for now I need to go to bed.



Two very stupid girls.



Why we were so distracted.



I think I'm scarred for life.

paradise

i hope this works cause im posting this from my phone. i cant use facebook but i can use pretty much anything else. Dumb i know. right now im at à vineyard in the beaujolais région of france harvesting grapes. Its hard work but super rewarding. Its so beautiful here and the people i work with are awesome and fun. I just love being here. Im surrounded by beautiful landscapes, delicious food and like i said, fantastic coworkers. I couldnt be happier. ive already had a couple unexpected aventures here including a sort of terrifying run in with cows while on a walk with allegra. Ask me and I'll be glad to give more détails. Sorry this is so weird, my phone is french and corrects everything i write; I'll be here til tuesday night so will be out of communication until then. Love you all!

Awkward.

The french pretty much don’t have a word for “awkward.” You can say “bizarre” but that’s basically the same as saying weird. I find it very awkward that there’s not a word for awkward.

A Day of Dancing

Today I woke up early to take the bus to church. It was super good, even though I understood basically nothing. I love the singing; everything sounds better in French. And it's nice when you already know the meaning, since most of the songs are the same. Thierry, my host dad, told me that "Italian is for singing, French is for speaking, German and English are for puking." Sad but true. Everyone was of course very nice and welcoming at church, I feel at home there. But then again, I feel at home everywhere in France.

After church I went to centre ville with my host sister, Clarisse, for this big dancing parade festival thing. All of the quartiers of Lyon as well as the sub-burbs have a show that they put on for the parade. The performers all had crazy make-up and costumes, stilts seemed to be very popular. There was seriously so many people there. It was insane trying to get on the metro. People from Eugene think the 79x is bad? Not even. It doesn't matter how full the bus/metro/tram is, the driver will always stop to let more people on. Worse than being in a sardine can. And just as smelly.

Clarisse and her two friends that met us there and I went to an American restaurant afterwards (well, sort of American. They served guacamole and quesidillas... I'm definitely going to need to go back there to try it out) just to sit and chat. Clarisse and her friends are hilarious and fun to hang out with, so I'm glad I got to do that today.

For dinner tonight we had Tart tar tin. I have no idea if I'm spelling that right but I'm pretty sure that exists in America, right? If not it was basically tomato upside down cake. It's one of my favorite things we've had so far, very delicious.

Some crazy cool make-up and costumes

Mom! Doesn't this lady remind you of Milly?

Thing I Love About the French 002:

(this was transcribed from my journal. Written 9 September 2010)
Their open air markets! Today was my third experience with them and just as awesome as the first two. Ella, Niki, and I met at Croix Russe because Ella came here on Tuesday. White N and I waited for Ella we walked through the streets and discovered shop upon shop of cute clothes and delicious baked goods. Not that we were surprised, it's like that everywhere here. Love it! I bought this chocolatey-merrange-cookie thing that resembled a porcupine. I have no idea what it's actually called. But dude. It was freaking bomb. We met up with Ella and commenced exploring the market. It was SUPER BIG. It went on and on and on with sooo much food. Every kind of fresh and local fruits, veggies, cheeses, wines, and breads imaginable. Obviously, the place smelled amazing. And the atmosphere is so vibrant and alive, it's impossible to not get caught up in it.

This quartier of Lyon is one of my favorites. It's on a hill so offers a great view of the city. There's also a nice little park that is quiet and has lots of grass. Perfect for writing in my journal and enjoying the city view like I'm doing right now!

Mes Amies: Niki, Moi, Ella

The view from Croix russe. I'm pretty sure that's the Soane.

I love chocolate.

Du frommage!

ps I didn't realize people were commenting on this blog. For some reason it didn't occur to me that people would do that haha. But from now on I'll respond!

Thing I Love About the French 001

It is 100% okay to not do your hair. Or wear a lot of make-up. The greater part of the woman I’ve observed wear their hair very naturally. French people (excuse the generalization, know that this is just my personal observation) strongly believe in being sexy, but they find that most sexiness comes from within. The best way to be sexy is to do so naturally. I’ve already embraced this by not feeling the need to straighten my hair everyday. I don’t know if this will always work, since my hair has a mind of it’s own, but I felt great today. I love looking around me and seeing woman who are comfortable enough with the way they look that they don’t need a bunch of make-up or “perfect” hair in order to feel good about themselves.