March 28, 2008

March 2008: The shortest month in the history of my life

A funny thing happened today. I woke up, looked at my calendar and it was March 31st. WHAT? Where did March go? What have I even DONE this month!? Take my hand...and lets take a walk back through time...

So I started the Month in Anncey with Meg and Julia. I wrote all about that, I remember. I think my ass is still bruised from learning to Snowboard and I am pretty sure I did lifelong damage to my knees.

After that, the next week consisted of me realizing that time was running out, teaching, going to classes and preparing for St. Patrick's Day. Not much really happened of note. Then St. Patrick's Day came along and that was really fun. Meg and I have spent every St. Patrick's Day together since college started and its a pretty important event for us. The rest of the days are just a blur of cafes and walks and movies and hang-out sessions with the British kids. Until the weekend of the 22 (easter weekend) where I went to the Dordogne region of France. Lets see what that was like.....

......Saturday commenced at 7:00am sharp. All of the students in my program met outside of school and we began our 5 hour bus ride. We were all pumped at first but 20 minutes on a bus that early in the morning kind of lulls you into half-sleep. We stopped at a rest area halfway into the trip and afterwards, the bus driver put in a movie. It was "Nanny McPhee" which is one of THE WORST movies I have ever seen in my entire life. First of all, it was in English for the first 20 minutes and then, this kid who came on the trip (Our program director, Reme invited one of her friends to come on the trip and she brought her son...it was weird and none of us understood why they were there in the first place.) anyway, this kid threw a tantrum on the bus and we changed it to French with French subtitles and I dont know why I am going to so much detail about this movie but it just really bothered me! I rarely HATE movies this much. I'm actually angered that it was actually MADE. It was really awful. ANYWAY....that afternoon we went to a Medieval Village called Sarlat and went on a tour and had lunch. A lunch that would be the last meal I would have for three days that did NOT contain duck....

...Apparently, the Dordogne region of france is very well known for Fois Gras and duck confit and duck dishes in general...(how thoughtful, taking a bus full of University of Oregon students to eat duck all weekend...) We stayed at this Manor/Chateau place and for dinner on night we ate quiche with duck and mushrooms in it. I wanted to vomit...but I picked out all of the mushrooms and ate it. The next night, the appetizer was a salad with duck liver chopped up on top of it. I did not eat it. On Sunday afternoon, we went to a nice restaurant place and the main course was...Duck Confit. On Monday, the day we left, the Manor/Chateau place packed us picnic lunches and guess what!? It was Duck Pate sandwiches! Thankfully, they also made a bunch with just cheese (seriously, it was cheese and bread). I never want to eat duck ever again in my entire life. I do not like it.

Among other things on Sunday, we went to this magical magical place that is now on the list of my favorite places ever called The Gardens of Marqueyssac. I am going to do my best to try to describe this place. We walked up this hill and there were sheep grazing in a pasture to the right of us. When we got to the top, we were facing a beautiful light yellow chateau with faded, weather-worn purple shutters and a stone roof. Go around to the other side and thats when the garden starts. It consisted of shrubs. The really green kind that you can shape with a shrubbery cutter thing into shapes like giraffes and bulbous orbs and such. It looked like a big labyrinth of round bushes and square paths and big old trees and mist and boulders. Here is a list of similar ideas that came to my mind while I was walking around this magical land. They might help you picture the ambiance:
Neverland
Peter Pan
Harry Potter
Alice in Wonderland
Myst and/or Riven (computer games from the later 90's)
Fairies (the magical pixie creature kind)
Lord of the Rings

Here are just a couple of pictures, the rest are posted on my photo website so you can check those out.




















..Also I dyed some of my hair pink as you can see in this picture.



The rest of the trip consisted of us (the students) playing really silly camp games in the den of the manor we stayed at. We played Charades and had dance contests and played this game called "Teradactyl" where you try to get someone to laugh...but there are rules. The rules are, you can let your teeth show and you have to say Teradactyl and the other person just...can't laugh or show their teeth either. Needless to say, we all were very awkward and it was RIDICULOUS and I feel totally comfortable with most of the people in my program now. It was a three way tie between this guy Brendan, our program assistant Andrew, and....your's truly. I was actually exhausted by the end of the game.

We also went to this other castle where there were catapults and stuff. It was okay but I really don't like tours all that much and we went on a bunch of tours. Also...on the way home, we stopped at The Museum of Prehistory. I'm sorry but the word "Museum" already has a bad reputation. Add "Prehistory" to it?!?!! Good god...you're joking, right? I opted out of that tour and just walked around solo with some friends.

I almost forgot! We went to see the cave paintings at Lascaux which, if you have ever taken an art history class, you will know are some of the oldest cave paintings around. I was actually pretty excited to see them until....I found out that we wouldn't actually be seeing the REAL cave. Instead, we went down some stairs, to a fake cave. A fake. cave. .......

.....with fake. cave. paintings. on. the. walls......

It was the lamest thing I have ever done and I am choosing to block it out of my memory. The gift shop was horrendous as well. They had fake cave painting paint sets! and story books with little cave children in them telling how they lived way back then! And Dinette sets with the cave paintings on them. and shirts and videos and oh god it was awful. But all in all, the trip was really good. It was nice to see everyone together again and it was great to see a different region of France. And that was my trip to Dordogne.

The Thursday before the Dordogne trip, Meg and I threw a birthday party for our two friends named Morgan. And let me tell you....this was the most epic party. Meg and I actually have reputations now as "The American Girls who throw good parties" Oh heeelllllllll yeah!! People came up to me at school the next week that I dont even remember meeting telling me that they had an "awesome time at my house" and "thank you so much" and "how long did it take to clean up?" and "let me know when you have another one" and "Hey! You play the ukulele! Sing that song again!" There were, at the peak of the night probably between 50-60 people in my apartment. We had one complaint but it wasn't even from anyone that lived in our building! Nothing was stolen, nothing was broken, we danced, made friends, and had an amazing time. It took 4 hours to clean the next day but it was well worth it. And...I got street cred.

To end this blog, I'll tell you about what I did today because well, it was very inspiring. I have had writers block for a while and thats why I haven't written. But today, I lost the block whilst taking a stroll along the river. I had planned on meeting some friends at the Central Park equivalent here in Lyon but when I got there, the gates were shut and everyone was confused. So, I decided to walk home. I put on some Django Reinhardt, who if you don't know, is a french musician and the creator of Gypsy Jazz. Its him on his guitar and usually a violin. Its very bouncy, very happy and very French. I walked along the river, people watching and nature watching. I saw a mother duck with about 8 ducklings swimming around her (It was at that moment that I really decided that I would never eat duck again however my Dordogne trip was a significant contributing factor) and all of the leaves on the trees were that great chartreuse color and looked like they would dissolve if you even thought about touching them. I decided on that walk that I am going to go to Paris and wear flowy skirts and play and listen to music and just enjoy Spring in France to the maximum. Probably next weekend, in fact. Why not? I wont let another month pass me by like March. Seriously...what the hell happened?

I have more to say on a much more somber note but I would like to save that for another blog. I promise to write more now that my block is gone. I actually have a lot to say. I really miss everyone lately. I am excited for my return because it looks like there will be some pretty epic things happening including, The Bahamas, my 21st Birthday and a Roadtrip across America. Talk about coming home to the USA....
Okay. I will write more very soon. For now, take some time to digest that last one.
Love you all,
Miss you all,

Ruby

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