the motherland

We are now in the motherland and it is magnaminous. If I could draw you a map of our comings and goings of the last week I would, but not only is the technology not available in Chalabre for something as futuristic as scanning, more importantly, what I’d like to get across with more clarity is the realness of our journey. A realness that the pen drawing a line on the paper would not hold a candle to. Some say that a picture is worth a thousand words, and yes this is true, but I’ve never been a poignant person. So, you’re map is below. After being graciously escorted to the Chicago O’Hare airport by a couple of incredibly beautiful people who happen to be my parents Nick and I started our first leg ; the one that took us across the ocean. That flight seems so long ago. For some reason that happens when there is a lot of happenings in between the now and the then. Anyhow, We landed in Manchester at 8 :55 am real time with a ticking clock for 4 hours later in the form of a bus ticket to London. So, we proceded to take the citybus to the city center, explore the Museum of Science and Industry, get a charming one half hour lecture/timeline on the history of technology by a retired chap by the name of David (Bonkers Britches). Nick and I have added the last bit of his name for comedic emphasis, some would call it comedic genius. After the timeline by the before mentioned Bonkers Britches we checked out some gnarly Roman Ruins whilst eating lunch from fair we scored in a local grocery store. Because you see, the USD is absolute rubbish compared to European currencies, particularly the Queens Pound, and we’re not about to waste our cash on fish and chips. I could tell you a little bit about why the dollar is used as toilet paper in most poor English villages, but I’ll spare you my babblings about economic incentive checks, subsidies to crap for fuel (ethanol), and a general lack of macroeconomic know how in the US senate.

Anyways, we managed to somehow catch the bus to London, arrive safely and get punched in the kibbles and bits by a nights stay in the cheapest hostel in town . The next day we met up with a friend of Nicks and wore our jet lagged bodies out to the max by catching some long and some short views of Big Ben, the London Eye, Westminster Abby, the Houses of Parliament, Buckingham Palace, St. Pauls Cathedral, The National Gallery, Trafalgar Square, Millenium Bridge, and the Tate Art Plaza. After our full day of sightseeing we hopped on yet another bus to Cirencester and then drove to Tetbury where we stayed two absolutely lovely days with the Mannheims. To sum them up, they’re some really great people with some really big hearts and to top it all off, some really tasty cooking. In the midst of this great eating and getting taken care of we took a day trip to Stonehenge. It really is just a big pile of rocks, kind of like the Grand Canyon is just a big whole in the ground, but right proper dandy to see. Nick and I came up with a new theory to explain its construction and elaborate wit, but the people with the fancy vests and the walkie talkies weren’t having any of our Gigantipithicus hypothesis. They’ll be sorry, someday.

Sadly, we left the Mannheims early Friday morning to catch yet another bus to London, where we caught, yes yes thats right, another bus to Dover. At this point the plans were to catch a ferry from the port of Dover to Calais, the train to Paris, and then the overnight highspeed train to Toulouse. Apparently the Fishermans Union who lit a fire to the tracks didn’t like that idea. No worries though. We ended tenting for free in a legit ( yes mom, it was safe and we didn’t get taken to French prison) campground that overlooked the majestic if not a wee bit chilly English Channel. In the end those fisherman did us a favor. On the ferry we met a group of French students, Clemence, Jerome and Augustine, who really wanted to give us a ride to the train station. It was nice chatting with them and it made us get the sense that yes, we are taken care of and no we don’t need to worry. Those sweeties. After our night in Calais we somehow ended up in Paris with enough time to get lost on the public transport system, get found, and stumble onto the lawn of the Eiffel tower long enough to sit down for 15 minutes and then get back onto a train which took us around some French mountains, through Bordeaux, past Toulouse and volais ! We’re in Carcassone. Seems like a good time to walk one and a half hours in the rain at 10 : 30 at night to find a camground, right. Thats what I said, sarcastically, but Nick thought I was serious. So, two hours later we were dripping wet setting up our tent and thanking Jesus for another free night of semi dry accomadation. The next morning it was dry and we came to realize that the cob webed streets of Carcasonne encircle a castle. At this point we gave the statue of the Virgin Mary a high five (may or may not have happened) stormed the castle walls and did some exploring. General consensus, castles are sweet but get bonus points for moats.

After catching some hot fresh bread and the meat of the day while watching a locke let a few boats through we snagged a bus to Limoux where we have been currently working with Jean Philippe for the last 4 days now. And I myself have to say I can't tell you how amazing the experience has been. There are in total now 6 fellow travelers from France, England, America, the Czech Republic, and Holland working to restore an ancient building into a livible space, whilst living in it, eating together, biking to the lake with views of the snow capped Pyrenees, and sharing stories of home with each other. Tonight Nick and I cooked up some delicious flap jacks from scratch for the group and fun was had by all. Somehow we led everyone to believe that nowhere in America or wait, may'be nowhere in the world were they going to find flap jacks as good as we were cooking up in front of their very eyes.

We will be leaving here soon but I know we wont forget this town, these people, and most of all the incredibly multicultural / multilingual conversations, which I admit I only partly understand. But thats all a part of it. Nick and I are learning as we go and getting helped out in very real ways along the way.