countryside/politics/etc...

Grapes grow everywhere, it seems. I took a long wallk in the countryside to some small villages today...picked some grapes to snack on along the way. Pictures hopefully on the way...

Last night we watched Monty Python in Hungarian with French subtitles!? Apparently it traslates just fine. ha ha

The family I'm staying with is very politically and environmentally active therefore they are interested in any news/politics etc. happening in North America right now. So please, send news! I'm on vacation, I don't feel like scouring the internet or reading the news...for one thing, it would give away what day of the week it is.

My french is improving, I think I'm actually succeeding in making a few jokes, or maybe they're still just laughing at me. They get a kick out me imitating their accent when they try and speak English though, it's good fun.

It's really tough/dangerous to talk politics in another language...uh, no I DON'T support Bush...okay not quite that bad..but ugh. yikes.

gite

okay, finally! I don't think I can get any pictures up here right away, so this will have to do for now.

Oh, and the keyboard is qll different...as you can qnd will see, the Q is where the A is. qrggg, I mean argg.

I'm on a farm in the Alpes, not too far from Grenoble, it's a guest house, so there qre visitors coming and going. There is an Organic Farming Fair this weekend in a nearby town, so the place is full this weekend (about 20 people I think).

I spent yesterday picking thyme and lavender for drying, and picking and pitting prunes for making jam. Yes, this is all at just the right pace!

Bernadette is a great cook, she made this amazing soufllé my first night here. She claims it's easy...we'll see. Apparently there are visitors coming from Quebec in a couple weeks and she's not going to be here so I have to do the cooking! I'm happy about the cooking lessons....but, not sure how good an idea this is.

What can I cook that is "Canadian"...? (they were asking) Anyone got any suggestions...and an accompanying recipe?

The rooster crows around 7am, no joke, this is my alarm clock. Wow.

Getting used to the French thing is a bit challenging. Jokes and sarcasm are mostly lost on me right now...it's kind of humbling. ha ha. And I'm really self conscious about the English filler words I habitually put everywhere like "yeah", "you know" etc. Bernadette says it makes it alot harder to understand me...like it's not hard enough! Naw, I'm doing fairly well, just takes adjusting.

Meanwhile...

just checking