Cake Eaters and Mouth Breathers

Later Thursday afternoon, we discovered that Jean Louis had returned with another seed planter. He went to buy cases for the 2 seed planters he already had, but the man offered him the cases for free if he bought the machine so of course he bought the machine with the intention of reselling it. This was Joelle's nightmare, because it means cramming another conveyor belt into the already limited storage space (because literally all of the ground has crops growing in it). So despite it being my day off, I helped haul this machine down the mountainside and into the semi-garage. We fired it up and it forms the dirt bricks very well but the seed-placing mechanism needs some work. We were in the midst of getting that done when Joelle ran down yelling about a fox in the chicken coop. There was genuinely a fox in the chicken coop, and they "lost" 2 chickens. "Lost" in this case means literally can't find, so they could just be hiding. It turns out one did eventually turn up and come out of hiding, but one was probably fox dinner.

After all that excitement, I headed downtown to meet up with Rob and Mary. We had falafel and pizzadillas for dinner, and chatted about the farm work. Apparently Rob's farm had lost 4 chickens to foxes that same day. We also ate Rob's celebratory "welcome to france" cake, although a little later than initially planned, and made a lot of noise doing it.

The next day we caught our train to montpellier after picking up breakfast at the boulangerie. We were a group of five total, a mix of germans and americans. The train ride was beautiful, we stayed very close to the mediterranean and saw all the yachts that were in town for the Cannes film festival, which some of the girls had gone to the previous weekend to see Leo. They described it as "not real life" (referring to the atmosphere in Cannes in general, not simply Leo's presence). Just north of us were mountains and mountaintop villages that flashed by, which were consistently gorgeous yet too elusive to capture with cameras. We had a french lesson and watched Django on the train ride. Our train also stopped briefly in Marseilles for a connecting train, and although I didn't leave the train station I am adding it to the list of cities I have visited in France. It was very pretty, nestled in the mountains with a chapel on the peak overlooking the city.

Upon arrival in Montpellier I told everyone I would be the tour guide, they could just follow me around like sheep. Bob thought that was a baaaaaa-d idea, but I remarkably still knew my way around after 2 years (can't believe it's been that long). We rented an apartment through a place called airbnb, and the landlord met us at the tram stop where we got off. It turns out that it was genuinely her apartment we were living in, she was just going away for the weekend and therefore rents it out while she is gone (at a pretty low price relative to comparable lodging). It was a beautiful apartment, she had a terrace with a flower/herb/vegetable garden, a full kitchen (complete with eggs, milk, juice, brioche, and croissants for breakfast), and a nice living/dining room area. The landlord (Emily) seemed to have a strong affinity for the UK (especially the queen), and spoke in a british accent. We eventually found some rather creepy masks of the queen that probably took a few years off of Bob's life. Initially we weren't sure if she was indeed british or if she was French and had been instructed by British teachers, which is often the case. She eventually stumbled on a few words (dishwashing detergent) and wrote a note on the whiteboard saying "welcome in our apartment" which gave her away, but overall excellent english.

She left and we started walking around the city looking for good places to go for dinner. We found some very nice parks, a cat in a bow tie, and places for happy hour, but we eventually landed in a Chinese food place.

After dinner we finished our walking tour of Montpellier and went to Australia Bar.

The next day was our vineyard tour! Took the tram to St. Jean de Vedas to rejoin the DeBoisgelins. It was great catching up, I told them about what I had been up to and Eliza talked about her plans, and afterwards she said that she could actually understand them quite easily.

The DeBoisgelin's second-eldest son had just gotten married, the wedding pictures were gorgeous. They held the wedding on the vineyard/in the chateau (as would I if I lived on a vineyard). The son was just setting up shop as an organic vegetable farmer nearby with his new wife. Gregoire is probably going to take over the vineyard, he is building his house on the property now. Manon is studying to work in finance.

I was also joyfully reunited with the stained glass that my mom made as a gift, they say they receive regular compliments from guests.

After lunch the rest of the crew met up with us and we went for a comprehensive tour which included family history, history of the city, the history of french agriculture, the mechanics of wine making (including the perils!), the history of the vineyard, the history of the wine cellar, a singing lesson, a cherry tasting, a tour of the family graveyard, a discourse on bee farming and reproduction, and finally a wine tasting. We ended up tasting around.... 12? different wines, several straight from the barrel, and one particularly exclusive micro-batch. 

I had a wonderful time, as did most of my friends. I thanked the DeBoisgelins again (repeatedly) and said I hope to see them again. We went our separate ways in search of dinner, and bought some American sandwiches (The french version of an american sandwich is a baguette filled with hamburger patties and french fries topped with ketchup and mayo, it's delicious). 

For "real" dinner we ate crepes, mine had bacon, potatoes, creme, and onions inside, but there were all different varieties available. It was also delicious. 

For the evenings activities we went to "Nights at the Museum" at Musee de Fabre. They projected various images onto the front of the building and it made me feel a little like a moth drawn to the flame. This was around 10 PM that we actually entered the museum, which was enormous. I could've spent a month in there. 

After that we chatted with some french youth in the local park, and learned some new vocabulary. Most importantly, "dragon" is french for "dragon". We also met an individual who had either just gotten married or had his bachelor party, he was wearing a dress.

The next day we found a bagel shop for brunch. It was incredible. The bagel was great, but I think it tasted better because it was in a sunny french square on a sunday morning.

We took the train home, and enjoyed paiella for dinner followed by honey-topped ice cream and cake.

The next day I worked on laying those huge tiles some more. Basically every time I work in or around this greenhouse an old lady walks by and chats with me. She usually asks if I am building a night club or a castle or talks to me about her kids and the importance of balancing work, travel, and play, or asks about the other WWOOFers. Jonathan tends to stick out because he speaks french in italian, so people know something is up. For lunch monday we had an omelette and homemade pickles and sauerkraut (vinegary and delicious), and finished with fried acacia beignets. Cinq etoiles.

Monday afternoon Bob and Katjya (the WWOOFers chez Pierre) walked over to visit. I gave them a farm tour and then offered them some champagne and eventually made them help me cook dinner. We enjoyed the view from right outside the caravan, which is spectacular, and chatted. Later that night I got sucked into watching Grey's Anatomy with the girls. They seemed to enjoy getting me up to speed (I didn't know who anyone was), and it has a particularly special place in their hearts because Washington was an extra in Season 1 episode 4 that can be seen rather clearly.

Tuesday was a full day of work planting tomatoes and peppers. After about nine hours of that I quite literally laid down in the dirt between the rows of plants.

Winter is Back

Day off! But it's raining sideways and really cold (for spring).

Yesterday we planted peppers, and set up irrigation and structural support systems. At lunch I chatted with Joelle and learned a little more about the history of the farm. Jean Louis' dad was a mason and a homebuilder, not a farmer. Jean Louis and Joelle started cultivating the land, but didn't have any neighbors who would help them out. They were young and didn't know what they were doing. The lettuce was tiny the carrots were short and their other plants bore little fruit. She said she didn't care since she was young, but they were made fun of at the market, ridiculed as a couple of hippies that wouldn't last. They needed to sell everything they took down to market with them, because their (deux chevaux) car couldn't drive uphill encumbered with produce.

So they learned any way they could. One way was through reading. Another way was through looking at the neighboring farms with binoculars. They would literally look out their window and note the date when their neighbor was ploughing or planting. A couple weeks later they would go over and say "Hi how's it going", and see what vegetables were being harvested, retroactively discovering the identity of the seeds. Despite humble beginnings, they are now rather well known as an enormously successful organic farm. They have passed the test of time, and most of the other local farms have shut down and moved on. In the market, many of the vendors are re-selling vegetables from various farmers (usually not local) and are often not organic. The only neighbors that produce locally and organically are the Magnanis, which is where Bob is now. Jean Louis and Joelle helped the Magnanis get started, about 10 years after they got their start.

In the afternoon/evening, we finished the french film Amelie. It is quirky, but very well done. It is best enjoyed with a big bowl of old-faashioned popcorn and chocolate.

This morning we went up to the house despite the weather, and Jean Louis asked us why we got out of bed. We enjoyed some tea, and Joelle told me about a particular business that just popped up in America. In order to avoid long lines at amusement parks, you can rent a handicapped person for a couple hundred dollars an hour. This allows you to skip the long lines. She said this was worse than the japanese cat Cafes.

I also heard a story from Washington about her moving experience. One of the people working for the moving company was from Boston, and upon walking into the house asked "You have a lot of Pahties in heah?". He meant to ask "Do you have a lot of parties in here", but Washington heard "Do you have a lot of potties in here?". She responded, somewhat hesitantly, that they had a pretty average number of potties in there.

Broccoli MRI

With my power of Science

Worked at Cremat today. Jean Louis and I were going to make soil cubes for the cucumbers, but as soon as we fired up the machine it looked like something was out of line, the cubes were crumbly and too short. He quickly said "oh that's an electrical problem" and went to change something with the wiring. I commented that it's good he's run into this problem before because it looooked like a mechanical issue. He said yeah, he's pretty good at plumbing but electricity is not his forte. He said he had a friend die working with electricity like this, its 320 odd volts and I assume some dangerous amperage, which elicited an instinctive step back on my part. I'm sure I was much safer 8 inches further away.

We got the machine working and then I spent some more of the morning planting cucumbers with the other WWOOFers in the baby greenhouse. Whilst therein, I heard a loud oinking coming from just outside the greenhouse and shrieks from California WWOOFer. My first thought was "Oh no Betty came back to finish the job". My second thought was "but she never comes down here". A laughing Jean Louis confirmed that it was nothing more than a good impression, rather than the dark terror herself.

After the cucumbers were done we went to plant something (forget the name, it's small and green with leaves) in the greenhouse where the spinach had previously been. I was eventually joined by Washington WWOOFer and we talked throughout the morning, mostly about agriculture policy/economics, but eventually branching into the subject of mini houses. Tiny houses were something I had never heard of, but which are gaining popularity (at least in Washington). Basically, they are between 100 and 200 square feet, and often mounted on a trailer. The idea is to simplify your life and reduce the cost of renting/buying/maintaing a larger property. Imagine what it would be like if you could clean your entire house before morning tea? There is also the mobility aspect, moving from Washington to Southern California could be done in about a day. Anyway, she has a couple of friends who built their own Tiny Houses, but one of the almost complete homes was lost in a fire. Nobody was hurt but it was a substantial financial loss. Their story can be found here, summarized in a nicely done video. They are raising funds to rebuild, feel free to donate if you wish.

Lunch was Pizza, and we talked about Colorado's bed. The one he is using is from the 50's, and you may recall that he ordered a cardboard one but the credit card din't go through. Anyway the ultra-old bed broke and he fixed it with a wooden plank, but the moisture from the plank went into the mattress and the mattress started to mold. He really can't catch a break, he did look a bit tired today.

Then we put the weight-loss debate to bed. I will be returning to America 8 kilos lighter than when I arrived, and I don't know how exactly that happened. Proof is in the pudding though (or lack thereof), vegetables are good for you.

I finished doing laundry in the afternoon, and then talked to Washington for an unexpectedly long time. She is a plant-nerd also, and we could talk very casually about arcane plant genetics. A couple interesting (to me) things popped up:

-Genomic Imprinting in plants. I have heard about this happening in animals, but not plants. It is basically a momma plant modifying which genes are on/off in her baby plant. The evolutionary basis for this is greedy pollen. In reproduction, the female puts in a lot more time and energy than the male. The male shoots pollen into the wind and hopes for the best, but the female has to grow a fruit (which takes a lot of energy). Greedy pollen is a simple way of saying that males put genes in their pollen grains that direct any female that they land on to devote all of her resources to this one offspring. Females may want to devote resources to more than one seed, and also save some for themselves, so they evolved this defense where they turn off the greedy pollen gene.

-Microbiome influences on the immune system. The bacteria in you do not just prevent further infection through competitive exclusion, but actually complement your immune system.

-Vertical and horizontal immunity. Vertical immunity involves "R" genes that confer total resistance to a single pathogen, whereas horizontal involves partial resistance to a wider range of pathogens attributable to the additive effect of multiple resistance genes. This led to a discussion on seed banks and GMOs, which relates closely to a book Washington is writing about using locally based interactive plant breeding to build community and genetic diversity in seeds. She's got a website.

-Human evolution/brain evolution. Savannah Hypothesis (wrong), Polite ancestor (ludicrous), and Semi-aquatic ape (tenable).

We concluded by agreeing that local changes are the most accessible way to institute a change, and fortunately her geographic location lends itself to that kind of behavior. There is room to farm and there seems to be an engrained sense of community.

I made fried rice for dinner and was asked for the recipe, and I was flattered.

Bob is enjoying his farm, which actually does a fair amount of outreach.

California showed me a new website for vegetarian recipes, which is called "Thug Kitchen", which seems to blend solid recipes with an antithetical persona.

I also heard of Kombucha for the first time today. It is basically really gross tea. Maybe I will try it someday (because Washington swears it's delicious), but then again maybe not.

The Cherries are getting better every day.

Revised reading list:
-Survival of the Sickest
-The Botany of Desire
-Brain Bugs
-Guns, Germs, Steel
-The Omnivores Dilemma

Buck Up Buttercup

Friday I gave my first farm tour to the city folk, and we ate some of Jean-Louis' Pizza and then baked cookies in the wood burning stove. During the tour we got to enjoy the company of Betty the attack pig, who sometimes thinks that people are food. If you feed her enough she figures it out though.

We are starting to have actually produce at the farm, not just glorified leaves (although I've been enjoying life as a rabbit). We have courgettes that can be harvested daily (we fried the flowers one day yum), the first cherries are ripe, the figs are coming along, asparagus is shooting up as fast as we can pick it, and tomatoes are happily rooted. There is also a lot of mint, garlic, and spring onion floating around.

Despite all of this new food I am still losing belt sizes. Joelle thinks I've lost 20 kilos but she also has a tendency for hyperbole and a half. We will take it to the scales tomorrow. I started at about 99 kilos.

The WWOOFer getting eaten by betty is from California, and has a ton of interesting stories. She is Craig Ventner's second cousin, her friend is currently working as tinkerbell in disneyworld, she bent a fencing sword in half when someone stabbed her in the leg with it, and she saw 3 wolves when she was working on the goat farm. This last tidbit attracts the most interest from the locals, in fact she is often introduced as "this is the girl who saw the wolves".

The other WWOOFer grew up farming, and is a part-time leatherworker. She and her brother are traveling around Europe (occasionally meeting up with one another) for a few months, and she was able to recommend a Berlin Burger Joint to me. She speaks very little french, but I am teaching her when I can.

My French has gotten about as good as I think it's going to get. I can carry a conversation without trouble, and Joelle keeps nagging me to find someone to speak with when I get home so I can retain the language. I keep reminding her that my girlfriend and one of my best friends speak french, and are both here learning, but that isn't enough for her I guess.

Saturday was a beach day, followed by a long night of Harry Potter and Mojitos. Sunday we trekked up to St Paul de Vence, which is one of the most gorgeous places I have ever been. I was thinking about my mother almost the entire day (maybe because it was mothers day), but also because she would've loved it there. Think French mediterranean hilltop village in the foothills of the alps overlooking the Cote d'azur that is packed with art galleries and old men playing petanques. I also got to chat with my family, congrats to my brother for completing Spritz training!

Monday was tomato day, we planted them all day long at broc. Jean Louis was chipper, joking about John's gerber knife and how we needed to weigh down one of the wooffers with a rock-laden backpack so she could be heavy enough to push stakes in the ground. Allergies hit everyone very hard, hopefully the season will be short.

One of the other WWOOFers is an actual botanist, not just a phycologist. She mentioned something about cleaning her hands with cleavers when she was in a pinch, but obviously I thought she meant cleavers which are a very different animal. I'm glad we got it cleared up.

Yes one of the WWOOFers made the "Je suis pleine" mistake again, as well as the "Je suis cool (cul)" mistake, again.

Bob is enjoying WWOOFing, he apparently helped host a party on Saturday. I haven't seen him much, but it sounds like he's keeping busy.

Tunisia, Ibiza, and the like

We decided to pay for the bus tour in Tunisia because we didn't really know much about the city or how to get around. Our tour guide spoke very good (british) english, and introduced himself as Lotfi, which was not to be confused with Lofty. They do not have daylight savings time, so it was an hour earlier locally, and our bus drove through rush hour traffic but it wasn't too bad. We were dropped off at Government square, and learned a little bit about the layout of Tunis. The whole city is called a Medina. The Port we landed in was called La Goulette, or "The Throat", because it is the passageway between the seawater and the lake of Tunis (which would be the Stomach in this analogy). Government square was so named because it was surrounded by government buildings, literally the department of the interior and the department of finance and the department of you name it are all located in the same square. The square is protected by a Casbah, or an ancient fortress. Within the Medina and protected by the Casbah are several Markets called Souks. Since trade was one of the principal components of the ancient economy, it was important to protect the markets. We visited several markets, starting with essential oils and hats and moving on to rugs.

At the rug market we got a presentation during which I learned more about rugs than I have in the rest of my life combined. There are three types: woven, woven and embroidered, and knotted. Woven carpets are a solid color, or contain bands of color. They can later be embroidered to introduce patterns. Knotted carpets are the most time consuming, as every thread is added to the carpet individually. Think of each knot as a pixel on a screen. Higher quality carpets will have a larger number of knots per square meter. The highest quality carpets have a MILLION knots per square meter, and are characterized by intricate patterns woven in silk threads. One girl was particularly eager to take one home with her.

Depending on the thread count, the carpet may take between a few months and a few years to create. Unsurprisingly such carpets cost a couple tens of thousands of euros. It was quite interesting to watch the presentation, which is neatly tailored to act as a tourist trap. The carpets could very well be machine made, but you will attribute more value to it if you know (think) someone has spent years making it. Also, there was free shipping! But a 20% discount if you chose not to ship. This was an interesting way of framing it, though it probably attracts more buyers than saying "add 25% for shipping costs". They also gave us mint tea (which was really good), and were quick with a joke and a smile. Handshakes also seemed to linger longer than usual, presumably to keep your attention for an extra second or two. 

From there we wandered around markets as we wished, usually speaking french or spanish rather than english. We found identical pillowcases that ranged in price from 4 to 35 euros depending on bartering ability. 

Then we went to Carthage. Carthage has a fascinating history, which I have probably heard before but hadn't really assimilated until I visited. A princess fled from Lebanon to escape the tyranny of her murderous brother (Pygmalion!), and bought a small amount of land in Tunis. The ruler of Tunis charged her an enormous amount of money and said she could claim an amount of land "no greater than the size of a cow's hide". The clever queen cut the hide into thin strips and encircled the area that was to become Carthage. They quickly became enormously successful, which angered the tunisians to the point that they eventually helped the romans sack the city. There were 3 Carthaginian wars, but the Romans used some propaganda and called them "Punic wars". The word Punic is meant to downplay the importance of the carthaginian empire (because it sounds measly), and is derived from the Phoenician origins of the Carthaginians. 

We visited 3 sites, the Toffit, the ports, and the roman baths. The toffit was described to us as a sacrifice site for children for about 5 minutes, and then the guide totally turned that around and said "most historians actually don't think this anymore because there is very little evidence supporting this". The ports were very pretty, and were the first man-made ports in the world (probably) equipped with mechanisms for lifting the boats out of the slat water to protect them from corrosion (and expose them to dryness, kind of out of the frying pan and into the fire really). The roman baths were some of the largest in the world, despite no fresh water sources. It was an Imperial Bath, meaning the Roman Emperor ordered it to be constructed while Carthage was under Roman rule. 

In the end Carthage lost every war it fought and was sacked by every major empire of the age. But it was a beautiful vibrant city that everyone else was jealous of. We rode a Camel.

We then started our 22 hour cruise to Ibiza, a trip that spanned over 500 nautical miles. We spent our time on the boat playing ping pong (ding dang), eating free gelato, watching french variety shows, hot tubbing, and eating the bottomless gelato. We also got to watch a storm brewing behind the boat at night. 

Upon arrival we walked to the castle (which was steep), and then walked around town and bought tapas and tickets to pacha. Pacha opens around midnight so we had a nap and arrived at 1. 

The next day we started the Journey back to France. 

Crystal was surprised that I showed up for work on Friday. Friday night we went to a Villa after meeting up with yet another Terp in Nice. The next day was beaches and picnics, followed by a trip to Monaco. 

Monday we got back to work, and I was happy to see that we had 2 new WWOOFers! They are both american, from the West coast. We planted seeds using the seed-o-matic 8000, which worked like a dream after we fixed it with tape. I spent the next 2 days building a greenhouse floor, and then went to pick up Bob. 

Bob flew in from America, arriving Tuesday night. We gave him a quick tour of Nice and a place to stay in exchange for his company, and then the next day he went off to start his own WWOOFing adventure. 

Thursday was a day of weeding at broc, but we got some more interesting stories from Joelle. One of her friends is a russian fox-coat maker, and analyzes generational changes in foxes. Interestingly, domestication results in a noticeable and heritable change in demeanor and coat color, which I thought was due to some epigenetic changes. 

Also, essential oils were distilled. 

The huge metal container was filled with flowers, and heated to between 90 and 100 C (Ideally parsing the different boiling points of fragrant oils and water). Cooled under reflux, the phases separated naturally. What you are seeing is droplets of water falling through an oily organic layer. 

Photo uploader is functional again

Joelle is a seemingly endless source of interesting stories. While growing up, there was a pair of elderly identical twins living in her town that had some kind of malady that left them incapable of opening one eye, unless they manually opened the eyelid with one hand. They always dressed the same also, which led to the rather frequent illusion of one lady being in two places at once. For example, she said, driving through town you might see one on your way in and one on your way out, which led the kids (Joelle included) to think she was a witch.

Naturally Joelle thought it was a good idea to try to steal berries from the witches' hedges, but one day she got caught and grabbed by the scruff. She was still pretty young, and shrieked in terror and eventually started crying while her friend laughed.

The mornings' work was to shovel manure. After several hours of that, and a rushed pasta lunch with Jean Louis, I started packing for the cruise. I said goodbye to Charlotte, who was going to leave right before I returned, and to Crystal, who would still be here in a week.

We caught the bus to Villefranche, and it was the perfect date to set sail. The cruise ship was too big for the port in Villefranche, so there were little ferries shuttling everyone out. At check in, Eliza's last name attracted some attention because it is Italian, apparently originating near Genova. After boarding we grudgingly  sat through the safety demonstration, which explained what the general emergency siren was, and what to do if it sounded (explicitly stating that it did not mean "abandon ship"). Then we started exploring the ship, which was outfitted with about 7 bars, a casino, a theater, 2 pools 4 hot tubs (maybe a 5th on the bow that was inaccessible).

We had dinner and then found a quiet bar where we met Todor, the Bored Bulgarian Bartender. As we started looking over the drink menu, he said let me make you something while you wait. He came back with a shot called a Monkey Brain, which looks scarily like a monkey brain. This reminded the equally bored but much less bulgarian bartender next to Todor of a Jellyfish shot, which, yes, looks like a jellyfish.

We went on to place second in an "ideal couple contest", that seemed somewhat biased towards the italian couple (which is strange because we were on an italian cruise line).

The next day we arrived in Genova. Todor had told us that we needed to go to the aquarium, but we had just been to an aquarium in Monaco so we decided to walk around the city some. It was drizzling from time to time, but just by wandering we stumbled upon several universities, courtyards, and churches that were truly impressive. We also ended up at a design gallery, which had some very neat stuff and a host that spoke a nice melange of French English and Itowelian. The gallery was on Rue Garibaldi, named for Giuseppe Garibaldi, who I am pretty sure is the most popular man in Italy (and southeast France). Ever city seems to have a statue, a street, and a plaza dedicated to him. Some cities have interior design galleries dedicated to him also.

We then went on a hunt for Pesto, which originated in Genova. We found ourselves in the restaurant district, and after passing a few quirky places (one all you can eat Sushi place called "Jay Restaurant"), we landed in a nice hole in the wall that seemed authentic and popular and reasonably priced with Pesto on the menu. We sat down, devoured the bread, and tried to communicate to the Italian waiter. After he performed a chicken dance we were able to gather that the only pesto-containing menu item was chicken, so we went for the pasta. Which lived up to it's reputation.

We started making our way back, finding a few more Cathedrals, a stylish Ghandi, a Pirate Ship, and the worlds largest aquarium.

For dinner we went to the sit down restaurant on the ship, and we were paired with an American couple. The wife had lost her voice so she was a little restricted in her conversation potential. The husband was opinionated yet tolerable, and offered some partially useful advice regarding cruise etiquette and on-shore excursions. Rome was to be our next stop.

We got up early, and thankfully we had done our research and knew the fastest/cheapest train from Civitavecchia (where the boat landed) to Rome (where we wanted to go). We got off the train, bought a sightseeing map, and sprinted from one monument to the next all morning. The list of attractions included the Vatican, Saint Angelo's Castle, Piazza Navona, The Pantheon, The Trevi Fountain, Vittoriano, The Colosseum, The Arch of Constantine, The Roman Forum, Circus Maximus, The Mouth of Truth, and then decided to take a lunch break. For the afternoon, we went to the much quieter southwestern section of Rome called Trastevere. We got the best pizza in Rome (and therefore, quite possibly the world) at Dar Poeta. And for dessert, my first nutella and ricotta calzone.

We then took the tram to the train station and seamlessly returned to Civitavecchia. As soon as we got off the train in Civitavecchia, it started to pour. Sprinting through the rain we made it back to the ship, changed clothes and went to visit Todor.

We saw an on board acrobatics show that evening, which involved a couple Mongolian contortionists (which were unsettling) and a juggler who played off the dropped pins very well.

The next day was in Palermo, Sicily. Making use of our guidebook, we discovered that a few miles north of Palermo was a coastal beach town called Mondello. We got of the boat and tried to take a cab there, but they were charging "Oh you just got off the cruise that'll be 600 euros for a 3 minute cab drive" prices. So we took the bus. The bus was crowded, but drove through some of the scenic areas of Sicily, and took us straight to the white sandy beaches. The beach was nice, crystal blue with white sand and a very gradually drop off (it was below knee level for the first 40 feet of water). After we'd had our sun, we hopped on the bus back and looked around Palermo. Interesting fact: the city had so many narrow, winding, criss-crossing streets that it became unnavigable, so they tore down many buildings to make way for 2 huge straight main streets. You can tell which ones they are, it's like walking out of a forest into a clearing.

Then we went to Tunisia and Ibiza, which will be elaborated on later. 

PSA

Jokes learned today:

How much did the Pirate pay for his piercings?
A Buck-an-ear!

The official joke of The U.S. Forest Service:

In a small town, a group of Nuns opened a flower shop to raise money for their convent. They made enough to get by, and lived happily for a long time. Then, a group of Friars moved into the same town, and opened up their own flower shop. As business declined, the Nuns asked the Friars to choose a different location or open up a different kind of shop. The friars refused. In response, the Nuns went to the local hit-man, named Hue, for help. He agreed to help them get rid of the friars.

The moral of the story? Only Hue can prevent florist friars.

I aslo got some more interesting stories out of Joelle. When she was 12, she went on a family vacation that included some friends of the family. Joelle's older sister and her friend decided to go camping one night, but their mothers said they couldn't go unless they agreed to take their younger sisters along. Grudgingly they agreed, and it turns out that the true motivation was to go out clubbing (they were 16). Joelle was a wily 12 year old, and said "I'm gonna tell mom you went out clubbing unless you take me with you". As reluctant agreements appeared to be the theme of the evening, the older sisters agreed. A night of (far too youthful) debauchery ensued, that resulted in Joelle getting a burn on her leg from a motorcycle. She hid/ignored the wound, until she went to the beach and a doctor saw her and said she should probably go to the hospital immediately and might need a skin graft. Her father asked her how she got the burn and she said it was from a hot casserole. They went to the doctor and the doctor said yes you need a skin graft how did you get this? And she said it was from a casserole. He responded by asking if the casserole had 2 wheels, revealing that he was actually pretty familiar with this type of malady.

Also Joelle believes that Wolves and Boars are more afraid of humans than the other way around, which is not in line with my experience.

Also, I gained some insight into pest control. They steam the land to kill seeds and most of what lives in the top few layers of soil. They also cultivate (continuously) certain plants that create good habitats for bugs that eat the bugs that eat the plants (tobacco). They also do a certain rotation of crops that prevents nematode accumulation. The biggest problem is the snails. Which they began to complain about, and us americans immediately interjected with the stereotypical suggestion that they eat the snails. Joelle just looked at us and asked us to please not eat them. Her argument was based on the fact that snails, although a pest, still played a part in the ecosystem. She was obviously excluding me (the american: an apex predator) from the ecosystem.

She then started sprinkling copper pellets onto the soil. To kill the snails. I yelled at her about this, saying she was being hypocritical, and that copper is a good way to kill plants too.

I learned 2 things working with algae. 1 is that germanium oxide kills diatoms by replacing silicon in their frustules. This has not yet been of any use to me, but the day may yet come. The second thing I learned is that copper is highly phytotoxic, bad for plants. She said "yes but it's better than letting the snails eat them". I think there is a lot of money in discovering copper-free organic slug-icide.

Coq au Vin

Crystal the new WWOOFer showed up, She is from Madagascar. She speaks perfect french and really good english, she spent 9 years in the US primarily on the west coast. She went to school for architecture, but wants to let that go in favor of farming, which is part of why she's here.

We worked a full day at Le Broc on Thursday, managing to plant entire fields of onions and potatoes. I am still too heavy to use the potato planting machine, which looks like a lot of fun but is essentially reserved for the girls. I got to collect broccoli with Jonathan, who is trying to pick up french (because he lives here now) but still speaks with a thick accent which is a blend of italian and american.

The weather was great and we got a lot of work done, lunch was a quinoa/rice/mint salad that turned out great. Over lunch we chatted about the morning's adventures.

That morning, on the way to Le Broc, Jean Louis planned to meet a freind in Saint Laurent du Var to pick up some parts. His friend works at an exit right off of a major highway, and we missed the turn. Rather than drive another mile to the nearest turn around, then drive back a mile and a half, then turn around again only to have another chance at catching the right exit, we pulled off into the next driveway. It was a farm with a broad driveway and a path leading back to the friends shop, so we parked for a few minutes. I waited by the truck as Jean Louis ran to meet his friend (we were already late). A couple seconds after Jean Louis left, there was a man on a tractor speeding down the road (as best he could on a tractor) with two dogs running ahead and barking. The man jumped off the tractor and started yelling, and I told him we missed the stop and just pulled in here for a second. He continued yelling but I just told him that I worked with Jean Louis who would be back in a minute. He then seemed a little off-put, because he really wanted to yell at someone but also recognized that I wasn't the one to yell at. He decided to yell across the field at Jean-Louis, who started heading back. THey exchanged some words, and Jean Louis was outwardly cool about it eventually agreeing to move his truck a little further down the road. In the truck I was asked if I wanted to "break his face". I politely declined, and Jean Louis spent a little while brainstorming the appropriate curses to throw at the territorial farmer. He found them, used them, and I didn't understand them. Then we were off on our way to continue our organic farming ventures.

Also over lunch, I re-heard the tale of the roosters chez grenouilles. There have been several over the years, which have each traumatized Joelle to varying degrees. One was essentially trying to kill her, cawing angrily outside her window, and once tripping her to the ground and clawing at her head. That one was sold and probably ended up as a not so tender chicken sandwich. Another one was her favorite, very nice to her and never seemed to cause trouble. One day, however, it was eating lettuce from the field while Jean Louis and another WWOOFer were watching. They were about 50 meters away, so Jean Louis ran over and threw a stone at it. He was aiming for somewhere near the rooster, in the hopes of scaring it away, but ended up hitting it directly in the head from about 40 meters away, and it promptly fell limp to the ground. "Oh $#007 I just killed Joelles favorite rooster" was the first thought that came to mind. It eventually regained consciousness and started walking around clumsily, but Joelle noticed and inquired what might've happened over lunch. She was met with about 2 full minutes of laughter before she got the story. The current rooster is a pest, but has not suffered any severe head trauma nor attempted murder, and is therefore still around.

Friday we cleaned the Caravan up for the new Norwegian WWOOFeuse (Charlotte) who was to show up. I think she was met with an empty caravan however, because I was in Nice, Crystal was traveling, and Kelly was leaving for Saint-Jeannet. In Nice, I set up an appointment to tour an apartment for Rob. I wasn't sure about the address, but when I called the landlord saw me from a balcony and directed me to the front door. The landlord was a gray haired frenchman with a big nose and a quick smile. He showed me the room, which was literally a single room off the main hallway. Bed, desk, dresser, balcony, mirror, lamps, but no bathroom or kitchen. I started asking about price and he said hold on, and showed me next-door, where there was a large kitchen and bathroom and 3 other bedrooms. Much better. I talked to some of the roommates, one was an Italian psychology student working with autism, and the other was a brazilian biophysicist.

After the visit I made it back to the apartment, and enjoyed some delicious chicken marsala for dinner. We then sprinted to the bus stop to catch the bus to Antibes. Kyle, our absinthe enthusiast found an absinthe bar there that was frequented by Van Gogh. We barely made it, took an hour bus ride, but quite enjoyed the bar and the rest of antibes.

Saturday was a relaxing day, and the nightly excursion was complemented by the fact that it was some unknown spanish holiday. We learned that it is exponentially harder to segregate 3 languages in your head as compared to 2.

Sunday I woke up to go watch the Nice Half-Marathon, and despite my best efforts missed Anna and Kelly who were both in the race at the time. After that we headed to Monaco (following some bus confusion caused by the race). The highlight of the trip was the Oceanographic Museum and Aquarium, which luckily included access to the ocean-themed symphony that day. It was no Baltimore Aquarium, but I did enjoy the museum a lot.

We also went to the casinos and laughed at the chip denominations, and saw the preparations for the grand prix. They started outlining the course, and allowed people to drive their sports cars as fast as they wanted down a certain part of the course (under the supervision of a police officer). Ferraris, Bentleys, and Rolls Royce became commonplace, as did trillion dollar yachts and purple cardigans worn about the shoulders.

Monaco also has some very nice fountain displays, they seem to share common themes of tulips and reflective surfaces.

Monday I had off work because I worked a double on Thursday. We hiked up to the Baou of Saint Jeannet, which is the cliff that has been staring me in the face for months. The weather was iffy, but we made it to the top only marginally rain-soaked and partially blind. We were in the middle of a raincloud, so visibility was about 10 feet. But, I'm sure the views were spectacular on the other side of the clouds.

Tuesday I met Charlotte, the Norwegian WWOOFeuse, and we spent the day planting seedlings in the small greenhouse. Easy day of work, beautiful weather. It really is spring here, and it's great. The cherries have blossomed and fruited, we should have mature cherries on May 10th.

Thursday I leave on a cruise, and I will take pictures to share, but may not have a chance to upload them until I get back.

Haida Gwaii

So the new Canadian Kelly showed up. She is a nurse that works on the Queen Charlotte islands in northern Canada. Her town is about 800 people, but the hospital she works at is the only one for many miles, and therefore serves a population of about 5,000. We're getting along very well, except that her sleep schedule is sometimes a little off. As a nurse, she works 2 12 hour day shifts and then 2 12 hour night shifts, and then has 5 days off. So between the strange work schedule and the jet lag, she got up at 4 in the morning and made me french toast. We tried to ask Jean Louis if French Toast was French, but clearly used the wrong word. Closest thing we have come up with is "Pain Perdu" (after some research).

Unfortunately we spent the first few days weeding the swiss chard by hand, which really hurts your back after a while. We got a brief reprieve from weeding to clear off one of the hills. It was covered in vines with varying quantities of thorns, and the hill was more of a cliff with a ~80 degree grade. This led us to the story of Kelly breaking her arm, she was on a kayaking trip and stepped into what she thought was a clump of bushes but turned out to be a cliff. She free-fell about 10 feet and landed on her arm. I shared my leg-breaking story too, which was much more peaceful.

We worked with Jonathan, the hired hand who is moving into an apartment near Broc with his wife. He is a great guy, and has some interesting stories. From Colorado, he has worked as a Park Ranger and also as research support staff in Antarctica. He summers in the deep south (the south pole).

We made it down to town to explore a bit, Kelly liked walking around Nice. Eliza had her sister visiting, and her room-mate Anna's mom was also visiting. Mrs. Schweinberger speaks very little english, although she understands it okay. She speaks great french however, which encouraged us to speak french but that left Elena in the dark somewhat.

After Elena left, we had a Birthday Party for Anna. We made cake, got Pastis, and madee a "Bonne Anna-versaire" sign for her. I love Pastis, Eliza was uncertain of how she felt. In the end, she very much enjoyed a drink we called "Pas-tea-s", which is pastis and mint tea.

On Sunday we all went to a Villa in Cap-Ferrat, AKA swanky incredibly rich family money land. It was gorgeous, and the audio-guide shared stories of the residents, which spent their time gardening and having weddings for their pets (seriously). There are a ton of pictures on someone else's camera, that I will hopefully track down someday.

Monday we hunted wild asparagus, quite successfully I think. They were truly wild, meaning that we were crawling around on the forest floor looking for the precious green spikes.

We discussed alcohol preferences over lunch, because while France enjoys it's wine, it seems to lack beer and liquor. I discovered that Jean-Louis loves his Guinness, and then described beer culture in America. I told him the best beers were usually microbrews, because large companies seem to cut corners as they scale up production. Jean-Louis told me a joke that drunk frenchmen make, toasting to their wives health and praying that they never become widows "Pour la santé de nos femmes, ne soient jamais veuves".

Curry for dinner.

I Missed the Dirt

I'm back in France, and I had an excellent visit to The States.

I visited Rockefeller University in New York (amazing), Princeton in New Jersey (gorgeous), and finally made it to Baltimore to see my family and friends.

My March Madness Bracket is as follows:

And is cleverly titled: "March Madness? This is Sparta"

After visiting Rockefeller, I stayed in New York with my cousin and met up with some friends. The lines were out the door for mainstream brunch restaurants, so we ended up on the road less traveled. I mistook the chef standing outside the restaurant for a statue of a chef, and spent the rest of brunch trying not to laugh at his appearance, his thick accent, the accordion player in corner, or the valentines day / christmas / german / year round decor.

The food was excellent, I enjoyed a mulled wine and eggs benedict. The company was great also, shout outs to my cousin Jordan who was a great host. 

Back to France:

From the plane I could see some unidentified mountain poking through the clouds

I showed up late on a monday night to find the canadians watching the first "Sex and the City" movie. It is hands down the second worst movie I have ever seen, which says a lot. They agreed to turn it off after no one could stand it anymore. Monday we cut down another forest so we could plant trees there.........

Tuesday night I headed to downtown Nice, where a welcome back / congratulations on grad school party was waiting for me. I committed to Hopkins!

Wednesday we had off because it was supposed to rain (it never did) so we toured around Nice trying to win the AYC photo contest. Obviously, I can't share the photos until the contest ends but there are some pretty good ones. 

Kelly left Thursday morning to go to a Taylor Swift concert in New York (she say's she's going just to see the opener, Ed Sheeran). Claire leaves Sunday. 

Thursday I worked with Joelle to fix up the glass greenhouse (now I know why they use mostly plastic). Friday we all worked on prepping a different greenhouse, and then had croquettes with blettes (swiss chard) for lunch. After lunch, we went to go see Joelle's brother (who lives nearby) who allegedly has great horned owls in his yard. We arrived to find a very nice house, and the worlds smallest great horned owl. It was still a very interesting bird to see, it turned to look at us wherever we went. Joelle's brother speaks english, but in a stereotypically thick French accent. 

My French is getting much better. At my welcome home party, the conversations drifted in and out of french without me noticing (sometimes), and when a chicken came into the house during lunch today I yelled at it (instinctively in french) and it understood me and ran out. 

A new canadian Kelly comes sometime next week!

Eh?

The Canadians are here!

Shortly after I finished my last blog post, two chilly canadians stumbled up to the door of the Caravan. Claire introduced me to her friend Kelly. They met a little over a year and a half ago in Calgary, where they worked in the same cafe/bar. They are both great, very energetic and artistic people (Kelly sings and plays guitar, and Claire paints). Noriko was feeling a little under the weather, so she was a little quieter than usual. She eventually feel asleep on the couch next to the fire while everyone else was getting ready for bed. As the only male in the Caravan, it was my job to get rid of any spiders lurking aboot. I had to get rid of one, and Claire recounted the horror story of the last time she was alone in the caravan and needed to get rid of a spider. She saw one in her room in the caravan, and was afraid to leave to find help because she was worried that, left unsupervised, it would crawl into her bed and wait there for her. This led to a 2 hour standoff, with Claire too terrified to approach the spider but also petrified of leaving it alone. Eventually, realizing there was no other way, she somehow found the courage to catch it with a jar, but then she could see it crawling around inside the jar and shrieked. It's good that I was here to help this time. I can't wait for summer when the tarantulas come out.

Since we had so many people, we were given the day off on Friday (too many to fit in the trucks). Noriko left late in the morning to go to her next farm in Corsica. I got an e-mail from her later sending the pictures she had taken of me, and a few kind words of thanks. One photo was of me feeding betty, and the other was one of all the WWOOFers, taken with a timer. We didn't know where the top of the frame was so we overcompensated a bit.

Friday's weather was great so I headed into town. Anna had just finished her first day of work and offered to make dinner. She made pasta with tomatoes, onions, feta, and zucchini and it was great. I look forward to her cooking for us more. Saturday we woke up, made a hearty breakfast, and started flirting with the idea of traveling around Nice. There is a great bus system that makes the villages surrounding Nice really accessible, so looking through the guide book we decided to go to Eze. It is a medieval town on a mountain by the sea with a famous botanical garden. We made efforts to rustle up a crew, so Kelly and Claire headed down from the Caravan to meet us.

A communication disaster ensued, as Claire and Kelly had no phone, I forgot mine, Anna's could only send texts, and Eliza was left with a couple texts from anna but no way to respond. In response to the communication disaster, we left notes for people to find and left to have a picnic on the beach. Chips, oranges, and brie and apple sandwiches. Eventually we got everyone back together but by that point it was too late to go to Eze, so we decided to wait to go to Eze until Sunday, and stay in Nice and play golf for the rest of the evening Saturday. After golfing, I made falafel wraps for dinner. They were one of the best things I have eaten since my arrival here. I will be making them again. We eventually made it to the "pour your own drinks" bar, where the beer taps are in the middle of your table, thus removing the middlemen and streamlining the process.

The next day we took a bus to Eze. It was a very quick bus ride, only about 20 minutes. Eze was a genuine medieval town, with a couple 5 star hotels hidden about the city. There were some really great views, and on a clear day you can allegedly see all the way to Corsica.

We all clearly need to work on our french, because we saw a sign saying "Escalier sans issue" which we translated into "No problem stairs", but turned out to mean "dead end stairs". I think it's a tourist trap. 

I also got into the gardens at the student price, thanks to the charming lady at the ticket office. Thank you. 

Here is a Mirror Dragon, which was not in Eze. 

I went to Church Sunday night, and by the end caught about 1/3 of what they were saying in French.

Monday we worked about 10 hours in the grape field. There were 7 of us working, and we planted the entire field in a day. The reason for the rush was the impending rain, which was supposed to hit Tuesday or Wednesday. We needed to get everything planted ASAP, and couldn't do it once the rain started.

Tuesday Tarik and I got to work with the soil-cuber. It's at least 60 years old, and turns mushy soil into neat little cubes for planting seedlings. there is a hopper and then some moving/compressing/cutting parts and then a conveyor belt that feeds out the cubes. Joelle started managing the cubes and moving them to their respective racks, but then had to leave to do something so I took over. I immediately ruined everything.

The good news is that I get Wednesday off (because of the rain and the double shift Monday), and then Thursday I leave for America to come home and visit some family (and a few more grad schools).

So there may be a couple updates in the coming weeks, but they certainly won't have to do with farming. I'll try to catch up on photo/video sharing while I'm in the states.

Not your typical Tuesday

It started off like any other Tuesday. A quick glance at the snowcapped alps resting vigilantly outside my window, and then a hot bowl of oatmeal with my Japanese roomie. We again stayed at Grenouilles to work on the old greenhouse. It needs a lot of attention, I did some weeding and trench-digging. Later in the afternoon, we had yet another worker show up. His name is Tari, he's a Nice native born to Moroccan parents. As part of his internship with his agriculture school, he is rotating through various local farms for 3-week cycles. He speaks some English, great French, and some Arabic. Over lunch, we discovered that he also speaks a little bit of Japanese, because he is Otaku. He had to explain to me what that was, but Noriko was quite interested to hear a couple phrases in her native tongue.

Lunch conversation centered around Japanese culture, originating with the joke that for lunch we were eating "Nos Haricots", beans that were grown here on the farm. When spoken, it sounds a lot like "Noriko", so everyone laughed (except Noriko, who either laughed nervously because we had just made a joke about eating her, or laughed nervously because she didn't know what was going on and everyone glanced at her and laughed in unison). We explained it to her.

Next, Joelle mentioned that in Japan, you can "rent" a dog for a day. They are well trained, friendly pups that people can rent to walk or play with, without the accompanying responsibility of chronic dog-ownership. Along those same lines are cat-cafes, where you can get your cat-fix if you are lonely, having a rough day, or like cats better than people.

Lastly, we realized that Noriko ate a disproportionately huge amount of food. Usually as much, if not more than me. I am easily twice her size, probably knocking on the door of 2.5x. Thanks to Tari, we were able to uncover the culpable underlying cultural tradition. It is apparently rude to refuse food when offered, and there is no lack of food-offering at the lunch-table. Here, it is essentially rude to take any food without offering to serve everyone else first. One can imagine how this cultural mix would lead to a heavily overfed tiny japanese girl.

After dinner, I saw Noriko typing on her laptop. I asked if I could see her keyboard, and she said "of course?". I was curious because there are three japanese alphabets, totaling literally hundreds of characters (actually thousands, but those aren't really letters in the sense that we understand them). So I reasonably wondered how you could fit all of that onto a keyboard.

How do they do it?

English characters and phonetics. They set their keyboard to the desired alphabet, and then type out the phonetics of the word they want to type. For example, to say good morning in Japan one would say "おはよう". This is pronounced "ohayou" (which is comically similar to "Oh hey you" in english). To type that in an email, Noriko sets her keyboard to a certain alphabet, and then types in (in english) o-h-a-y-o-u. I think that's a little ridiculous, but it does give computer-savvy japanese folk a leg up in learning english, because they need to know the alphabet to type.

I started the fire so Noriko wouldn't freeze, and headed downtown for my weekly salsa lesson. Before I left, I warmed my self by the fire for a couple seconds. Noriko looked at me and said "You have two girlfriends, one for the mountains and one for the city". She was implying that the fire was my girlfriend up here in the cold mountains. She really brings a new and interesting perspective to the table.

This Tuesday was also Jessie's (Maryland student studying abroad) birthday, so Eliza and I bought her a chocolate cake. As I was minding my own business cooking mushroom risotto, I heard a tapping at the chamber door. I was a little confused for a moment, as Eliza was microwaving Chicken Cordon Bleu next to me, and Kelly and Daphnee were out of town.

I hesitantly opened the door and was greeted by a grocery-laden german girl, who was approximately 5'11''. She was the new roommate! She had arrived this morning, and spent the day tooling about Nice. The landlord hadn't bothered to inform us.

She was incredibly nice, she's a 6th year medical school student who is doing a surgery rotation in Nice. She offered us some wine and chatted while we ate.

Then we went out for Jessie's birthday, with our new german friend in tow, but I'll spare you the details. I do recall her saying something exactly like "This is the best birthday ever", so I think it went well.

Wednesday we went up to Broc and spread fertilizer for hours and hours (don't worry it's organic).

I was sleep deprived and fell asleep around my Wednesday bedtime, which is at 5 PM.

Thursday everyone went up to Broc. I worked with Tari all day, collecting radishes and moving cement pillars and ploughing fields. It's starting to look more like a farm now. Tari is great to talk to, he is helping me learn French much more than anyone else here. The Pope's retirement is still all over the radio, which taught me the expression "It's like the H in Hawai'i", followed by the unspoken corollary "which doesn't do anything" (as it's silent in spoken french).

Claire and Kelly are supposed to show up today, they are yet to appear. I'm doing laundry, and since I did such great work today I have tomorrow off!

Have a great weekend! (and remember to subscribe in the "subscribe by e-mail" box in the upper right, so that I don't feel bad about not posting every day).

Fika

First off: Sorry for not posting every day. The weather's getting nicer and there's more to do than stay boxed up in the Caravan all day. So that you don't have to check compulsively for new posts, look over here....---------->

There should be a box that says "follow by e-mail". If you type in your e-mail, you can receive notifications to that address every day there is a new post. Hope it helps!

Love Story:

There is a couple staying in the caravan for a few days while they look for an apartment. Jonathan is a farmer from Colorado, he is looking into starting his own farm somewhere in Europe. He met Maryanna while he was WWOOFing on her parents farm in Italy. Initially, Jonathan only spoke english and Maryanna only spoke italian, but 2.5 years later they are both pretty bilingual and about to start a farm together. So much for french immersion, everyone speaks english.

The Italian girl was also able to help me figure out what was written on the caravan wall. A swedish girl wrote "Je veux un Fika", which translates to "I want a Fika". Fika has different meanings depending on what country you live in. It means coffee break in Sweden, but in Italy, Germany, and France it has a variety of meanings, the least vulgar of which is "pretty girl".

Friday we went to Broc and Noriko and I built a fence. It was fun working with her, we talk 90% in english but even that is a little fractured. She asked if I had brothers or sisters, and I said yes I have both. Noriko was most interested in my sister, because her name (Sarah) is getting very popular with the younger generation in Japan. I also mentioned that she taught elementary school, to which Noriko responded "whooooaaaaa.... physical strength!". Which I think was meant to mean, "props to her, that's a tough job".

We worked rather late into the afternoon, and eventually Noriko started taking a nap. Can't blame her, fence building again involved my favorite french past-time, moving rocks.

It started snowing slightly, and then we started a bonfire to get rid of the accumulating brush that we were cleaning up, and ate lunch. We ate a spaghetti-based frittata, and Jean-Louis jokingly told Noriko that this was french high cuisine. Again, no idea if Noriko got the joke.

Friday evening I headed down to Nice, where the plan was to take the bus to Monaco. The girls took their sweet time getting ready however, so we sprinted to catch the bus. Our track coaches would've been proud, we made it to the bus stop at 10:39 PM, and sighed with relief as we waited for the 10:40 bus. Tragically, we soon realized there was no 10:40 bus, somebody had misread or misremembered the schedule, and the next bus came at around midnight.

We went and ate nachos to pass the time, and then caught the midnight bus to Monaco. We entered the first club we found, and asked for a drink menu. It was one of those drink menus where you can't exactly figure out where the decimal place belongs. 1 glass of champagne costs 200. Is that 2.00 euros? 20.00 euros (because europe is weird)? Surely it can't be 200 euros?

It was 200 euros. I quickly put the menu down, because I felt like I couldn't really even afford to be looking at it.

We found a different bar that was much more lively and much less expensive. On the walk over, we got to take a look at some of the mega-yachts in the port. As we ooohed and ahhhed, a passerby told us that those are just the winter boats, the big ones get here in the summer. I can't really understand having that much money, but now the drink prices make sense.

We caught the 4 AM bus home, and immediately fell asleep. While we were waiting at the bus stop, we got to glance in at the bentley dealership, which is right next to the ferrari dealership.

 And... Noriko made me Dinner! Walnuts and green beans and a rice with a raw egg. It was delicious, but I still don't exactly know the rules of eating raw eggs. In japan, people eat them every day. In Muhrica, the rule is "Don't".

I slept in on Saturday, and spent most of my waking hours cooking, with an eventual excursion to Wayne's pub. We ate bacon hash browns, toast, fried rice, and quesadillas.

Sunday I discovered game of thrones. It was cold and rainy, so I didn't have to feel bad about staying inside and eating chocolate all day while watching TV. I also got an opportunity to skype with the Family, always good to see their faces.

Monday we worked on repairing one of the older greenhouses (made of wood) and I did some general tidying up around the farm. Most of the work left to be done is up at Broc, but it snowed again so there is no way to get work done up there.