I feel like I should have been in a movie...

There are a few times in people's lives when the situation grants itself as prime material for a screen play. I feel as if there were several moments like that in the past couple days.

The big thing is France is to be able to speak the beautiful language PERFECTLY. Exhibit A: At least 2 lab sessions emphasizing the nasal phonetics: [a], [o], and [e]. We had been working on this one exercise for about 40 minutes on the second day (today) when I realized that it was exactly like something I had seen in a movie. Not only were we saying random sounds that sounded pretty much the same, but we didn't really have an idea what we were doing... I started laughing and the girl next to me asked, "Why are you laughing? What just happened?" and I asked her, "Have you seen My Fair Lady?" to which she responded, "No... Don't think so..." And I said, "Oh, well, when you see that movie, you'll understand why repeating sounds over and over again is funny." Normally I'm not that happy after Lab because I realize I can't pronounce things just like a French native, but I practically skipped out of the room today because I was Eliza Doolittle for an hour.

Saturday was an excursion day to St. Savin (abbey with Europe's oldest fresco), Angles-s-l'Anglin(castle ruins and weird exhibit), and a functioning abbey. The day began at 6:30am for me... We all left the corner of the boulevard around 8am to our first destination. Two hours later, we pull up to the first abbey. That was great and interesting... but the best part of this stop was when they closed down the exhibit while we were still in there. The lights turned off suddenly and we were all wondering who had broken something when our director said, "And it's lunch time in the abbey..." We left, needless to say, and our next destination was the really cool castle ruins and a rather strange exhibit that talked about the development of language and cave people... The castle was incredible though. I felt like I should have been Susan from The Chronicles of Narnia because the ruins were right on the river... it was really cool. After this town, we went to an abbey and eventhough we didn't really get to be tourists there, we went to a shop where they sell all the things that the monks make and that was really interesting. There was anything from soap, candy, jam, beer, and religious items. I felt like I should have either been in Robin Hood or some Redwall novel.

Sunday was probably my favorite day yet, though, while I've been here in Tours. Alix and I took a bike ride along the banks of the Cher River to Villandry. The trip was a 42 km round trip (translates to about 26.5mi) adventure on a relatively flat path full of beautitul sights and good conversation. There were a couple times, like when we were leaving Tours, that I thought "Oh man, I'm going to be really sore tomorrow..." But yesterday's tomorrow has come and almost gone and I can say that I'm not unbearably sore. It's a great feeling and I wish I had a bike for longer (I had to return it this morning before class which was another adventure). Once we found the right trail and got going, I felt like I could breathe and relax and be myself. This is probably the first time I've felt this way since leaving the US. There was a point where Alix and I stopped and we just listened to the silence of nature as the sun came out from the clouds, creating sparkling ripples in the Cher River... It's one of those moments that will forever remain in my memory because the combination of sights and smells and emotions can't be justified on paper or in written words.
The trip to the castle took about 2 hours because we got lost a couple times at the beginning and then we stopped for pictures a lot. When we reached Villandry, we were having trouble walking. Between the two of us, Saturday had been a very tiring day, so once we hobbled into the shop to buy our tickets, we were wondering if this had been the best decision. After walking around for 30 minutes, we found the Sun Garden where we plopped down on the edge of the fountain and ate our picnic. I think we sat there for about 30 mintues just soaking up the sun and watching the people come through and look at us. We ended up leaving the gardens pretty quickly after that because we were tired (Well, after I introduced Alix to the grapevines and she ate a good number of 'em) and we went to Savonnier to look for a café that wasn't too touristy. We found one and drank some espresso. The trip back only took an hour. I don't know how that happened... Maybe it was the espresso... But it was great. There were parts when I felt like I should have been Anne Shirley... riding her bike through the woods of Avonlea... and then I felt like I should have been in The Sound of Music.

I know I've said that I should have been in a lot of movies, but don't worry. I'm not comparing all aspects of my life to someone else's script. I'm perfectly happy in my own life movie because I get a hodge-podge of everything :) And I don't have to worry about my salary. haha.