One more thing

The pizza place has a POOL! There isn't any water in it at the moment. They're doing a little maintenance work: repainting the floor, etc. It won't be ready until June, which is a bummer because I won't be here. I wish I could have captured the size of this thing, but I failed. Just to give you a hint: it had a mushroom waterfall thing in the shallow end and water canons in the deep. Very reminiscent of Vegas, but fewer lights.

Ai Poppy!

As mentioned before, poppies grow like weeds here. They are almost out of bloom and starting to wilt away so my roommate Jessie and I stopped off in one of the fields near our house to play around for a little bit while we waited for our pizza order. Healthy dinner tonight.

Still running...

I set out around 5:45pm to complete a loop described to us by THE leader of the leaders here in Europe. She is a trip leader at heart and she gave step by step detailed directions complete with a highlighted route map. It sounded perfect. 4 miles with a small climb on a low traffic, well shaded road that opens up to a great view of the mountain and a loop back to the canal.

I was off to a good start and every time I crossed an intersection I would think to myself, "there's that tree she was talking about so I must be on the right track." Somewhere at the top it all went downhill. Literally and figuratively. There was supposed to be a 4-way intersection and my route dead-ended into a 3-way intersection...hmm. Oh well, turn right.

Now I'm supposed to pass a road on the right called Chemin du Velo. Velo = bikes. Easy enough to remember...although I'm not really seeing any Velos. About 10 minutes down the road (a bit over a mile at my lightning speed) I decide I should really have passed it by now and I need to turn right at some point. Sense of direction says turn away from the mountain.

I passed an older, fairly robust lady tending to her horticulture shop in her apron (a nursery in the states) so I stop:

"Excusez moi...uh...(gestures + pointing) a le canal?"

French sigh in response (This is common here. It consists of a little lift of the hands, shrug of the shoulder's, tilt of the head, lower lip pokes out like a pout, and a little noise squeeks out that sounds like a little flatulence)

"uh...no je parle pas francais, parle vous anglais?"

Another sigh.

"uh...a Carpentras (+ more gestures and waiving)"

"oh. OH. (now I get my first french lady tisk. tisk. tisk. complete with finger shaking)" insert MANY french words here...NONE of which I understood. I did however understand that I was really far and I had to go straight and at some point turn right.

"uh...oui. Se bon. Merci."

So I ran. and ran. and ran. and ran some more. I finally found my way back to a much busier road, but at least I knew I was on the right track to get home based on the signs pointing to Carpentras.

By the time I got home it was 7:15. I had been running for an hour and a half. I would guestimate that my 4 miles somehow doubled. Could be worse...I could be somewhere less pretty. Here are some more pictures from along the way.

Mt Ventoux

There is this little known mountain just up the way from me called Mt Ventoux. You might have heard of this hill because it is occasionally one of the legs in this small race that happens here every year called the Tour de France.

Somehow I got roped into climbing said mountain this morning. What was I thinking?! It was a pure statement of stubbornness and pride. This climb is about 22km long with an average gradient of about 7.5%. No big deal except there is NO BREAK. At all. You know how most climbs are steep then flat then steep then flat. Not here. No mercy. Not to mention the last 16km of which the gradient is about 9% with several sections in the 10-13% range. That's about 5000 ft elevation gain in 22km (about 13 miles). This "mileage" is also not including the 20km it took to get to and from Bedoin the town at the foot of the climb.

French style clif bar

If you are not a cyclist think of it like this: in the U.S. they post warning signs when you are descending a hill steeper than 6%. I can also tell you that on the way down I was consistently accelerating despite my super-human grip strength pressing down on the brake levers. FUN!

As per my french lesson with my roommate Jessie earlier in the week, I learned that "ventoux" means windy and apparently this mountain can sometimes see gusts of up to 200mph! Furthermore, according to wikipedia 240 days a year see gust of over 56 mph. Fortunately for me "le mistral" (which literally means master and I found out why last week as she blew me all over the road during our training rides) finished dishing out her wrath Saturday so today was fairly calm and I didn't get blown off the mountain.

At the summit

Jessie also finished the climb in about 1hr 45min. I finished just after her at 2hr 45 min :) I blame the extra 11 pounds or so that I was carrying in that Backroads bike I bragged about last week. That and the (no exaggeration) 40 extra pounds I carry in my body.

Jessie slaying a section of the climb

No matter how long it took to get up there the views were AMAZING. You could see the Alps! One of the other cool things was seeing all the writing in the road cheering on the Tour riders. Some of it I could understand and some of it I couldn't, but the feeling was still there!

Overall it was a GREAT day and I'm happy that she twisted my arm. Definitely an experience that I will look back on with pride, or maybe a little more immediately with some soreness.

Isle-Sur-La-Sorgue

There is a beutiful little town about 10km up the road called Isle-Sur-La-Sorgue. It has a stream that runs through the whole village, cutting under roads and past buildings. I thought it was so great when we drove through on our way to a training ride last week and, fortunately, yesterday afternoon we returned for the market.

The girls enjoying their berries on the water.

Olives, olives everywhere!

Looking up for inspiration.

Books, records, belts...they sell it all at the french market.

A cheese lover's paradise. YUM!

You can always see more at my flickr too. Cheers!

A big part of staying sane around here is staying active. Yesterday morning I went for a run and this is what I see everyday. Polaroid style of course since I'm not going to run around with my big old fatty camera.

Graduation

This has been 3 of the fastest weeks of my life. I have seen and learnd so much in such a short period of time that it is hard to describe to others. I found out I was moving to France on April 30th. That's less than a month ago and so much has changed. Ridiculous.

I "graduated" from training this week. Complete with our bicycle helmet caps and "Sweet Dreams" playing as we marched/danced into the conference room for out t-shirt and first aid kit diplomas. It was a hectic, long week but really fun and informative too. It is shocking how much you can learn about yourself when you role play through potential scenarios and do tons of public speaking every day. Our instructors were awesome and very patient with us. I was impressed every day that I went in by the organization and transparency of the company. Somthing that is seriously lacking in most US based corporations.

I described a bit of what I was learning in the last post so I won't elaborate too much more other than to tell you that I can now:

• successfully dismantle a bike and then reassemble it including all the cabling and many other random mechanic skills we will need while on the road
• rack 24 bikes on top of the van and trailer and then drive that van and trailer down streets about the size of a small alley lined by historic buildings (like Napoleon stayed here type of historic) with no sidewalk buffer
• prepare a "gourmet" picnic with an hour prep time which often becomes about a half hour because you are doing van support for the riders at the same time
• order a baguette in french, ordering a beer seems to always confuse either me or the server, but the baguette I am good at

Bike school was always the best time, mostly because of our instructor, Sebastian. Picture the "worst" french accent you can come up with and then add a very dry sense of humor and a couple random gestures to try to get the point across and that's Sebastian in a nut shell. I was so impressed by his vocabulary considering bikes (parts, pieces, how to describe the mechanics) would not be an easy thing to explain to others outside of your native language. It wouldn't be easy to do within your native language for that matter!

Driving was by far the most anxiety provoking of all the tasks and still is. Especially considering I am going to IRELAND! (Very excited about my placement but I'll get back to that.) Driving such a large vehicle with so much cargo on the opposite side of the road with the steering wheel on the left. Like a postman. No big deal, right?

We all had speculations about Ireland. Mostly because I don't speak any other languages (I won't count my lack-of-practice spanish) but also because I have been there before. I have not, however, spent much time in County Kerry and I have definitely not bike toured through the area staying at Premiere Inns. This will be a welcomed first experience.

I have been thinking of my Oma a lot lately. Well before I knew where I would be assigned I kept having this sneaky little thought that she was somehow, somewhere pulling strings to make this all happen. She was such a big part of building my adventurous spirit and I just laugh when I think of her and Clara (with her flip up shades) driving around in the "batmobile". Now that I'm going to Ireland it seems like an obvious connection. I still don't know if I believe in an afterlife, but the thought sure does make me happy so I will leave it at that.

The best part of training, by far, was my fellow trainees. There were 12 of us in one house. 12 very different people from a little of all over: we had two italians, one slovanian, two americans living in Paris, one american who has been in France for 30 years, one irishman who lives in Spain, one german-american (dual citizenship), two from Oregon, one from Hawaii and one from Wisconsin. Two housemates are vegetarian and one vegan. One was even on crutches (he dislocated his ankle playing basketball with his brother) and everyone scrambled to relocate upstairs so he could have a bed in the downstairs bedroom.

This seems like it would be chaos, but it was quite the opposite. Everyone was so respectful that it somehow restored my faith in the world and our potential for world peace. Apparently all we have to do is educate everyone and teach them to be tolerant of cultural differences. No biggie.

It really did make the whole experience that much richer. I didn't predict that I would become so close to everyone and each drive to the train was a little part of the house dynamic leaving. It's sad to think that we bonded over such an overwhelming learning process but we actually won't be working with each other at all. At least it's not likely within this first year. We have been successfully scattered.

We had dinner together every night. No matter how busy we all were the laptops were turned off and skype phone calls were delayed so we could all sit down together. The first night the "americans" cooked we made veggie burgers and little sliders for the meat eaters, complete with all the fixins (including cheddar cheese and ketchup) and sweet potato fries on the side. Very few at the table had experienced a homemade veggie burger and it was funny to watch the expressions! One of the best parts was when an impromptu Star Spangled Banner erupted from the kitchen. Just plain silly.

Almost every night was complete with a toast or explanation of the food on the table. (Fern gave the american toast and it went something like this, "God bless America, where we stay home drink beer and let the neighbors vote".) At the end of the toast was typically this little ditty that the people of Bordeaux apparently do whenever there is something exciting happening at their table. We decided it would happen just about any time we opened a bottle of wine. Watch for it at the end of the video.

I never once heard an argument about who got first shower or what should be on tv (partially due to the fact that the tv was never on). Everyone respected when someone needed a little alone time and we all pitched in on chores and laundry. Simone could sometimes be found sitting in our field playing the didgeridoo and I laugh when I think of opening my shutters (very french) and seeing him and Fern sitting outside in the field just watching the moon. Simone also spread a positive affirmations phrase around the house that he picked up in Australia, "You beauty". It's hard to describe, and I wish I had an audio recording of it because it makes me laugh every time I hear it.

I could go on and on about every single one of my new friends, but it would probably end up being the longest post ever so I will spare you all and share a video with you instead. Beth put this together and it is so cute. Enjoy.

ps. Mom and Dad- If you want to see the video bigger click the four arrows at the bottom right to make it go full screen. Or you can click the youtube log and it will take you to the source. LOVE YOU :)