6-4 Wens.      A breakthrough of sorts occurred today.  I went to the local library and asked the librarian where I might find other people to do things with, and she directed me to a house of international youths that she knew very little about.  I went to the house and talked with the people there.  They invited me to eat with them that night, so I did.  The main dish was good but I didn't care for the "bread-pud" dessert.   I guess they have it pretty often, and the others seemed to like it at least to some degree, though nobody wanted to take any of the chocolate flavor since it didn't look too good.  The group was made up of volunteers from all around the world, and they were working on two projects.  First, they were restoring the house where they were living, and second, an alternate group was restoring a church in La Barde.  They were all very friendly and extremely international.

6-5 Thurs.      I bought another bottle of wine; it cost 11.25F from the ATAK and doesn't look as though it will be very good.  The ATAK didn't have a very good selection so I will probably go to the InterMarche next and see what they have to offer.  I'm also trying to get it set up that I can tour some wineries, but if I don't do it myself, it will take about a week.  The ATAK wine was not very good, but was "drinkable."  ("Drinkable" seems to be the local phrase of choice to denote not too good.)

 6-6 Fri.          I sanded a bunch and worked on the house.  I also met our neighbor,  Mr. Luit, and had a short but pleasant conversation with him in French.  Luissa came over around 11:00 AM while I was making bread to invite me to come to a dance that evening.  I told her that I planned to go and that I would arrive at the House around 10:00 PM.  I followed the plan.  "Quant vous faites promis, il faut tenez promis."  <---Said to me by the bike repair guy who got me a new axle...  When I arrived, they served a banana pulp stuff that was pretty good.  We spoke French and Mona invited me to hitch-hike with them to a cabin in the Pyrénées for June 14th to the 16th.  She mentioned that Anne will be going and has invited her work party as well.  We drank some French beer that was very similar to triple yeasted Belgian beer and came in a Champaignesque green bottle.  Afterwards, Mona and Sarah walked with me to the Café du Lac.  I arranged to go mountain biking with a French guy named Eric for the next day.  I'll also try to go to the house for les aperitifs, so that I can try Pineau for the first time.  After we had sat for a while, I asked Mona if she would like to go for a walk.  She accepted and we walked around the lake.  Afterwards we returned for a while until she decided she would like to go home.  I walked her home and we talked some more.  She's very friendly, but will be away until June 16th.  On an unrelated note, I arrived at the idea of riding my bike to San Sebastian to visit Tom and family.  Doing this would probably prevent me from returning for Fall semester.  I'm questioning my plans for touring Europe, and considering making some drastic changes.  My Eurail pass is becoming somewhat of a liability, though I still expect it will pay off.  I really need to send a letter to Michele, Anne-laure, and Laurence.  I also need to persuade Renaud to allow me to set up my own e-mail account from my laptop.

 6-7 Sat.          I drew up designs for converting the dryer to 240 volt operation.  The design was pretty straight forward since it was a 220V US appliance to start out with.  The only minimal challenge was that US appliances rely on L1, L2, and N, where European appliances only have L1 and L2, which incidentally would put up to a lethal 240 volts on the case if not isolated and grounded.  Later I met with Eric and we went for a good bike trip around the lake area.  We also encountered a nice swimming hole, though there are apparently vipers in this area.  Later I went back to his place and we ate a really nice lunch that his wife had prepared and talked about numerous things in French.  We later stopped by the Bateleurs and I sampled some Pineau.  It was good, but a bit sweet for my taste.  I need to try cognac next.

Next, Eric and I went to a café and to the "Semain European" meeting.  At the meeting I met a bunch of young people, and was briefly introduced to a bunch of girls my age from Montendre.  The meeting however got very boring, and I disagreed with the methods being used to manipulate and store their data.  They were typing in full pages of contact information of the students who would be arriving, and then would print the page, and then hold down the delete key for a few minutes until all the text was cleared from the computer.  The page would then be brought to another group, who would find mistakes, and using scissors and white-out would correct the page and then Xerox it to make it look less mutilated.  After explaining to them what I saw as an area that could be improved, and suggesting how it could be improved, and having seen no response, I politely excused myself and left.  I hope this didn't offend Eric, but even he was completely unreceptive to my insight as to how computers can be used to streamline an operation.  It was very frustrating for me to see 15 people use so much time for something they will have to redo, especially considering they had the tools to do it right.   I called at 10:30 PM to wish Alex a happy birthday, and it was nice talking with her in French.  For some reason my French was very adequate today.

 6-8 Sun.          I don't even remotely remember this day, and have no concrete proof that it existed.

 6-9 Mon.      I spent the day working on the house and beds, and building my designs for the washer.  The washer is accustomed to 120V AC 60Hz, and was much more complicated to convert to the European standard.  I had to use a massive transformer to generate a 120V center between L1 and L2, otherwise known as N.  This was difficult because it involved matching phases and loads.  The dryer worked as planned, but the washer would overheat and shut down every time it attempted to enter spin cycle.  I double checked my design, and tested voltages while running, and concluded that everything was essentially as it should be except that the washer was drawing much more current than it should.  Frustrated, I went to bed to think more about it.

 6-10 Tues.      Renaud was in a panic today about getting things done before Laurel's arrival.  I managed to fix the washing machine.  My first fix was giving me voltage problems because the motor couldn't get itself from start mode to run mode due to the slip mechanism not working since the previous electrician had installed the wrong belts.  In other words, I was trying to convert a non-working US washer to a working European washer, but had incorrectly assumed it was originally a working unit.  I detected and corrected the error.  I learned a lot about heavy duty motors, though I have a long way to go.  Renaud called me a genius for having fixed and converted the washer and dryer.   He also commented that I have a unique approach to problems that seem unsolvable, and that I attack them like a bull-dog.

As comic relief, the supercharged, flame-spitting, hand burning "sander from hell" burned out today either due to the 50 hertz or due to our crummy voltage adapter or both.  Later, I baked a monster sized loaf of bread as a gift to Les Bateleurs.  I found out later that they had worked on eating that loaf for days.  Mona was still there but was about to leave.  It was her 20th birthday.  I met an American girl, Samantha, who was quite nice but seemed stereotypical of American sorority girls.  Later, a French girl named Helen gave me a ride home.

 6-11 Wens.      I cleaned up the front yard to make it look a bit better, and got Renaud's answering machine working.  I later went to the Bateleurs for some social interaction.  I turns out that just after I left the night before, Mona went into shock from a bee sting.  She told me that for maybe 20 minutes she was conscious laying on the ground near the outhouse, but couldn't move at all.  Nobody found her for a while, and even then, they had no idea what had happened to her.  She most likely will spend two nights in the Hospital at Jonzak.  I went for a short bike tour, and returned to the Bateleurs where I helped Lee churn some dirt.  Later I picked a mass of cherries and talked with both Luit and Luissa, who both individually emphatically urged me to please come by any time, but to not take offense if they seem to ignore me.   I'll visit Mona in the hospital tomorrow around 10:00 if all goes as planned.  Les Bateleurs gave me a good dinner, and afterwards I went home.

 6-12 Thurs.      Luissa called to cancel the trip to Jonzak to visit Mona.  On an unrelated note, I called Renaud's number in Paris and left a message with a woman there about a translation they needed to have done.  My French was quite sufficient once again.  Next I received a call from the translation agency and my French sucked once again.  There seems to be almost no predictor for when my French will shine and when it will suck.  I went to La Barde later and ate and drank and played volleyball with the work-group. The La Barde group is really cool!

 6-13 Fri.         Pyrenees excursion:  We teamed up into five teams of two, myself riding with Rita.  We went via "auto-stop" (hitchhiking) to Bagneres de Bigorre, with our final destination being The Dewitt house in Marsas.  The entire trip took us 9 hours, but was very pleasant and included a one and a half hour lunch break, giving me a chance to give Rita a short shoulder massage in the park.  Our directions to the house were really vague, and the house was located in the middle of the French Pyrenees, near the Spanish border.  Upon our lucky arrival, I talked with a local farmer and hiked up his mountain.  I had to cross what appeared to be a herd of bulls, though later I found out that here even the cows have horns, so I may not have been in as much danger as I had thought.  The people in this area talk with an accent that sounds almost like Spanish, but they are very friendly.  In many ways it felt like being home again to not have so many people around and be in the mountains.  That night I walked with Marjan to attempt to find two people in our group that still hadn't arrived.  We talked about numerous things such as touring, cultures, the volunteer groups, and our lives.  It was nice to speak Dutch again, and it was nice to talk with someone who had similar plans and ambitions as myself.  After we returned to the house, we got word that the two we were looking for had gotten stuck in the main town and found a hotel to stay in.  We would pick them up the next day.

 6-14 Sat.         We got a ride to town and I found Samantha and Lee, the lost hitch-hikers.  We shopped and bought the store, I bough two bottles of Wine: Muscat de Riversaltes, 23Fr, a very full bodied, but overly sweet wine, and 1995 Premiers Cotes de Bordeaux Blanc Moelleux, 23Fr, as yet unopened.  Because we had far too many things and people to get in the car, I volunteered to guide Samantha back to the house by hitchhiking.  This ended up taking no time and seemed to put us on good terms.  We later hiked to a fromagery and I bought almost a Kilo of Pyranees Chevre (Goat cheese) which cost 88Fr/Kilo.  The cheese was extremely good and reminded me (for some twisted reason) of aged Gouda.  During the entire trip to the fromagery, Rita seemed a bit distant and difficult to talk with.  That night we had our big party.  Marjan created a giant and delicious punch by putting fruit pieces in red wine.  I ended up drinking about 20 glasses of the stuff and can't figure out how I didn't get drunker than I did.  I also baked bread that night which turned out very good, though the dough was a bit runny.  While talking with Rita during the party, she cautiously mentioned that she really enjoyed the massage I had given her in the earlier in the park.  I mentioned that I could do better, if she would like.  She said she would like that very much, so we went upstairs where Anne and Samantha were.  After getting started, I mentioned to Rita that I could give a better massage if she were to remove her shirt, and when she did, Samantha freaked out.  Rita also removed her bra which freaked Samantha out even more.  I gave Rita what I believe and hope was the massage of her life, that others say took about two hours.  Later we ate bread and chatted with the others.  That night, Lee got together with Ruth, and they later ended up sleeping in the same bed.  Lee, having no idea how he ended up in her bed, was very cautious to even ask me what I remembered of that night since he couldn't remember anything.  It was a great night for the whole group, and a really fun party!

 6-15 Sun.         In the morning, Samantha jokingly made a big deal with Rita about "the morning after" and repentance and the need for us to go to church.  I thought it was pretty funny at first, but I could see Rita was noticeably perturbed.  Samantha, Rita and myself then hiked through the mountains to the local Catholic Church.  The entire membership consisted of six people and the priest, not including ourselves.  They were quite honored to have visitors from so far away.  In the sermon, they asked us to say some sort of prayer, but the others (I thought) pretended not to understand, so I pretended as well.  I found out later that they actually didn't understand, but I was glad we didn't say much in front of everyone.  The Church experience was really cool, albeit a bit awkward...

Back at the house everyone had left for Montendre except Marjan, Laura, Pedro, Lee and myself.  For the rest of the day we just sat out in the sun and chatted as we drank.  I made another huge, but gorgeous loaf of bread for us to eat on, and Pedro taught me two classic Portuguese phrases:  "Whoa, it's really hot! ---> Bah, sto mezmo calore", and, "It's always the fault of the government!  ---> Est de culpado de governo". Unfortunately, I don't remember exactly how the government quote went.  I also learned some useful hitch-hiking phrases in Spanish.

 6-17 Mon.      We awoke late, and the weather was looking bad.  Marjan and Pedro decided to head to Barcelona and promptly left.  Lee and I took the long foot tour of the Pyrenees, and ended up getting the begeevers rained out of us.  We found a tree dwelling in the mountains where someone had put ladders up most of the trees in one area and had built a small house atop the highest one.  Once we got to a real road, we found a public shelter and hid out.  Later a car came along, and we hitchhiked in two contiguous segments back to Marsas to dry out.

 6-18 Tues.      Lee and I got up early and hitched all the way back to Montendre.  The trip had slow beginnings, but we proved that it's not the distance that you travel, but the number of junctions you go through that take the most time.  After having left at 8:00 AM, and walked a long ways, we arrived at 5:00 PM.  The house had turned chaotic in my absence, Renaud was a wreck, and the kids were somehow everywhere.  I found out later that Samantha and Rita didn't make it back in one day and had to get another hotel room and take a train out of Bordeaux.    Apparently, some French man was asking Samantha if she liked all sorts of sexual acts.  Samantha didn't understand and just kept saying "Oui" to the things he asked of her.  Once she figured it out, she freaked and made him let them out.  She vowed to never hitchhike again.  I think there was something about them getting caught on the train without tickets too, but I'm not sure about this.

6-19 Wens. Being back in Montendre is stressful!  The kids want constant attention. Laurel has about a hundred things she wants to do to the house, and every one of them require a massive financial expenditure as well as time to implement; and she has neither of these resources at her disposal.

6-20 Thurs. I went to Les Bataleurs and helped with their work. While there, I was informed that they were all going to spend the evening with the La Barde group, but that there was no room in the cars for me. I came by later with Laurel and we were given a tour of the house by Luissa, who was going to go to La Barde soon, but assured me there was no way I could go.

6-21 Fri. I called Les Bataleurs to ask if there was a telephone at La Barde. I spoke to Luissa, who volunteered that there was both no phone and no way to contact the La Barde group. She also volunteered that if I was considering going there, that I shouldn’t because there would be nobody there. She said they were going to a nightclub and then to Royan to lay on the beach. After the conversation I packed my backpack and hitch-hiked to La Barde. The trip went very quickly except that I had to walk the final stretch to La Barde. During this time walking, I could feel the adrenaline in my system, and felt good about fighting against Luissa’s attempts to hold me back.  It seemed that while I got along with the others, Luissa just had it in for me.. En-route, I encountered the group, and they invited me to come kayaking with them. The trip was great, and I even got nice and whet in some rough water that caused my kayak to tumble.  Unfortunately, one of the others also flipped their canoe, and their camera was never recovered.  We made bread and went out to a great nightclub, and I spent the night in La Barde. When talking about the upcoming trip to Royan, I did notice some resentment from Samantha that I partied with the group, but didn’t work with them.  I would have liked to have contributed more to their efforts, but I had the Montendre house requiring constant attention as well.   Anne, however, didn't seem to have any problem with me occasionally hanging out with her work-group, and invited me without hesitation to come to Royan with them.

6-22 Sat. After stopping off briefly in Montendre, we went to Royan.  I rode with Gouilan, the person who had invited the La Barde group, and we became friends and talked about all sorts of things.  I also learned all sorts of interesting French phrases...  In Royan, I played in the surf, which was quite warm, and had a sneak wave splash over my head.

6-23 Sun. Rita has clearly been avoiding me since the party in Marsas. While we were at the beach and she was alone, I coerced her to talk with me briefly. She said almost nothing except that she avoids issues instead of just saying that everything is fine and smiling. I told her that since the two of us will be going separate ways after leaving Royan, that in all likeliness we won’t see each other again, and that I didn’t feel comfortable leaving things this way with nothing resolved.  She then said, “Sorry I am egotistic”. I didn’t really understand this, and wanted to talk more with her but she just walked away.

6-24 Mon. Went north with Renaud to Chauvigny near Poitiers. The trip was nice and I got an hour to myself to tour around the city and the local castle. I was very tired in the car so I slept quite a bit. Afterwards I fixed the shower and Renaud’s gas cap, and attempted some more to fix the screwed up VCR from the towns-guy. I also cooked a nice home-made Calzone dinner.

6-25 Tues. I taught Aimery the art of making and detonating underwater explosives. He was impressed, and actually I was too, because I didn't remember this being such fun... Later I painted the bathroom and watched The Little Shop of Horrors. Lots more painting….

6-28 Fri. I called Luissa and asked about the La Barde party. Anouk later called me back and gave me all the necessary information. Once again I hitched there in a snap. Two very cute twins, who were going the opposite direction, picked me up and instead went completely out of their way to deliver me to my destination. We talked about all sorts of things, and it was sad to have finally arrived at my destination, but I was really looking forward to seeing the La Barde people. Once there, we drank massive amounts of various liqueurs, ate a highly criticized but quite good dinner, and drank cognac. I drank one shot in a gulp and survived. Later, I accidentally took a swallow of cognac thinking it was water, and nearly died. I also got uncomfortably drunk to the point where I had to hold on to the wall because the room kept moving.  I spent the rest of the night sobering up as we went to the nightclub and drove over incredibly bumpy twisty back roads. I couldn’t follow the road with my eyes, and I was glad I wasn’t driving. Later, Monica spontaneously asked me if I would like Rita’s phone number and address. Foolishly, I told her I wouldn’t, and she tried to convince me to take it using the argument that it is stupid for two people to drift apart and lose contact for no real reason. I queried her about why she had asked, and she denied even the most trivial reasons. I meant to talk with her later to get Rita’s address, but forgot due to all the other distractions and alcohol… To this day I’m wishing I had gotten the contact information from her.

6-29 Sat. It was difficult to get up, but I did it. I wasn’t really hung over per-se since I stayed up essentially all night and had time to sober before sleeping, but I didn’t feel too great. I got Anne’s address, and think that of all the people I’ve met from Montendre and La Barde, I identify with her the most. She seemed to rise above the rest, and had real goals for what she wanted to accomplish in life. She was also the most likable and balanced of the bunch. I'll try to look her up when I go through Belgium. Afterwards, back in Montendre, I finally fixed the dreaded VCR. Later I found it wasn’t fixed and I had to try again. This VCR need to be discarded, or burned in effigy.

7-4 Fri. It’s the 4th of July and we blew up all sorts of things including my special home-made underwater explosives in a filled wheelbarrow. It was pretty cool. I woke up with a sore throat, which doesn’t surprise me since the kids are sick and touch everything around the house. I tried calling Tom in the evening and got no reply. My plan is to go with Laurel and Joe to San Sebastian and call both the house and their brother’s house upon my arrival. I’m also planning to leave my duffel bag and laptop here in Montendre for Renaud to take to Paris and leave at his mother’s. I’ll then pick it up before I return to the US if all goes well. I notice that I’m now starting to type using the French keyboard and I keep getting the wrong characters since I am using my laptop. The guy with the evil VCR paid me and gave me a nice bottle of Pineau des Charents, Caves Prince Fils for fixing the thing. I never asked for anything return, but I certainly felt better after getting a gift in return for my work, especially considering how many tries it took to make that VCR work reliably. I’ll bring the bottle back with me to the US. Note: Since I will be leaving the laptop, there may be fewer entries for a while...

Lately I feel like I’ve been doing lots of little boring things, and I’m looking forward to getting out of Montendre this Friday for San Sebastian and beyond.

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