fetchez la vache!

i am loving french culture right now. there is one thing that i have here that i dont have in America. balance.

every day, i eat balanced because thats all there is to eat. i start out with bread and confiture--a type of jelly with real fruit and almost no sugar, coffee, very black and very good, and a type of fruit. for lunch--saucisson, a cured type of ham, with cheese, usually camembert or rochefort--goat, and bread with a salad of some sort. and dinner...oh dinner...

dinner usually contains dishes of the region, including ratatouille, quiche lorraine (true, not americanized), or different types of alpin dishes. after that, cheese, bread, and wine--usually a dark red but today i found an ardeche--very white. the best wine i have ever tasted. it was clear, crisp, clean...beautiful.


it is expected daily to exercise here, whether it is walking, hiking, running, biking, or whatever--it is something about this region of France, sort of like Colorado. i usually run between 5 and 10K per day. the routes around here are beautiful, weaving in and out of the isere valley up and down different mountians. normally, i take a route that the french resistance during world war 2 took to the vercourse..incroyable.

also, it is expected to read at least an hour--each appartment is filled with books and newspapers scattered about. my french has improved greatly because of this...

but most importantly, in French culture, daily time with friends and family is the most important thing. lunch time is devoted to this. every day, i go with a few friends that i made from spain, pakistan, and russia to a different restaurant to eat anything from pizza to tapas. the conversations we have had have been incredible: each of us have gotten to share about our country and our history. religion is a great topic as well.

after explaining my version of christianity, i was asked if i was practicing, since most people who believe in the things i believe in dont go to church, right? after explaining that it is my most important activity to me and my community is the most important thing to me, the people are amazed...

i have also started a bible explanitory session with a group of muslims (who i hiked with)...more to come on that, probably...


my voyages have taken me to annecy, chambery, beaufort, geneva, lausaunne, luscerne...and soon to chamonix, aix les bains, aix en provence, nice, monaco, cote d'azur, montreux, beaujolais (for the fete de nouveau vin), and corsica--all in the first month...

it will all die down as i prepare for school. i am scared to be surrounded by french students, but it will be great.


and my mom sent me cookies:)...if anyone else would like to do that, shoot me an e-mail and we will hook you up with my address...

i hope all is well.



oh...and fetchez la vache was a phrase used in monty python and the holy grail with the french scene...

and it is a huge inside joke among the english speaking people at our school.

je pourrais le faire avec deux droigts dans mon nez

yes...i could do it with two fingers in my nose

a phrase normally used by most frenchman who can do something well...


so, i think that the frenchmen can do fireworks with 2 fingers up their nose...
i went to annecy yesterday--for those geography freaks, the village between geneva and grenoble with an incredible lake--for the fete du lac. it is a 2 hour extravaganza of fireworks.

imagine 2 hours of american grand finales...with a grand grand grand grand.... .... .... .... grand finale at the end. i never knew that there could be so much fire in the sky at one time. in-credible.

the ville of annecy is situated among 5 mountains in the alps with a massive lake on one side. the lake was the cleanest lake i have ever seen. when i was out in the water, i looked down and could see the bottom 30 feet below me, and all of its contents. it was old with shops and cafes everywhere.

i have been meeting people from everywhere...a list of most of the countries:

portugal, spain, france, england, belgium, germany, switzerland, austria, italy, greece, norway, denmark, venezuela, mexico, brazil, argentina, columbia, mexico, canada, algeria, nigeria, russia, romania, pakistan, india, oman, saudi arabia, lebanon...just to name a few...


i went hiking up in the vercorse region today to a small, high altitude farm near Grenoble. the hiking was miserable, i am not going to lie--1500m up, 10 km aller-retour--but the view was incredible. i could see three towns down the drac river, and all of grenoble. on the way, i had an incredible conversation with a friend from Oman about the differences between media and reality...and the differences between his (arabic) culture and america...and his viewpoint on terrorism, hezbollah, and all that crap. we also talked about muslim, christianity, and the idea of the medium morality that is held by all...

very interesting to say the least.

the other night, i went to a welcome party at a local pub. and, just to let you know...partying is the same in europe as it is in america--lots of drinking, and nothing but...
but before that, we hung out in a gazebo (we being the english speaking folk with the espagnols) and talked.

thats only the tip of the iceberg--but i have no time...

i hope all is well..

connections...

learning a new language is wierd.

you start out great...everything is new--every conversation that you have is fun...it is like a game. you have something that they dont--information to process, a need, a question; and they try to pry it from the depths of your mind.

you think you are speaking french because they speak back to you...


and then you get real.


you realize that mostly everything you say is with a foreign accent. a heavy foreign accent. it is like a sickness--you can not communicate with anyone without a "quoi" or a "eh" or them trying to speak english to you. yesterday, i hit this point. the point where it felt like i was hitting my head against a concrete wall countless times.

but then i realized

speaking a new language...learning a new language...becoming fluent in a foreign language...

is like learning how to improv in jazz.

for years you sit in your classroom, learning how to play your instrument. in the beginning, you wonder why on earth do i need to know how to play an a#min scale (for the musicians out there...i am laughing at the concept of a#...i know my music, dont worry). why you need to learn the different frames, modes, tendencies, and other things is confusing, i mean, you will never need to use it in the real world...

until you are on the stage...with your first solo in hand, with something that looks like egyptian heiroglyphics in front of you. you hit the brick wall that is music theory. and you suck it up. but dont worry...

it happens to everybody.

going along with the metaphor...

i have done my scales countless times. i have transcribed charlie parker, coltrane, watrous, miles davis. i have listened until my eardrums have bled...

and each try i dont succeed, i become one try closer to succeeding....


it seems as if the pattern of infusion within a culture is...two steps forward, on step back...

two steps closer to being a frenchie...

one step back to being un "ah mere i kayne"


aller prochain,

Spence