Weekend in Ariege

Ariege is in the Pyrenees mountains about two and a half hours from where I live. It was my first outing since I found out I had some tendonitis in my elbow and I was super excited to get going. A group of seven of us went down for a climbing weekend and a bouldering comp. Saturday when we got there the beautiful weather that they had announced was less than, so the multi-pitch we were going to do changed into some steep routes in half rain and the cold. We had a great time none the less, but at four in the afternoon we left to go to the indoor climbing area not but twenty minutes away.

The comp was in an old converted mechanic shop. Sixty routes were set for about as many competitors. We had a little meeting to tell us how it was going to go, and then we had two hours to do climb what we wanted. IT WAS GREAT! For two and a half hours we climbed, I did about nineteen routes, among some conversation and just the general excitement of the room. It was all on an honor system, and it was more like a bouldering session than a comp. Every once in a while a group of about five or more would get super psyched about a problem and a group would form to cheer them on and talk.

That evening we were going to camp, but a friend of a friend asked us to come back and sleep at their apartment. On a fait la fete. We had a party. It might that I am over the party scene, and this is probably the thing, but they could go all night. At about two I was out. It was fun, dancing to Buena Vista Social Club, talking, getting complements on my hat that Laura made for me, and taking pictures with one of our group who was asleep at about 1.

The next day we had blue skies and great temperatures in Calames, one of the sectors there in Ariege. We climbed for hours and hours in the sun, until we decided that we had our fill and our light jackets were not doing the job. Two and a half hours later I was in my apartment feeling much better than my last post.

This is why I call it messy

Written Friday night at 7:30

Uh. I kind of feel disgusting right now. I came home from school at 10:30, took at nap, woke up to go on a run, talked to Laura, and now, under the overhead light of my apartment, I am watching some of the movie 300. So to the group of people who have been following my blog, thanks, and here is a little of the unglamorous part of my life here. Ugh, it is moments like this, and this past week has been one of them, that I sort of feel like I am waisting my life. I have had many people tell me that I am to hard on myself, that I work to hard to be perfect, well I admit to this, but this thing in my spirit/stomach pulls at me and tells me that I was made to do more with my life than eat, sleep and watch worthless movies. Pfriem, thanks for setting an example.

Welcome to the more messy side of my life.

Clairification

I realized that the last post I put up might have sounded a little too sad, like I was counting down the days to come home or something. This was not my intention at all. I am very happy to be here. In fact I was walking to a professor’s house to return an inflatable mattress that she had lent me, thinking how much I know I am going to miss this place when I leave in four months. The conversations about whatever in French, the time alone, the mornings where it is just me and coffee and my journal and nothing to do until the afternoon, this morning for instance, the getting-to-know stages of a job and city and new people.
And with this decision of where to live for the next couple of years in the back of my mind, WA or TN, I am very thankful that I am able to think on that from a distance. Not that it is set, but it is a continual conversations within me here.

I have learned a whole lot while I have been here about myself, Jesus, family, friends, and so on (blogs about this to come soon). Thanks Garen.

The end of the vacation...

I have been back in school for almost two weeks now and i am not super stoked on it. It was so much more fun to be sipping mate with the Argentinian family in Barcelona, or waking up once again to Laura in my apartment, or bombing around in the Volswagon Golf the Loya's rented with us to go to Toulouse and Carcassonne. Or maybe even another bomb dish of something Carlie Loya made while I was at school... but no, I am in school again. Laura left last Sunday, sad, but true, and for the first time I counted up the months until I return myself and there are only four months left!

I wasn't in Barcelona actually. I was in Manresa, a city in Catalonia, not Spain, as Oriol (he is the boyfriend of the Spanish assistant in the same high-school as me) was so happy to tell me. I spent five days, including Christmas with this family, eating more meat than I could imagine, and just having a great time with them, laughing and trying to learn Spanish as I used it as incorrectly as possible. I climbed twice with her brother, Pablo, and we went to Barcelona one day to see the sights and walk around. It is really a beautiful city, especially the Gaudi buildings that are there.

Upon returning on the bus I wasn't super stoked on waiting around in Toulouse for Laura all night, and not wanting to pay for a ticket back home I hitched a ride home to sleep in my own bed, and then the next morning did the same to arrive in Toulouse to meet Laura.

We spent the new year with my friend David and his girlfriend, Cecil. She speaks english well, and David doesn't speak at all, so of course Laura and David got along splendidly through facial expressions and some small translations.

The Loya's came to the fair city of Castres for a long weekend. There were many nights of a great meal, wine, cards ( at which Laura beat us all every time), and just fun conversation.

They left to head to Spain, Laura and I hung out for another week, and then sadly she left to return to Bellingham. My apartment seemed really big and lonely when I returned.
More thoughts to come, but there are pictures galore. Go to flcker!