I am typing this on my laptop in the university residence and obviously I have become accustomed to French keyboards because my fingers are reaching for the ‘a’ and the ‘m’ in the French locations.

I am going to try to sum up quickly what I did this weekend. I wish I could write more because it was a ton of fun, but I don’t have a lot of time...however I do have a visual aid.

Montluçon, as seen from my window.

Friday night Meredith and I, along with our Algerian hallmate Marzouk and his friend from Lyon decided to check out the nightlife in Montluçon. Before we went out, however, a couple guys who had been cooking down the hall (I can hear everything from my room) knocked on my door, and told me something about Marzouk in French I didn’t understand. We ended up getting out my dictionary to translate the main verb: tremper, to soak or to flood. Well, I thought to myself they’re probably stopping by to see if I cqn help out with the problem, so I asked them if they needed a towel. At this they began laughing hysterically. I wasn’t sure exactly what was so funny, but I figured out that there wasn’t a flood down the hall. Finally, after some rapid discussion between the two of them we found out that the one had misspelled the word in looking it up! He had meant tromper, to trick. We talked a little more after that and it was especially interesting because they are both from Morocco and this is the month of Ramadan so they fast from sunrise to sunset.

After this, Friday evening consisted of stopping by a couple bars (including watching an amazing jazz band at Le Green) before going to one of the discothèques in town, Le Pirate. It was busy for such a small town, especially because there is a mass exodus of the majority of college students on the weekend. We ended up dancing for several hours and, although I was happy that people weren’t, um, physically friendly, I wish there had been more opportunity to talk to the others there. It has been hard meeting French people so far.

Meredith had been emailing with a woman and her husband a rental deal that hadn’t worked out. They were curious as to what Americans were doing here, so on Saturday he had an invitation to go to their house for coffee and I tagged along, excited to socialize with real live French people. Anne and Jerome are both teachers and they have two kids who are two and six, and incredibly cute. We talked over tea and bread at their house before they they offered to drive us out to a lake just outside of Montluçon to take a walk. They had both studied English some, so they were very patient and talked slowly, so it was a more natural feeling conversation than those I had been having in French over the last week. Jerome gave us a lesson on the EU, why he had voted against the proposed constitution; Anne told me about some places to run and to swim; and they gave us some housing advice. Besides that, the area around the lake was beautiful and only about 5k outside of Montluçon.

Sunday was another tagalong day for me, as one of the teachers had invited Meredith to come see her choir perform. The concert was in a tiny village called Maillet, with possibly 400 inhabitants, about 45 minutes away from Montluçon by way of some twisty country roads. While Sophie and her husband (the director) rehearsed, we explored the village: at an easy walking pace, it took about 15 minutes to walk from end to end. The concert was in l’église de Saint-Denis, a very small church but probably 15th century (my guess) in Gothic style. Unlike the famous Gothic churches I have seen, this one had not been well funded for renovation, so it was crumbly. The first half of the concert was a harpsichord soloist, and then a short intermission before the baroque choir sang. The concert was very good and afterward there were refreshments – some pastries and various salé (salty) foods – that were the best food I have tasted in France so far. We socialized with Sophie and some other musicians, and I think I may have joined the larger choir.

Besides all this successful social stuff, I discovered a great running trail about two miles from the university. I think I mentioned it before, but then I had only run maybe the first mile of it. On Friday I ran about three miles out on the trail, coming up to a footbridge over a valley a couple hundred feet below just before sunset. I haven’t described the geography here, so this context is perfect for that: There are a lot of rolling hills around town, reminding me of the Appalachian foothills. The area is very green, either wooded or grassy, with farms edged by stone fences. This region could be considered the Ohio of France; there is nothing spectacular or flashy that draws tourists, but the land is beautiful and there are sights for those willing to seek them. On the left side of the bridge the grassy land rose up with a farmhouse in the distance. On the rights side of the bridge the land remained low and I could see green for miles. Obviously I came back to run here again and on Sunday morning I found a second bridge a little farther than that with another spectacular view of course before I came to the edge of Néris-les-Bains, a nearby town and turned around to run back to Montluçon.

I just returned this evening from the training session in Clermont-Ferrand, so I have a lot of catching up to do, if not for the sake of my readers than for my own sake (more likely). The next update will include mention of fun times with new friends from such places as the England, Wales, Ireland, Germany, and California; visits to all three of Clermont’s Gothic cathedrals; the introduction of six teaching assistant characters from Montluçon; and a guest appearance by a cross-country teammate.