The last pics of Farm # 1

I left the first farm with Barbara and the fam today. I will miss them! Here's the last pictures from there while I have wifi at the train station.

The gorgeous back yard

The house

The ride into town by bike

The only skater in chalais, I think. I taught him a soul grind and backside stall :)

The view from my window. 

I already miss it! Everyone was so nice. Barbara was so proud to make it to the top of a quarter on her skates :) I made Ema and Celestine bracelets before left. I may try and visit them again before I leave...they're so close to Pete and Sue after all... :)

Who Knew I Could Combine Skating, Teaching, and Travel All in 2 Hours!?

I was able to go to school today with Barbara and do a presentation about rollerblading, wwoofing, traveling, and America. Then we did a roll play about getting to Bordeaux by train. I spoke in English so they all had to try to communicate and work on their English. It was AWESOME! Here are a few photos from the past couple of days, with the photos of today at the end :)

 My horse friends. De-de and Melaka

 We made this fence for them to graze in this field. Very beautiful!

 I'm glad I brought these boots, they have kept my socks dry many a time :)

 It gives me so much pleasure to see all of these girls loving rollerblading at the skatepark. I'm proud to have brought something like this into their lives and I hope they continue when I am gone!

 I should probibaboobibabibly use my gloves more often!

This cat had wittle babies! AWWWW

 The skate competition in Bordeaux yesterday was very fun, but very unorganized. I placed 4th :/

 The classroom from today!

Everyone came in on their break to see my rollerblading haha!


It was very fun, and with only a week left, I know I'll miss this place a lot!

My First Bread EVER

I've been super busy the past few days so I haven't updated the ol blog. And I ought to go back downstairs and help out, so I'll make this one quick. But, I made my first bread today!

 The functional bread oven

 Fire!

 The master

 My bread! Jerome told me it was beautiful. Now my ego is huge.

 This hen had her chicks hatch yesterday. So cuuuute.

 My face as I blast Les Mis music and make cement

 We hiked to this chapel last night for dinner.

Barbara snapped this photo of me writing in the book there.

And this is a screen shot of me helping Celestine air the quarter pipe :)

Hell Beauty, Too Much Fitness, and a Horse?

After all that nonsense with the bees, you'd think I'd reached my quota of stings for the year (or life, preferably!) But yesterday I got stung by a hornet, which hurts much more, in case you were wondering. I killed him after. A lot. He was super dead. But this morning I woke up with a monumental finger :0 So I guess he got the last laugh. Just kidding, he can't laugh because he's DEAD. Sorry, am I vindictive?

 Gigantor, the finger

 We built more of the wall next to the new bread oven for a while

 We did laundry, and then I did mine too :)

 I rode to Chalais and back so I could go to the post office and also get a cheap phone that works in France for emergencies. In case you were wondering, it's a nice, fun, breezy, downhill ride on the way there. On the way back, it's 5 kilometers of the most beautiful uphill hell.

 Some of said hell beauty

 Then! As soon as I arrive at the house, out of breath, read faced, legs-a-burnin, Barbara asks, "Are you ready to run?"

The run she speaks of is a 4 mile up and down run (with no stops) that I barely survived the first time.

But I felt so great after, that I of course said yes.

I survived again...barely.

This is how farmers run ;) With a horse and a dog! (dog is next to me...)

It was a pleasant run; beautiful nature, the sun shining, cool breeze, and the scent of horse farts floating in the air.

Nature is kind of GREAT!

I can't get used to the fact that everything is so green and beautiful here. We went to the skatepark and had a picnic in a field next to it after. Then we returned to the skatepark. Everything was fresh and delicious, of course!

 The picnic was great, with Barbara's friends and their daughter, who I taught to go down a ramp at the skatepark :) Look how green everything is!

 I had to digest for a bit after the meal, but I got up and rolling again...eventually!

The fresh, warm bread that Jerome made today. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm




I'm going to miss this family.

Cats, Flour, and the Biggest Skatepark in France

I'm having a great time in Chalais. Here are some pictures from the past couple of days :)

 The cats really love my room! I'm constantly kicking them out. This morning when I opened the door, I heard the cat sprinting down the hallway.

 I finally put my new boots to work after it rained!

 We're helping to build a second bread oven. The girls spectate occasionally :)

 Yesterday, I helped to turn the grain into flour for bread. This is the machine to start the process.

You start with this and put it in above machine.

Then you have this.

 You put that in the machine on the right, which is a sifter.

 And it makes this! Ready to go :)

 Flour gets everywhere!

 The girls waited patiently.

 And after we all climbed to the top of the hay and pushed two barrels down. It was fun!




Bordeaux Skate Park

I went to Bordeaux today and met up with Marta and Guillaume, the awesome couple that let me stay with them after my Germany train fiasco. We skated from their studio to the largest skatepark in France, Bordeaux Skate Park. It was GREAT! Guillaume filmed because I left my fisheye at the farm. Hopefully we'll see that footage eventually!

 The skate to the park was very nice. Ironically, I didn't tell them I was taking this photo. They're just that friendly looking all the time!

 And this is the skatepark! So nice!

I should have taken photos from all over the park, but this was my very favorite. Next weekend I'm going back for a competition, so I'll post more photos then :)

All in all, a GREAT day of skating!

Safely Back In Chalais...Eventually

So I may have hinted at a slight hiccup in my travel from Germany...again. I just can't figure out their trains! The French trains are SO easy! Anywho, I missed my train to france... Who knew there were TWO Mannheim stops? Now I do :) So after swapping my tickets around, I make my way to Bordeaux where Marta and Guillaume are my saviors! I face booked Marta when I had a few minutes of wifi in Germany and asked if I could stay with her for a night since I was stuck in Bordeaux. There were no more tickets to Chalais at that time :( She said yes! Which is amazing. The were both recovering from being sick and they still were kind enough to let me stay there. THANKS YOU TWO! We ate dinner with Guillaume's mom (delicious) and chilled in front of the tv till slumber time. I made it back to Chalais safe and sound :)

Marta and Guillaume had this dog, Hippo. I think his name should be changed to Manatee, personally

See below for the striking resemblance...

 Just saying...

 The walk to the close tram stop to return to the station and back to Chalais :)


Chalais again!

 Barbara's sister and kids were visiting :) So I taught them all to skate in the barn :)

 Thomas learned a lot!

 Ema had my phone and snapped this candid photo of lesson time ;) Thanks, Ema!

We went to the skatepark the next morning and everyone loved it. I was sad to see them go.



We'll see what happens next!