Is it my feet or the cheese?

In all honesty I continue to ask this question almost everyday for lunch when I go into the house. For all of you who have been my roommates or played a sport with me, you probably know that my feet smell… BAD! This has been made only worse by my outdoor activity here at my internship and me working pretty hard. What I find interesting is that they are too polite to say anything about them, they don’t know the words in English, or they can’t tell between the cheese and me. I still can’t tell if it is a blessing or curse because most of the time I end up eating that cheese because they tell me I have to try it. Lets face facts host family, the foot-smelling cheeses all taste the same. Why? BECAUSE THEY ALL SMELL LIKE FEET!

Okay with that rant over let me tell you a little of what has been going on in my life as le stagiaire.

On Sunday night, Gilles, my host father, told me that I would be working with Jacques, his father, and Janeau (sp?) his uncle on Monday. He said he didn’t know the word for it and it was difficult to explain in English. So I said not to worry about it and I continued to get all the more worried. Turns out I am was not alone as the other intern, Roman, was with me. What we were doing was walking behind a tractor as it went down rows of new vines. These vines were too young and did not have strong enough roots to handle the fully automatic tiller so that is why this machine is used. Three people are behind it with blades that dig down into the dirt and can be moved from side to side. Our job was to move those blades through the dirt and avoid the posts and the new vines. If any of my ancestors who were farmers could have seen me then I think they would have been proud. I did a little bit of this on Tuesday morning as well and it still blows my mind on what type of soil they choose to plant in. This stuff has rocks as big as footballs in it and drains super quick.

Here is a good example of some of the best soil I get to work with. The rocks in here are so big and there are so many!

This Tuesday afternoon, Roman and I were given the task of tying up some of the new vines that we had just plowed with the machine so that way they were more supported. This was different than using the plastic stiches that we have been using previously as we are using a wire that is covered in a paper covering and using a special handheld tool to cut it. This ended up being pretty easy work compared to the plowing we were doing earlier. What is funny is that from now on I think that every time I hear the Great Gatsby album I am going to think back to my time in the vineyards. Intern Roman is obsessed with that album and loves those songs! He is also really good at teaching me new French words and it much easier to understand since he is actually from Toulouse, where I originally started learning.

Mom and Dad, it still is blowing my mind on how similar my host parents are to you both! Today during lunch I found out that Gilles doesn’t like going to the doctor even though, according to Nathalie, he will complain about it for days. Also Gilles likes to make jokes that Nathalie doesn’t get a first but Martin, their son, does. After she finally gets it she then proceeds to make some comment that I don’t understand because it is in French, but it sounds like the tone of voice you would use, Mom.

They told me that wheat harvest should be starting soon, normally it begins after their independence day, July 14^th, which I will be here for! I am super excited to see what happens on that day and how it compares to U.S. Independence Day.

Also, I think they have started to figure out what kinds of foods I really like back home since today for lunch they had two racks of ribs that had just got done cooking. And even though they weren’t anything like smoked ones from home, it still was enough to get my BBQ filling until I get back to the U.S.

Tomorrow they said that I would probably get to help in the cellar for a little bit so I am excited to see what new adventure tomorrow brings!

Random but I figured I would show you how they demonstrate city limits. This is how you know the city limit is ending...

I felt like this quote summed up my time behind the plow perfectly and what I was thinking about at the time.

“It is not happiness that makes you grateful; it is gratefulness that makes you happy.”- Brother David Steindl-Rast