Man this first week has been a
whirlwind. Still can’t believe I am here and it is funny, there have been a few
times this week, in the middle of working, that I will look up realize what I
am doing and just begin to smile. I still can’t believe that I am getting the
privilege of working with vines in France, the wine capital of the world! Still
blows my mind to think about that now and again and I am just so blessed to be
having this experience.
But I am sure you are all wondering
how my first week as the intern has gone. Well let me tell you it has been
quite the adventure and I am loving every minute of it.
My first adventure occurred right
as I got off the train not even 5 minutes into my first day. So on the train I
was struggling to hear what was being said and what stops we were passing by on
our movement along the route. Without my very helpful, also fluent, friend
Shannon I was struggling to understand what was being said over the intercom.
Instead I would just stop whatever I was doing and look out the window and
hopefully see a sign that said what stop we were at. Luckily I got off on the
right one, or so I thought.
Like I said not even 5 minutes in
and I was worried. My family was not there to pick me up. My first immediate
thoughts jumped to did I get off at the wrong stop or did the program people
book me the wrong train and give me the wrong ticket? Remember that I also
don’t have a phone to ask anyone for help at this point. So I decided to wait
it out and see if my family was just running late to come and pick me up. 30
minutes passed, an hour passed, soon 2 hours passed and I decided to take
action. I went inside and began to play a game of charades asking the desk
clerk, who spoke a minimal amount of English, where should I go, how far is it
to my town and if I could take a taxi. So she called a taxi for me, another
person who didn’t speak any English, and I had to play a game of charades with
and was finally on my way. So we actually did make it to the right town and I
had a phone number for my family that he called on his cell phone. My host
father then directed him to the house. What happened next still blows my mind.
He charged me $70 to take a 10-minute taxi ride! I still think it was because
he knew I was an American and could get away with it because I paid him not
sure what other option I had. My host dad helped me with my things inside and I
proceeded to meet the rest of my family.
This is the town I am living in. About 140 people in this little "village"
I don’t know if I wrote this in a
previous blog or not but just to let you all know I was nervous as hell, and
the fact that I just had to take a taxi to their house when I thought they
would come pick me up made things even more nerve-wracking for me. Also I was
not given really any information on my family at all except that I would be
living with them and they may or may not speak any English. So this first
meeting was something I had been dreading and it was just about to happen.
Turns out, there was nothing to
fear at all! Gilles and Nathalie are my host parents who have two children
Julie and Martin. Julie, 22, actually goes to Purpan, the school I was at last
month, and is currently doing an internship so she is not around often. Martin,
19, is helping out with work on the vineyard like me and goes to school at a
smaller university in Pennsylvania. The coolest thing is, they all speak a
little English, Martin more than the rest, so that has made life much easier on
me.
After saying hello to everyone,
Gilles explained the taxi story and proceeded to tell me I was robbed. $70 was
way too much and they would give me $70 to compensate me. They also explained
why they weren’t there to pick me up. They were told by Purpan that I was
supposed to arrive at 8pm instead of the 4pm when I actually did arrive. This
made me feel at ease as well, since I now knew that they just didn’t expect me
to be super independent.
I was then shown my room and set it
all up before dinner. Dinner with the family was awesome and the food I have
had here with them has been phenomenal! Both mom and dad are incredible cooks
and I will talk about the foods I have tried in just a little bit.
My first day on the vineyards was
interesting as I got to meet all my co-workers with a really awkward greeting.
Work starts at 8am every morning and we meet in the downstairs of where I live.
Since I live in a room for interns in the warehouse it makes a super easy
access for me. That first morning I was introduced to Brigit, Janique, Philippe
and Roman. Brigit, Janique and Philippe are to my estimates all around mid-50’s
and Roman is actually another intern who is 19 as well. He goes to Purpan and
also speaks fairly good English so once again another moment of relief. When I
was talking about it being an awkward meeting it was because I still hadn’t
figured out the whole kiss on the cheek greeting thing, so when Brigit first
went in to do it I wasn’t sure how to react. It all turned out alright and I am
fine with it now but it was a super awkward first encounter.
We then went out into the vines and
started my first job of separating and tying up vines to wires. This process is
done to allow a tractor to come through and chop off extra-long vines and to
concentrate the growth around the grapes rather than the plant. I quickly found
out that other than Philippe’s few words of English he knows, my co-workers
don’t really speak English. What has been really cool though, is that they are
always trying to teach me new words and then ask what it is in English in
return. What is hilarious and even funnier to my co-workers is when Brigit
tries to teach me words. So the first time Brigit spoke to me, I did not
understand a single word she said and instead just said Oui (Yes) in French,
hoping it was the right answer. Instead everyone died laughing and eventually
Martin told me that she didn’t ask a question but was telling me a story, and
from the look on my face they could all tell I didn’t understand a word of it.
What is even funnier to me is that she is the one who tries the most to teach
me, which wouldn’t be so bad except that she doesn’t have any English to help
relate the word back to something for me to understand and she has a super
thick northern French accent where her words are super slurred together and
half of them aren’t even there. Even through all that I have learned quite a
bit and she keeps trying with me.
What I get to work in everyday row after row... I don't hate it.
It has also been interesting
because they ask about what I do quite a bit, so I respond with what I know for
sports and reading. They also asked what I am studying and I was able to
respond to that. Then they asked if I hunted… First off trying to get that word
across was a challenge in itself. Let alone me trying to respond that I have
been before but only a few times was a whole other issue. In short, this game
of charades ended up with me understanding that Brigit and Samuel, a younger
co-worker, are avid hunters and actually have won awards for how good they are
and they think that I hunt a lot back in the States. Whelp, this has now lead
into a conversation of Samuel, Brigit and I at some point, while I am here,
going to go scouting for wild boar. It is not hunting season right now, so we
cannot shoot, but I am super excited to hopefully see one and to spend time
with the two people who don’t speak a word of English.
To kinda give you a timeline of
what a typical day looks like for me here is what I do
8am-12: Work in the vines and help
tie them up so the tractor can come through and cut them
12-12:15: Sit with family in the
old wine cellar to talk, aka everyone else talk and me try and make out the few
words I know for context clues. This time is something I find really neat
because the whole family comes down before lunch to talk about the day and all
the employees. So here I have met grandpa, grandma, great-uncle and all the
other employees. I have learned as well that whenever you enter the room you
make it a point to go and say hello to everyone you haven’t seen yet that day.
Which, in my opinion, is really cool.
12:15-1:30 Lunch with host parents,
Martin and Roman.
1:30-5:30 Work in the vines
5:30-5:45 Have another glass of
wine in the cellar with the family and employees again and listen to each
others day
Most of the time after the second glass of wine and before dinner I go on a run. In Chablis, where there isn't vines there is wheat, and lots of it!
After that I get time to do what I
want until dinner at 7:30 and then after dinner can go to bed when I want. I
have pretty free control of my days and have actually really enjoyed working
here. There is a lot of laughter and even though I don’t understand everything
I can understand that it is a pretty tight knit family unit. It actually
reminds me a lot of working at the plant nursery when I was in high school. It
actually is almost the exact same with the only differences being that it is
French not Spanish and we are working in a vineyard. Still have people laughing
and talking with me not understanding. Still have people trying to teach me and
me teach them new words. It is very similar and I actually really like it!
In my time in the vineyards I have
learned a few valuable lessons, the first and foremost big one is to always
answer to the variety of names I have been given. First is staigaire, which means
intern. Normally if I hear that word I know they are referring to me or Roman.
Next is Kansas, this has become a nickname I have been given since they have
never met anyone from Kansas before and they have all these questions about it,
since they don’t hear about it as much as New York or California. Then finally
is my actual name. Since Nathan, phonetically Nay-thin, is impossible to say
here for the French, due to them not being able to make the –th sound, I have
been called 2 main names, Nay-tawn and Nah-tin. Both of these are sometimes
hard for me to recognize and actually I have given up introducing myself with
my real name and instead go straight to Nay-tawn. It is the one they recognize
the most and I only get called Nah-tin if they have heard my real name and are
trying to say it.
So I said I would talk about food
since I have been here and let me tell you, meals are not quite the same as
they are in the U.S. Dad, if you are reading this be prepared to help me try
and recreate some of the experiences I have had since I have been here.
First off, the biggest difference I
have seen is that you always have some sort of small thing to eat before the
meal, lunch and dinner. These little appetizers can be pretzels, small
sausages, or a piece of cantaloupe. For lunch we just do water to drink, but
for dinner it is always wine. They drink wine here like water. Next the main
meal comes out, super varied again in what they will serve but what blows my
mind is that meat is never the focal point. Actually, there never seems to be a
focal point for the meal. It just is. A quick note here, the appetizer wine is
normally white, the dinner one is normally red. Then comes, depending on the
day, some sort of dessert. For lunch it normally is a basket of fruit or cheese
plate. For dinner we normally have the cheese plate then dessert. Which is
sometimes ice cream or a cake.
Since I have been here we have had
2 really big meals as well. Julie’s birthday was on Wednesday and Gilles and
Nathalie had two friends bring over some of their wine to do a tasting. That
dinner lasted till 1 am, at least that is when I went to bed, still not sure
when they did. We had a ton of wine, including Chateau Grenouille, which is the
most famous in Chablis. We also had wines costing $150-300, which was
incredible. We also had one more large meal on Saturday night. Julie and her
boyfriend, Antoine, are the same age and were born on July 3rd and
July 4th. So on Saturday we had their birthday dinner with not only
Gilles’ parents, grandma and grandpa who I was referring to earlier, but also
Nathalie’s and Antoine’s parents. So the whole family was together and there
was a lot of wine to drink and a huge meal served.
As for specific foods I have got to
taste it has been quite varied. I have had a sausage called andouette (sp?),
which isn’t really a sausage at all. It is actually pork intestine stuffed
inside a casing and the cooked on the grill, really good with mustard, as an
appetizer. A half cantaloupe, served with a piece of thinly sliced ham, like
prosciutto, and then you pour port wine in it. They also don’t just have apples
to eat in the fruit basket, so Mom, you will be pleased to know that I have
tried some new fruits and actually like them. Apricots are actually pretty
delicious as are fresh cherries. Cheese comes in a wide variety of flavors and
smells. My favorite so far is one that is 70% fat and has a really creamy
buttery taste. I also have had the experience where I wasn’t sure if it was the
cheese or my feet that smelled up the room. Still not a big fan of those ones.
Also, I found it really interesting that beef cooked on the grill is not cut
into individual sizes and then cooked. Rather the whole thing is cooked, cut in
slices and then is a free for all. But, like I said earlier, it is not a focal
point. Not everyone is looking at the meat but rather everyone is looking at
the side dishes and are not afraid to reach for a sauce to put on the meat
before they taste it. Maybe it is just me, but a good piece of meat, especially
when you are a guest at someone’s house, should never have a sauce on it. They
also served potato chips with steak. Still mind blowing that it wasn’t like a
cooked potato or something, just chips was considered good enough for a side. I
have had flambéed shrimp, in whiskey, which was delicious! Turns out I still
don’t like olives here either. As much as I try I still can’t bring myself to eat
more than one. Another mind-blowing thing, was that we had radishes to eat for
an appetizer one time. Instead of passing around a bottle of ranch dressing, it
was passing around a block of butter and that is what you ate on them. Like
what? Serious? Plain butter? For me it didn’t do much and wasn’t its biggest
fan.
Mom and Dad, no one will be able to
replace you but I also have found out what you would have been like if you had
been born in France and ended up owning a winery. Seriously though Nathalie is
just like you in the fact that she helps keep Gilles grounded and in general
acts very similar with mannerisms. Also, when I arrived earlier than expected she
sent an email that in French sounded very similar to something you would say if
something like this had happened. I realized Gilles was like you Dad, when he
fell asleep almost on command after lunch one day and was then ready to go
again very shortly after. He and you are very similar as well and even have a
similar size, how should I say it, shape. Anyway they are doing a wonderful job
of making me feel at home here so no worries there!
This is the name of the vineyard and winery I am working for this summer! Feel free to look them up at www.nathalieetgillesfevre.com
Hopefully I will be able to keep
you all updated on what has been going on here more often now that I have a
pretty reliable Internet connection and will be able to talk to you all soon! I
hope you enjoyed your 4th of July in America and that you lit a few
fireworks off for me! It is red, white and blue here, just the wrong kind!
"There is only one success… to be able to spend your life in
your way, and not to give others absurd maddening claims upon it.”- Christopher
Morley
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