Git R Done!

Emma and I were soo tired! ... and it was only halfway!

Emma, Sarah, and I International Club (potluck)

For the last two weeks I have been living with Natalia, the Chilean assistant, in her tiny studio above Sarah's. On this floor of the building lives one other girl, Pauline, a French art student, and my empty apartment.

Q: Why is my apartment empty? Why don't I live there?

A: There is a leak in the roof that was supposed to be repaired by now, after which the kitchen/dining area would have been repainted by now, and the laminate floor redone... by now.

So, I am resolved to start looking for another apartment, if not to live in, at least to threaten this lazy landlord into quickening his pace.

Can't remember if I mentionned the address in the last post, so here it is again:

56 rue Georges Lassalle

65000 TARBES

I'm making friends. :) I've been attending the get-togethers of the ENI's (local engineering school) international club. We meet Tuesday nights at a bar called the Celtic for a beer, and since I have been here we've done two other events: an international potluck and a day of hiking in the Pyrenees! For the potluck, I made potato skins with extra cheese, bacon, and of course, butter, and as to the hiking... Illinois just falls FLAT on preparing a girl for the sort of treks these guys are used to!

We drove directly south of Tarbes through Bagneres to get to where we would start (this was just this past Sunday - Oct 11) and we parked the car at about 9h45. It was chilly, so I was wearing a tank, tee, and jacket, along with jeans and my nikes. The entire outfit changed nearly 3 hours later of, what I called at some points more, climbing! The scenery was beautiful: beginning with a forest in green and fall colors; the leaves coating the rocky trail; large boulders strewn about and covered with thick green moss. There were little trickles of water everywhere, making everything very lush and wet. As we were in the mountains, there was really no level walking, everything went up, up, up. And as we climbed we got hot, hot, hot! Everyone (except a few of the Colombians) was sweating beads, and when we stopped to take a break about halfway to our destination (a beautiful blue lake in a crater atop one of the mountains), you could see the sweat soaking through everyones' shirts where their backpacks had been. I was a hot sweaty mess! But I had plenty of water, and I just kept telling myself I could do it - personifying the Little Engine that Could.

We passed through a grazing area for horses and sheep, very Sound of Music looking, and finally made it to our rocky goal. The lake is called Lac Bleu for good reason... it IS very blue! Up at the top, the clouds were rolling in and out and around us, chilling us after the long hike, but a couple people still dared to hop in for a brief swim! We all brought changes of clothes, so at this point I got into some dry things to keep warm while we ate our packed lunches and skipped stones.

The way down was much easier! Thanks Newton! And while my knees, thighs, and buttocks were sore for a day afterwards, I felt very accomplished at having made the trek. I'm hoping to to do many similar treks in the Spring when the weather will again be permitting.