A Few Minor Disturbances, Some Really Good Food, and a Great View

I have discovered that I do not like at all the feel of jeans that have been washed and laid out to dry. I only just discovered this because my new host family does not have a dryer. This is in no way a bad thing--in fact, they're saving energy out the wazoo--but I usually use the dryer to shrink my jeans. Now, in the time it takes me to put on my pants and walk towards the door every morning, my pants will have grown two sizes, leaving me looking like a Jenny Craig patient, post-weight loss but pre-congratulatory new wardrobe. 

Today we had a field trip! Oh, elementary school memories :) We went to St. Bertrand-de-Comminges where we saw Roman ruins (interesting, but they look eerily identical to the last Roman ruins I saw?), a cathedral, and had a phantasmagoric lunch. As a group, we literally filled the entire restaurant! They fed us traditional mountain stew (made from real mountains!), lamb, pasta, green beans, and chocolate mousse. It was spectacular. 

Afterwards we visited the grottos at Gargas, which was really cool. It's famous for its prehistoric handprints--it was amazing being able to see the prints left by hands that came centuries before us. Pictures were absolutely forbidden, so of course I snuck a couple! My favorite was the one that was giving the finger :) The cave was really cool inside, all drippy and moist, and it reminded me a lot of the caves we snorkled in in Mexico that one time. You know the one. 

The last stop on our day trip was the Château de Mauvezin, which was probably my favorite part of the day. The grottos were ultra cool, but the château had a tower that was accessible to the public, and we were on top of a hill at the base of the Pyrenees mountains while the sun was setting.....I just can't wait to show you all my pictures :) While we were at the top of the tower we threatened to never come down and we played Hey Cow to pass the time. Basically, you say "hey cow" to a cow (luckily we were in the middle of the country, so there were cows everywhere, and the sound of Christopher Walken encouraging their cowbells filled us with joy). If the cow looks at you, you get a point. After ten minutes and no points, we finally decided, yeah, maybe we could go back down after all. Plus, we were kinda hungry.  

Tonight I'm headed to a French friend's house to interview her for my cultural project about French students who study English. She's not even an English major, but she's the only one who's responded to me, so it'll have to work for now....especially since the rough draft is due Monday! Hope you're all having a great weekend--don't forget to check out my picture website to stay up-to-the-minute on all my adventures :)