We decided that that afternoon we were going to break off and do our own thing because the schedule the others had us sticking to wasn't going to show us the rides we really wanted to see. So we went to see this one really cool video about birds and whales and any other animal that migrates, but the coolest part was that the video was great and that it took place not only on an Imax screen in front of us, but also on another huge IMAX screen that we could see through glass panes beneath our feet! It was like the movie took place almost all around us. It totally rocked, whoever though of putting a screen beneath the floor of a theater was a genius. Then, lets see, we went and did another ride that actually moved about the Disney movie Atlantis. It was actually fairly lame though, and then we went to the coolest one of all. It was called "Drums of the World" (in French of course) and it was awesome! It was just on an regular Imax screen, but it was so cool because it just showed drums and music from everywhere in the world. They had break dancers in Manhattan, a Spanish tap dancer in Madrid, Native American spiritual dancers (which just gave me the goose bumps), Japanese drummers (amazing), Brazilian street bands, just everything you can think of that goes along the lines of rhythm. My favorite though were these African dancers that danced to the singing and clapping of a whole African village, and just like most African music, it brought tears to my eyes because it was so beautiful and just HAPPY. That�s what it is; they are so happy that they are singing with broad smiles across their faces like they just can't believe they are so blessed to be alive. It was just so great. I loved it. I want to see it again. Both Shannon and I were floored by it, it was so cool, and we were so glad that we had decided to break away from the group and come see it. After that we wandered out and saw the water show, just basically a very nice fountain show to music, and then we went back to the bus and met up with everyone else. They were all so jealous of us for getting to see what we saw.
Anyway, that night we stayed in a youth hostel at La Rochelle, a city right on the Atlantic Ocean. It was great. That night during dinner we watched the sun set over the ship docks, and then after dinner we all went for a walk and found a beach. It was so great to be on a huge beach again, I've missed that so much since I left. I want Lake Superior again!! But it was so cool, and the water was freezing cold. I just couldn't believe I was there, seeing the Atlantic Ocean from the European side. Some crazy people got a little too excited and decided to jump in. So there were girls running around all over in their bras and stuff jumping in the water and freezing their asses off. I refrained from making any comment that the water was just as cold as it is in Lake Superior and I go swimming around in there all the time without complaining or shrieking or making a big show of it. Oh well. It was admittedly fun to watch though. So after that we went back and some people showered while others, like me, just flopped into bed.
The next morning we got up super early to have a guided tour on bus of the city. It was pretty boring, and when we got out of the bus a few times I almost died it was so cold, the temperature had dropped dramatically throughout the night. So yeah, I remember that that day, the fifth day, was the worst of the tour. You see, not only did we do almost nothing the whole day but driving on the bus, but the group of people I was hanging around with was treating me like crap, like I wasn't worth talking to or even listening to. Some people can be really rude I think, and so all in all that day kind of just sucked. We spent the rest of the morning on the bus, and then in the afternoon just to make my day we had to make our one touristy kind of stop for the day at a foie gras farm. It was so gross, I couldn't believe how proud all of the French chaperones that were with us and farmers were of it all. Basically how they make foie gras is they make a p�t� out of the liver of a goose or a duck, so they make these animals as fat as humanly possibly by stuffing them full of food all the time and giving them no exercise, by the time they are ready for slaughter the poor things can barely manage to waddle around. Its sick, but it gets worse. Because its made out of the livers of these animals, a few days before slaughter they take a tube and shove it down the animals throat, and we're talking a pretty large plastic tube here, and then they pump the animals stomach full of alcohol. That way the liver gets all overgrown because its trying to sort out all of the alcohol that�s suddenly in the poor goose or ducks body, and when they kill it they get a large liver to grind up and make into the pate that they call foie gras. Delicious isn't it? I wanted to throw up. But what�s worse is that at the end of this lovely visit we got to go into a foie gras tasting session and almost every single person there actually tried it! I was so sickened! And some people even bought some to give to their families as gifts. Can you believe that? Here, let�s spread some bits of ground up tortured animal liver onto bread and eat it! Mmm, what a specialty! God! It was just disgusting.
That night though we actually had some fun. The hostel we stayed in was ok, and dinner was good. After dinner I ran to the showers because there were only four for like all fifty of us. I nabbed one and took one of the fastest showers of my life. Then after that we heard that there was a group of musicians staying there too and that they wanted to give us a performance that night. So at like 11 we all went down into this big rec room and a small group of musicians playing a variety of instruments just kind of played freestyle for us. I have to admit that the music was pretty bad, but at least one of them, the violinist, could play somewhat decently. Anyway, once they were done I'm not sure how it happened, but for some reason the Australians got the idea to go up in front of everyone and sing their national anthem. So once they did the Canadians decided that they had to as well. After that us Americans ran up and shrieked out the Star Spangled Banner, cursing the fact that our national anthem is one of the hardest in the world to sing. Anyway, then all the other nationalities went up and sang their anthems too. It was so cool to hear the Japanese one, the Finish one, the Brazilian, Mexican, and South African (with parts in both English and Afrikaans) I was so proud of all the people who were the only one from their country that went up and sang alone in front of everyone. Everybody went, except for the girl from New Zealand, because she was too shy. But it was all really cool. It made me feel happy to be an exchange student.
Anyway, the next day we got to see a Gouffre. Basically what it is is that in the south west of France the land gets really rocky and there are a lot of caves. We visited this huge cave that starts at this big huge natural hole in the ground where you have to walk down like eighty flights of stairs and then at the bottom the caves start. It was really sweat, the outside felt like Jurassic park and the inside was just cool. The caves were really narrow but really tall, and a lot of it was covered in an underground river. It was so cool, we took a boat ride in the underground river and it was just amazing, the water was so clear that it was almost like it wasn't even there. The whole thing was just awesome. Anyway, we ate lunch there once we came up and we were all kind of wet. It was nice though, the weather was starting to get nicer down in the south. Anyway, after that the rest of the day was pretty boring because I was stuck sitting with the same group of people and we spent the rest of the afternoon on the bus riding through these really twisty and turning mountain roads and I just started getting motion sick after a while. I felt really crappy especially because I was in the very back of the bus. It sucked, but when we finally got there I was feeling better because we were actually staying at a really sweet youth hostel for the next two nights. So we arrived and went to dinner right away, which was really good for the first time in a while. I ate with Alison, a girl from Texas, and Linden, a guy from Australia. It was so cool, we were all so out of it that we laughed at the dumbest things and just had a great time. After dinner there was a dance and I hung out with some different people and we just danced the night away and it was great. I had so much fun. I used to go to dances in high school and be to afraid to get up and just get my groove on, but not anymore. I love dancing, and I do it whenever I get the chance, it was so great. By the time it was done though, we were all dead tired and went back and just collapsed into bed.
The next day was really sweet too. I sat in a different part of the bus, oddly enough the group of people I was sick of kind of seemed to follow me, but it was ok because I just put on my headphones and listened to Michelle Branch and it worked perfectly with my mood. We spent the morning driving around these roads that wound in and out of these really great cliffs that formed a huge canyon. It was gorgeous. Then we saw another huge cave, this one had more stalactite and stalagmite kind of formations and it was really cool to see. We seemed to hike around in that cave forever though. For lunch we ate at the restaurant outside the cave again, and then in the afternoon we were off to do a high ropes course! It was SO COOL. I loved it. We got there and had to wait in line forever because there were so many of us, and it was fairly cold so we were freezing for a while, but at least there was this big (and I mean huge) St. Bernard there to keep us company. Seriously, I've never seen a dog so big! It looked like a lion, no kidding! Anyway though, it was so fun. We went in groups of ten, and I was the first in my group, I went way faster than anyone, I guess I just had a natural talent for it or something because I just loved doing it. We climbed rock walls, balanced on logs over cliffs, climbed on high wires between trees, and best of all we got to attach a little pulley like mechanism to cables that were suspended for a long ways between trees and sit down on our harness ropes and just slide across these huge open spaces from one tree to another. It rocked. I was so sad when it was done.
