plastic virgin marys

Monday, June 20, 2005

this past weekend i went to lourdes and the parc national de pyrenées.

lourdes is a very religious place. it is home to saint bernadette, who found water in a cave through a vision. the water is said to have healing powers. you too can take home some holy water with you in a plastic virgin mary bottle or a gallon jug. if that doesn't interest you, how about a glow-in-the-dark mary doll? there were lots of hole-in-the-wall stores selling catholic trinkets and junk. this place was not so fun. i'm glad we only spent an hour here.

the park, on the other hand was fun. near the pont d'espangole is a huge collection of waterfalls and montain trails to hike. our group took the hour to hike up one the trails where there was a huge lake and a bar. last year, only three people actually went into the lake. the lake, made up of snow melt, was about 12°C (54.6°F). this year, stripped down to their underwear, one by one almost everyone jumped in. even i took my turn with the bitterly cold water (i have pictures to prove it).it was a great show for all the other hikers as 20 kids jumped into the lake in their underwear... and then had to lay out in the grass to dry off (as the swimming adventure was not a part of scheduled trip). some of the bar patrons starting taking pictures. look for the usacgonewild.fr site soon.

i have also come to the realization (three weeks into the program) on certain things:

  1. i am never going to find photoshop in france (pictures to be posted in july when i get home).
  2. washing your clothes is very expensive (4€ a wash/1€ for 10 minutes in the dryer).
  3. a movie dubbed in french is still a movie to watch on a sunday (batman begins was funny).
  4. one week of school left, then one week in paris and then i am home and back to work.

i have had fun while i have been here. i don't think i am learning as much french as i wanted to, but oh well. the town is small, but nice and a great place to get a way from it all. i am sure that i will more stories to tell...but those will have to be in private.

Comments

On 6/20/2005 10:01:20 AM: JRC said:
Alright! First swimming in the bitterly cold water, next stop is actually singing this Wednesday at the karaoke bar!!!

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