If you don't love the French countryside, you don't have a soul

So, I traipsed off to the French countryside again from Monday until Thursday last week. I was near a town called Albi, which is basically in the midst of this region that's something like Tuscany, but in France. To give you an idea of how gorgeous this place is, I give you a street in Cordes-sur-ciel, which translates to "Cordes above heaven", thus named because when it's cloudy the town (which is on a hill, obvi) is above the clouds.


This town is one of the most beautiful towns in France. I don't know who decided that, but it's a widely known fact. It's also 20 minutes from where I was staying. Which was also 15 minutes on foot from a vineyard. The countryside looks, in general, like this:


Clearly, pictures can't do this place justice. For the second time in the past month, I was living in a dream in the French countryside. I don't know how anyone can leave this.

Oh, I am also one of the champions of the university division of my first beach tourney. Don't ask how many teams were our competition, the number would only blow you away.

What's wrong with starting a lemonade stand business in France?

So, I just made lemonade from scratch here. This was born from a conversation I had two days ago with a guy on my frisbee team:

Me: Man, I'd really like some lemonade right now.
Cédric: What? Why?
Me: Well, it's such a summer drink.
Cédric: Yeah, it's cool, it's refreshing, it's carbonated...
Me: It's carbonated?! What?
Cédric: Uhhh...duh. Wait...it's not carbonated in the US?

Thus we discovered that "limonade" and lemonade are not in fact the same drink. And so we bought some limonade so that I could understand what this weird (clear) bubbly French drink was, and then we made lemonade from scratch. This is why I love my life here.

Let's get rich and buy our parents homes in the south of France

I spent the weekend in the French countryside, celebrating the 25th birthday of a guy on the frisbee team. It was a dream: it was sunny and hot, there was a little river we went to and threw discs in, and even though there were a lot of houses around there weren't that many people. Well, excluding the partiers, anyway...there were 30 of us. The party went from Friday night to Sunday afternoon, and I know at least a few people stayed up past 7am both days. I sang, I danced, I did a tequila shot with 30 year olds (my favorite thing ever is drinking with people who party like they're in their 20s but are actually 33). I dressed up as a Care Bear (Bedtime Bear, which in French is "Gros Dodo"). I ate burgers and sausages to my heart's content. I played a game that I need to find in the States so that I can take it to college...it's the ultimate college game. I watched card games that I didn't understand in the slightest.

I could spend every weekend out there and never get tired of it. Oh, and now I eat cherries. And drink coffee. And drink beer (which I feel is maybe not the accomplishment I'm the most proud of on this trip). 3 1/2 weeks is not enough time to spend here with these people.