Still alive...just unplugged for a bit.

First of all, let's get this straight. I suck at blogging. There are a lot of things I have been bad at... such as playing the guitar (but I am not giving up...actually really just need to try to begin), running a distance of more than two hundred meters (note use of meters) and drinking just one drink. But I may actually be worse at blogging.

Please don't give up on me though. I will get better.

Well, well...well. It's been a while. Not just a short while but a long while. I have been in Tours for the last 3 1/2 weeks after a really great ride that carried me through Alsace (Strassbourg and Colmar), Avignon, Orange, Tours, Rouen, Bayeux (Normandy) and back to Tours. Where I went to rent a bike and somehow within a half hour had signed up for a 4 week French class. So I have been hanging out in Tours for the last bit and quite enjoying it. I have found that I am still much better at the part of school that doesn't actually involve school. My French has definitely improved as I started only knowing a handful of words. But my ability to find and be found by the classmates who prefer an evening dinner and wine/beer seems to have once again been my greatest success.

The bar the school frequents is rightly named the "Ganguette" and it has quickly become one of my favorite spots in France. It is one of those places that old and young mix all bonded together by beverages and dancing. The kids even have a little jungle/play area. The Loire river and Tours stunning bridge provide the background visuals and the air is always filled with laughter and music of some sort whether it be a d.j or a band of any international persuasion. Never a standard program for this bar as Cuban, Swing, Dance/electronica all seem to take a turn. Last Friday, there was a Santa Clause with a gun and a megaphone running about. It would have been nice to understand what he was saying as laughter and awe seemed to bound about when he spoke and wry smiles when he began to strip.

The "Ganguette" is a special place as it seems its arms are wide. It reaches out to everyone and it really just seems to pull people even the dirty hippies (as my friend Bruno called them.) It's a combination of things that make a great bar and I will admit that I can't recommend the wine selections or even the beer at this bar but sitting alongside the Loire with a cool breeze shuffling by as a gun toting Santa Clause yells into a microphone oddly works. The wine was cheap though and sometimes we all need a good dose of cheap wine.

So as the school has progressed, it seems I find myself more and more meeting classmates and having drinks. The school is filled with a lot of really bright kids most from 18 to 23. And a few sprinklings of random people like myself here for one reason or another. For me it is my second language and my second attempt at a second language. My class is mostly 18 to 24 except for my friend Saad, a doctor from Saudi Arabia. I had lunch with him and 2 other Saudi students yesterday and spent mostly an hour or so talking about our countries, learning about Saudi Arabia and laughing with them. Saad told me I should come to Saudi Arabia to visit him sometime and I look forward to that day.

At the Ganguette and in Tours, 16 year olds can drink. Honestly, the kids I saw drinking were more in control than I had been when I stumbled upon Strawberry Boones farm in High School or found a basement party during high school. Who would have thought I would have went on to open a nice wine bar.

Quite frankly, I must admit I like buying drinks for 18 year olds. There is even a 17 year old in my group of friends. My friend, Max at 18 has been kind enough to buy me more than a few. I have to remind myself they are 17 or 18 at times as the way they carry themselves much better than I did at their age and quite frankly better than I do at times at my age now. Discussions with them always seem to involve me learning something new about Europe, Mexico and a varied range of other topics.

So I leave on Wednesday or Thursday of this week to meet up with Cally and Andrea in Paris. I am sure the wine will be flowing and I am sure the food will be great. I will post shortly after that. I also have to remember to post my notes from Alsace (as Joe and I met up with the Great Christian Artzner) and had a blast in Strassbourg.