1. For the week before the 5th of July I was on my turn for guest services. I was told that guest services would be something of a break from program, which in some ways it was. However, it was not a break in that it felt like less work, if anything it was more exhausting! I was on site for most of the week cleaning building and preparing food. You are up at 7:00 am to get breakfast ready and done by 9:00 pm after washing up after dinner. The list of activities for the day seems to get longer each day so you never quite finish checking off your to do list. Even so the Chalet looks very clean after a long days of work and program starts to become more of a prize when you don't get to do it every week. Guest services has its purpose, but there was no denying that it was quite a long week.
2. This was the week of the Fourth! It was my first fourth of July out of the states. I like Fourth of July, but I didn't realize how much I would miss going to get food, then piling into the back of a pickup truck and watching fireworks! We decorated the dining hall with American flag colors and themes, put the American flag up on the flag pole, and popped a few fire crackers. The world center manager's husband also had an American folk sing along at a local bistro. The troop of girls from Georgia who attended the second event came and then several of the other vollies too. We sang this land is your land, country roads, and a few girl scout songs before I had to go back to help with dinner. Another vollie from Florida made apple crumble for desert, which was soooo good! All in all a good fourth, but I am looking forward to the next one in the states.
3. Finally my break days were there! After working for six days straight I was super ready for a break, and to be honest a get away from the Chalet. Lucky me, I was headed to France with another summer vollie Emma Walsh from Newfoundland, Canada! On the way we stopped in Basel which is a city in Switzerland that is super close to Germany and France. The Rhine River runs through it and the town center is great! It was a nice stop for the day. We went to the Basel art museum which was having a Picasso exhibit. We saw a lot of Picasso's pieces, I will put a few of the highlights up. We also saw some Monet's, Dali's, and Van Gogh's. Emma and I ate dinner at the Cathedral near the Rhine than went to catch a train into France! We ran through the station grabbed a train to Mullhouse and then had to wait there due to strikes going on. We grabbed a cappuccino (my new fav thing). Finally we caught a train to Belfort and we were in the city that the festival was in!!!!!!!!! Here are the Picasso's:
4. So we got to Belfort and just figured we would go follow others with sleeping bags/the signs in french with the Festival's name on them. We stood around waiting for a bus for a while and everyone just seemed confused. Everyone also seemed to be a bit intoxicated, due to France having zero laws about open containers. Finally we filed back into the train station to find a train with the festivals name, Eurockeennes, on the screen, a free train to the festival score! There was then a shuttle to the campsite, all of these were free! All the French use this one tent, it was all over the campsite, just a sea of them here:
They are supposed to be able to be put up in two seconds. Our tent that we borrowed from the Chalet stuck out like a sore thumb, haha. The campsite was beautiful, it was flat but was surrounded by mountains that looked just like the mountains back home rather than the alps. Emma and I went straight to bed because we were so tired and wanted to rest for the next day....
5. Finally the day had come! We got up planning on going back to Belfort to see the town before the festival opened at 4. But there was no way we could tell to get back to the town so we walked for a bit and found a local bakery had great croissant and coffee. We then walked to the super market and wandered around (so many shirtless/shoe less french boys....). We went and sat by the creek behind the super market and later when walking back from the creek we passed by the Phoenix tour bus! Finally we entered the festival!!! The first group we saw was from Ireland, their average age was 16! Then we got some Argentinian bbq and sat and watch Kenny James, a french rapper that I did not understand a word of! Finally, finally, we started to gather for Two Door Cinema Club. It was a bit of a mosh pit in the front, but the show was awesome. However, everyone was there to see Phoenix. The crowd knew every word and went crazy over the more popular songs like Listmania. Emma and I walked a way that night wishing for a repeat and humming our favorite songs. Pictures from this event I will have to post later because I need to borrow ones Emma took :))
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