We last wrote to you while we were enjoying the hospitality of Laurence and her husband Laurent in Toulouse, the south west-ish part of France. Now, I am writing from Laurence's brother's flat in Montpellier to hash out the last few days which have certainly been a test of our gumtion and problem-solving strategies. I'll have to have Will tell this story in his own words, also, to give you a better idea of perspective (because he is currently asleep and therefore unable to input comments).
So, to begin. (I wish my camera were working on this laptop so I could upload pictures...I think its a sign that we really should just visit you all so we can explain everything that happened in person, but that will have to wait a few more weeks...)
1. Support Socialized Medicine.
Despite the obvious problem of me not being a EU citizen, a heath care visit only cost me 29€, including prescription. I don't know if it was that we were having difficulty with the language or they felt sorry for us, but we showed up to the hospital (to which the entrance was nearly impossible to find) and the doctors and nurses walked us everywhere we needed to go, explained everything, and had a much shorter wait time than the other people in the room. But still, 29€! If I had been qn EU citizen, it would have been completely free. That includes cancer treatments, surgeries...you name it. If you need it, they've got you covered. So for all of you graduated college students who suddenly realize that you no longer have health insurance, this is GREAT! Even for the older generation who are potentially requiring more care, you no longer have to worry about prescription costs and doctors visits. If you're worried that you'll no longer be able to have your same primary care physician, they still have specialized doctors that you can see AND choose. Yes, it costs the government (i.e. taxpayers) a pretty penny I'm sure to get it going, but there's no possible way that it's more than the insurance you're already getting taken out of your paycheck, except that now you don't have copays.
So think about it.
2. Europeans are master parallel parkers. Why? Because they ALL drive teeny cars! Th. eir gas prices are (translated from €/L to dollars/gallon) 7.80 dollars/gallon!!!!!!!!! And you thought YOU were paying too much for gas!! (for those questioning my conversion, its about (3.79 L/gallon)(1.39€/L)(1.48 dollars/€).) So, teeny cars = more fuel efficiency = more parking spaces because you're not a Stupid Useless Vehicle (aka SUV) = less money for gas = better for the environment = all around good news bears.
That and they have decent public transportation. I wish the states could say so much.
3. Be nice to strangers. You never know when you'll be a stranger in a foreign country. Remember that movie, Pay it Forward? Really pays off. Again, we were stranded at the bus station because their machines do not take bills or cards without the little chip (its a chip separate from the magnetic bar on credit cards that allows for more security supposedly and they're everywhere here), only coins, and of course we were 20 cents short, so a woman recognized our struggle and allowed us to use one of her passes. She literally saved us HOURS of either walking or trying to find an ATM, because they don't give cash back here, nor do they give change/exchange bills for coins. You have to buy something. (That part is actually quite frustrating...)
That, and you'll never believe this: so we're back to the hospital (we thought we had crazy amounts of bites, but it turns out we got some kind of rash from the hotel...lovely...) and the only people who spoke English were the EMT's, who, realizing that we were without map, drove us to the correct hospital (again, for FREE) in the back of their ambulance. I don't even think this is legal in the states!
Alright, enough preaching for now. Here's what we've been up to:
Toulouse is affectionately referred to as the Pink City, because rather than being made of stones from the river bank that are carved out and require lots of labor, they realized that brick making is actually much easier, can be massed produced and are more easily transported. So, alas, all the buildings are varying shades of pink due to the age and manufacturing of the bricks!
Laurence and Laurent gave us the tour of the city by foot, so we got to walk along the Garonne river again, which actually has a sea-like smell. We visited the Abattoirs, which translated means slaughter house, but really its an ex-slaughter house that they have now turned into a contemporary museum. Interesting transformation, and the art is still no less strange than the modern stuff we have in the states. I'll have to post some of those pictures...there's one in particular that looks like a giant intestine. Not sure what classifies that as art, but perhaps Erica can tell us when we get home.
The next part of our trip was visiting with Laurence's family at their farm, about a 3 hour drive outside of Toulouse. Crammed in the back of their teeny car (remember what I said about EVERYONE having a teeny car) listening to Offspring and Michael Jackson, we made the trek to their farm, where we were graciously greeted by ALL of her family. It turns out that it was her brother, François' saint's day, so everyone was there to celebrate.
NOTE: We americans are not accustomed to several course meals, so when we're presented with food, we take what we want to satisfy us. We conveniently forgot this and as a result, as you can imagine, ate WAY too much. But it was SOOOOOOO good!! We did not have to kill and pluck the chicken, fortunately, but there were plenty of meats, cheeses, wine, champagne, cake and cheesey mashed potatoes to go around. (These potatos, by the way, are perhaps the best way possible to eat potatoes. They're stringly, like mozzarella so you can pull them and pull them and have to cut the mashed potatoes in order to serve them. DELICIOUS!!)
After, we tried to see some wild life, which we were thinking were dear, but we were either too early or too late in the day to see them; We did, however, visit their cows who don't particularly care to be petted.
To really get a feel for the area, they also took us to their farm cottage, which is usually inhabited by a cheese-maker from May - October 13th if I remember correctly. They live in the cottage making cheese every day until it becomes too late in the season and they go to Paris or work the farms in the winter months.
Then, to put time into perspective, we visited a ruined church from I think the 11th or 12th century. And you thought 200 years old was old! Will climbed to the top of one of the columns, only to find that it wasn't as close to the ground as he thought. I'm happy to say that he is still intact. :)
(Good heavens, this is getting long. I think I'll take a break and come back to tell you about Carcassonne, probably the next highlight of our trip so far.)
These are pictures of my new home in Eagle River, ALASKA!! When I arrived, there was barely 6 inches of snow on the ground, so what did I do? I wished for more! Little did I know that it would come a week later by the FOOT! This is the snow that Will and I had to shovel off of the driveway...over a foot and a half. Luke (the dog) didn't seam to mind of course, though. 
