Usually when I get home after nine hours of tromping through mud, I have a beer. We eat shortly thereafter, and then I feel like doing nothing at all. But today it's raining, and it looks like it will continue all day (very strange for summer in Provence), so I have some time to be alert and write.
The weather has actually been very cooperative lately. Not too hot, cloudy, nice breezes.
There've been a few car related problems lately. A section of the highway near Audrey's house was closed for roadwork, rerouting a ton of traffic onto a winding country road. As a result, there have been a ton of accidents. Just imagine Week End (1967) by Jean-Luc Godard. One late-night goofball was going 100mph, and somehow didn't manage to properly execute one of the many hairpin turns on this road. He and a friend then bounced three times in one of the corn fields we work in, thouroughly breaking their car and themselves in the process.
Then, a week or so later, we found out that three good friends of Aurelie (of Aurelie and Brian fame) were killed in a horrible car crash on an expressway in Marseille. A drunk girl somehow got going the wrong way and slammed into them head-on. Only two people survived, including a little girl who emerged with just a few bruises and scratches.
On a happier note, at the end of September I will start a Masters program in Anthropologie Biologique at the med school in Marseille. I'm really excited. There are only about 10 people accepted a year, so I should get a lot of access to the profs. That said, the director isn't responding to my emails regarding a piece of information I urgently need for my visa process...
I hope to keep writing on a more regular basis and I hope everyone is well.
-Andrew
