Love at last

Early April 2011

I have found the love of my life.
He's from around here, seen a lot of the region.
He loves the outdoors like me, he's been to so many places.
He loves to travel and never seems to get tired.
He is very reliable and never too far away.
We met last fall and spent a little time together,
but didn't see each other at all during the winter.
Now that it's spring,

We can finally be together again.

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Let me introduce you !

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I hope you didn't fall for that.

Anyway, he has no official name but he's totally mine, in a someone-lent-it-to-me-for-the-year kind of way. As soon as the weather got nice in April, I hit the bike paths. Never will I be able to accurately describe the liberating feeling of flying along the river on this guy and through the country with the fresh spring air waking me up inside out.

The smell alone of the grass and flowers and everything else there is to wake up is something I cherish more than any material thing I've ever stumbled across. 

mmmm spring.

A house along the river on the bike path



One of the best parts about this biking path is that there are a dozen hiking paths sprinkled along the way, so at any given moment if I feel like hopping off my bike and going for a hike, well, I just lock it up and do it.

Biking along the river Doubs - stopping to
hike up a trail and catching a shot of a little girl leading the way -
(click to enlarge if you can't really see)

Turns out, this particular hike took me to the old "Fort Planoise" and also to a beautiful lookout point.

 

Another day, another mystery path led me to one of the most beautiful look-out points I had ever stumbled across:

You know, I've often described this time abroad to people as a "deep breath" before diving into graduate school, and it's also quite literally true. I have spent more time outdoors during this period of my life than any other, and never have I breathed so much fresh air, never have I covered so much ground, never have I experienced so many moments of calmness and tranquility in all the forests I've walked through, all the hills and mountains I've climbed up, all the rivers I've wound around on my bike.

Something feels so changed within me this year. I did not connect with many French people as I had hoped to (though I did meet a handful of amazing people!), but I did unexpectedly fall in love with nature and feel connected to it in a way that may be similar to the way one feels connected to a friend, the kind where, when it comes to talking, less is more.

To help me elaborate - when I was traveling in Scotland, I met a middle-aged Australian man on a train. He was in the middle of living his "extraordinarily interesting life," as he put it, and while I found him slightly full of himself, he said something that stuck with me. When I spoke to him of the mountain Ben Nevis I had recently climbed, he said,

"Ah, yes, excellent. Climbing mountains. Walking along the paths, climbing to the top and then down again, you're having a conversation with the mountain. This old, ancient thing that has lived so much but always been in the same place, and you, so young and alive and full of movement crossing over it, it's a beautiful kind of communication."

He said it better than I could have. This is what I feel when it comes to all the ground I've trekked over, all the pavement my bike tires have met, all the snow that provided a soft landing when I slipped and fell during my winter hikes.

However, depsite how well my relationship with nature was going, something I struggled with while in Besancon was feeling very un-needed. The "job" I had was basically the French government paying for babysitters in the classroom, and I was often left feeling like Besancon would not even notice I came and left. I wanted so much to do something that would leave behind some kind of impression, and perhaps with the exception of several students, I frankly wonder if most of the students even knew my name at the end of 7 months.

That's not to say I didn't learn a lot, because I absolutely did. But the feeling of being needed was very absent this year. However, over time I realized that that was okay, because, quite simply, I needed Besancon. I needed the time I spent outdoors to slow down, to see life un-blurred. It's not the first time I've learned this lesson, nor do I expect it will be the last, but the life of a college student certainly does not allow for a slow-paced life style, and I could even broaden this to the average American who tries, in my opinion, to do too much in general.

So, while I normally  prefer for any kind of relationship to be more balanced in terms of giving and taking, I don't think the hills and rivers of this region minded that I was a little needy this year, and perhaps they, too, enjoyed the many silent conversations we had. 

Walking all over nature
and nature not minding

So, work is over April 15th and then I'm off to travel alone for 2 weeks in England and Scotland, then I will bike the "Wine Route" in the region of Alsace for a week with Alberto, and finally, May 30th, I will make my way to Madrid, Spain for about 7 weeks before coming home on July 19th.

Til the next time!

Love,

Katie