La Belle Vie en France

To: Faithful blog readers

From: Unfaithful blogger

So finally, at last, I feel as though I have caught up with my life. Well, at least to the point where I actually have the time to sit down for an hour and write. I've been making these lists of things to get done and they just seem to keep getting longer, never shorter.

But I'm not complaining. How could I complain about what I've been busy with? I live in Arras, France with 15 of the most hilarious people you could ever meet, work at the Canadian National Vimy Memorial, have been learning to cook, go on random, ridiculous and wonderful adventures all around Europe and basically have the best possible time every day of the summer. I've decided that this summer I would be very 'in the moment' and focus on each day, one at a time, leaving the past and the future for another time. This has, however, meant that I haven't spent as much time as I might normally have keeping in touch with family and friends, writing in my journal or blogging. But, in exchange, I've been in France for a little over a month now, and I think it safe to say that I've squeeze just about everything out of every moment so far this summer, which I'm really glad about. But here I am with an hour on my hands so I think I should fulfill my blogging commitment and let you all know what I've been up to so far this summer :)


As I said, I work at the Canadian National Vimy Memorial in Vimy, France, which is Canada's First World War memorial in Europe. The site itself is about 107 hectares and the land was given to Canada in 1922 in appreciation of their contribution to WWI. It is run, for the most part, by Canadians, 10 of whom are Canadian university students like me! Five others are part of our group and they work at the Beaumont-Hamel Newfoundland memorial, commemorating the actions and sacrifices made by the Newfoundland soldiers during the battle of the Somme. Here's a break down of the guides:

• Liz (University of Ottawa, from Ottawa, ON)
• Michel (University of Ottawa, from Ottawa, ON)
• Carleen (University of Alberta, from Edmonton, AB)
• Tara (University of British Columbia, from Summerland, BC)
• Jonathan (University of Ottawa, from Beaver Bank, NS)
• Trevor (Memorial University, from Rocky Harbour, NFLD)
• Ken (Memorial University, from St. John's), NFLD
  
• Ann (Memorial University, from Mount Pearl, NFLD)
• Marie-Elise (University of Ottawa, from Ottawa, ON)
• Julie (University of Ottawa, from Gatineau, QC)
• Marie-Eve (University of Ottawa, from La Pocatiere, QC)
  
• Elyse (McMaster University, from Hamilton, ON)
• Diana (University of Ottawa, from Kitcher-Waterloo, ON)
• Roger (Memorial University, from St. John's, NFLD)
• ... and me!
  

So the fifteen of us live in two house in Arras, a town about a 50 minute train ride North of Paris, and my particular house is known as 'Vauban' (because it's on Vauban street - original, I know) and I share it with eight other people. My room is shared with three other girls, which has been both interesting and wonderful, seeing as I've never actually shared a room with another person before. I always had a single room at home and for both my years in Harper. But, it's safe to say that I'm able to now fully attest to how wonderful it can be to have a roommate, especially if you all get along super well, like we do. So yeah, double rooms, don't knock them before you try them, haha. The other guide house is about 5 minutes away and is shared by 7 people, including our program officer, Scott (University of Ottawa, just graduated and returned from his convocation today!). We all drive to work in the morning in these huuuuge vans which are waaaay too big for European roads (we've already had two small accidents - oops!) but it's always an adventure, haha.

So there, a nice little introduction to what I've been up to the last little while, and I'll write again soon with more information as to what it is that I actually do on site at Vimy and all that other fun stuff :) Also, travel stories are coming too, haha.

Much love,

Sue

sjhumphrey@mta.ca