insomnia/jetlag - Mammoth!

So I haven't really slept much since I've been back, probably as a result of doing nothing to get back onto a regular schedule after my flight.

Life back in Davis is mundane and banal.  Already my back and neck pain is back (it was completely gone while in Europe - I think it's from sitting at the computer too much).

I took my car in for servicing and surprise! I need to brakes and discs, and, as it turns out, my service guy never did the 50k transmission flush, so my transmission might be fucked.  I'm not sure what's going to happen with it, but it's going to be a couple of K if I have to have it replaced...and it's kind of not my fault.

On the (sort of?) bright side, I'm in Mammoth right now at John and Shannon's house. Shannon is out of work right now so she has lots of time to climb!  I had to take a loaner car from the service guy - a gold 91 Camry wagon. It is SEXY. Trust. It doesn't like going up hills.

I gotta take advantage of my new svelte figure before I put on my I-have-an-oven-and-I-bake-all-the-time 5 lb surplus.  I'm super light right now - lighter than before I got MS. It's great. Though it is shocking because I ATE SO MUCH in Europe.  I don't even know how it's possible to lose weight. I mean I was hiking and climbing a lot, but it seems like I ate more than I could ever hike or climb off. Oh well. Maybe part of it is that I was also having a great time in Europe. Being happier makes you thinner I think.

So now I'm worried about:
1) finding a job
2) finding climbing partners locally
3) my car's transmission
4) putting the weight back on

These are not in order of importance.

Good times. I'm sure when I sink back into the normal schedule I'll be motivated on my research again. Sorry for the rambling post, but my brain is sleep deprived.

By the way there is SO MUCH SNOW in the Sierra. It's amazing.

Here we go.

I made it to Madrid, and didn't get lost, probably because I was on major highways the whole time. The French tolls killed me, I still need to fill up the gas tank, and I had a crappy pain au chocolate. The perfect chocolate croissant eluded me on this trip - very sad. I'll probably try again in the airport, and fail.  The best croissant I had was the chocolate-almond one that Ethan brought from France. That shit was excellent. I kept trying to get chocolate croissants from patisseries, but I'd either spot something that I needed to taste, or the person in front of me would buy the last one in the store.

So now I'm in a Holiday Inn Express. I hope that Sixt doesn't rape me tomorrow with extra fees, since there are scratches on the bumper and we may have exceeded the 100km/day mileage limit. I guess you just have to pay it and forget about it.

I'm sad to be leaving, but my thoughts are more focussed on the actual getting home part of getting home - not the inevitable post-trip depression that will set in. I'm not psyched to climb anywhere local, I don't want to go to the gym in the afternoons, and I will be going home to an empty house. Booo.

Wish me safe travels.

More photos of St Legere

We came back from St Legere early because it started to rain. It rained on us for the whole drive back to Ceuse, so we made a good decision to bail. It's probably good that I have time to pack up and get organized today for the drive tomorrow...I guess.

Here are some pics of the gite that we stayed in. It was pretty darned nice:

 There are irises all over the parts of Spain and France that I've seen...they are everywhere! So pretty.

Here are some pics of the cliff (the north face):

 I felt like we were in Spain - most of the climbers at this crag were Catalan.

A view from the gite of the North Face.

Finally, on the drive home Ethan spotted a FIRE SALAMANDER crossing the road, so he picked it up and rescued it. It is ADORBZ!

Sant Legere

Tired of the hiking up to the cliff in Ceuse, and weary of the run-out pockety technical climbs (that was just me, actually), Ethan and I decided to take a trip to Sant Legere after Arnot Petit and Stephanie Bodet recommended it highly, and loaned us their guidebook (they have a house near Ceuse and Ethan stopped by with me to get a drill and some bolting equipment.)

We drove yesterday and climbed on the north face (always shady). This is what I'm talking about! Tufas galore, holds for days.  I like. I took some photos but I forgot the cord to my camera so I'll have to upload them later.

We stayed in a gite, basically a room in someone's house. It was a nice change from the trailer scene, especially because I'm not convinced that our trailer doesn't have fleas. I won't say more, but I'm looking forward to my nice clean house, my own bed, and my own shower and kitchen. There's a reason why I have super nice kitchen stuff - it makes cooking way more enjoyable.

Today we climb and then head back to Ceuse, where I'll pack and get my shit together for the 12 hour drive back to Madrid...by myself. Bad times. I really wish I'd taken my mother up on the GPS offer she made a few years ago. Navigating in Europe sucks:


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So this nearly wraps up a month in Europe and it flew by. I'm already thinking of my next trip in Fall. I really really really want to go to Greece and swing around on tufas. I even bought the guidebook in Gap. It looks AMAZING! I also want to go to Madagascar and be a tourist and look at plants and animals. That would be sick.

I'll leave you with some photos I took with my ipod back in Ceuse:

 "This 80m rope represents FREEDOM!"

Happiness

Yay a Ceuse tick! I did Super Mickey yesterday, so now I've done a 5.12 in Ceuse.  whoopie!

This place is hard. Fuck I don't want to go home.  Blaaaaaaahhhhh.

More photos

We rested yesterday and today (my body was tired and I really didn't feel like climbing).  Instead of climbing, we ate lots of food, visited a chevrerie (where I'm now sitting using their wifi), and watched the movie Red.  I'm perfectly happy with that because I didn't want to walk up that fucking hill again.  So boring. Here are some photos I've taken over the last few days, starting with the home life:

Ethan got an 80m rope delivered to our trailer.

enjoying the delicious cheese

Here's some of the cheese we bought from the chevrerie.

Here are some pics I took of the goats at the chevrerie (I took the pictures with my ipod).

 baby lambs!

 nothing cuter than a boy and his goat.

I want to live at the chevrerie so that this is what I wake up to every day.

 There are a lot of cool fossils at the base of the cliff

 Power shot!

 I tried to take photos of this really cool bird called a wallcreeper.  Didn't turn out so well.

Here is a shot of its butt.

Tomorrow we hike up the fucking hill again and I'll try Super Mickey...maybe La Privilage. I don't know. There are some climbs that I'd like to try at Berlin or the Demi Lune, but they are all a bit scary... it makes me pine for closer bolts.  Oh well.

And some parting shots of food:

My first and maybe last french macaron experience. I didn't get a great one, but it was still pretty good. Truthfully I like the ones that I made better.

tired!

Well we've been in Ceuse a week and I am freakin' exhausted. This is about the time in the trip when I'm just tired and a little burned out on climbing.  It's good to be able to take a trip this long - it reminds me to appreciate my "other" non-climbing life.

The climbing is completely amazing here and the conditions are perfect. The crazy heat vanished and it is what I think is a more typical Ceuse spring - cold. The walls are nearly empty during the week (the other day it was Ethan and me and one other party in all of the Berlin, Biographie and Demi Lune.

I would LOVE to take about four rest days, but I have only a week left so I will solider on. Tough life, I know.

The food is great in France, and more and more I'm stoked on going to Gap and eating a lot of it. I'm glad that Ethan appreciates trying new food and eating delicious things as much as I do. It makes it a lot more fun.

My life in Davis is awaiting me, and all of the stresses and crap that it will bring. I don't know what's coming next for me, since I'm graduating in June. Where will I live? What will I do? It is very much a transition time now, and this trip has been a great time-out from those stresses. I came here thinking about data analysis and writing and school and finding a job, but I haven't thought much about those things in about two weeks. I've settled into the climbing life and accepted the stresses of this life as the normal ones. It's funny how that works.

It's been great hanging out with Ethan. He's a great climbing partner. I was a little hesitant coming here because my last trip was pretty traumatic, and the memories were giving me a cloudy head. Plus we'd only climbed together a few times. When you travel with someone, you definitely get to see all sides of them, and it is a risk. You can always split up, but the hope is that it will work out and you'll have a good time. Initially I was planning on going to Greece for the second half of the trip, but we ended up sticking together.  Haha hopefully this next week will be fun and I won't regret not going to Greece!

So this is my reflective post-trip post even though I still have a week left. Hopefully I'll send some rock climbs, since lately I've been feeling tired. I had a cold for a few days last week that wiped out my energy. Right now I'm sitting here and all I want to do is sleep and eat, and not hike up the hill! I have to say I'm pretty fucking sick of the hike. You get fit and all, but it's boring and long.

OK, maybe we'll head into Gap today and eat some more food - yay!

Thanks for all of the comments - it motivates me to write more.

See you all soon!