Weirdest places ever slept....part 5 Chambres

When we are young, we are brave about cheap travel. Or we were anyway. Or we didn't know anything else. 

I'd never left the country when we committed to a two year over seas volunteer gig. As most volunteer things go, funds were tight but we weren't going to sit in apartment in Belgium without looking around.

We discovered that people in France advertise a sort of off the books place to stay by putting signs on the side of the road that said, "Chambre" -- room.

We set off on a weekend trip. The destination I believe was Mont St Michel. We'd heard of it's amazing beauty and set out in a rental car from Brussels. If you haven't put it on your list, it's definitely something to see. An island with a Monastery on top preserved in all its medieval-ness. The water gets very far out at low tide and people can be fooled that it is not coming back. When the tide comes in, it is at a crazy fast speed and people have been caught in a bad way. Seems like we heard tell of ghosts and such.

So we tootled down the French coast. We stopped  in Le Havre a site mentioned in the Henry V play of Shakespeare, after a real life battle event. We enjoyed the coastal towns where Brittany and Normandy change hands on the sea. We spent the afternoon in Deauville and chose a country road with the debate of where to say on everyone's lips. We saw one of these hand scrawled "chambre" signs in rough cardboard. We were far from anything at this point and turned down the small dirt track.

We arrived at a delightful real life farm. Something from a PBS television show with a big dirt patio in front of a wood shingled farm house. A lady took us upstairs showed us several rooms all very homey and country farm but somehow French. Not fancy at all but they had a certain rustic charm. They weren't prepared to do a meal for us but pointed us down the road to a little cafe-bar.

At that little bar, there was no English and they thought we were a great circus act sent to entertain them as I imagine we were. I had the most memorable steak of my life that night. We'd saved on the room and splurged on the food but even so we were in the country and it was comparatively cheap. (Always eat local when you can.)

So far nothing weird, right? You are correct. We went further down the coast to Mont St Michel and as is a common factor in our stories, we didn't know somewhere there was a holiday or event or something. So we could not stay on the Mont. Too bad because it was beautiful but also no vacancies. We set out across the country nearby with our new found confidence in chambres. We found a sign. This time it was just a modern walk up house. We'd already left our friends in the desperate search for rooms elsewhere, so of course we took what they offered. A paneled spare bedroom at the top of the not cherished house decorated a la 1975, crochet blanket included. The salle de bain was in a nook downstairs off the kitchen where the dining table sat.

While we made these arrangements in stumbling French with the lady proprietor and her cigarette, a couple of surly young men (teens?) were playing a video game or watching television in the dark salon behind her. No big deal we all have our own rooms right. We later realized how far this room arrangement was to the toilet and that for our convenience they had put a chemical camp toilet in the corner of our paneled bedroom. Not curtained off, just sitting there.

When we'd come in quite late from the explorations of the dimly lit stone ambiance of Mont St Michel, those men, guys, dudes, were still in the livingroom and didn't acknowledge us coming in. Weird.

A few hours later I awoke, with a need to go to the loo. I'd not been counting on strange housing arrangements and hadn't brought a robe. The urge was great, the need to get back to sleep intense. The odd dudes lurking in the salon flashed in my mind's eye. I gave in to the chemical toilet.

The odd plastic echo sound however woke my significant other who couldn't figure out what the sound was. So he turned on a flashlight and shown it around the room much to the audible horror of both of us. I can still hear my best friend laughing as I tell this story.

Coming down to do ablutions in the morning a table full of even more surly young men perched in the kitchen eating cereal -- silently. Quite a contrast to the sunny farm kitchen and bowls of chocolate and croissants that we'd had at the last chambre. It was my significant other's turn to make people wonder what the sounds near by might be as he'd waited to use the real toilet.

Okay one more chambre on another trip: Not sure where we'd been but it was just the two of us and we were on our way back to Brussels but still in France. We followed a chambre sign on small road. It was a farm perhaps not charming but a reasonable looking place. We talked to the man the price was good. I don't remember if we'd agreed already to stay or if we were taking a look. The man in the wellington plastic boots marched us away from the farm and down a field path. Our own bungalow perhaps?

As we walked I explained to him in my budding French, we are Americans from Kansas City. He said to me, "Well I don't speak American." Yes, he used the French word for American, not English. He was weathered and hard beaten and a smoker with a rough voice. He'd understood me though so big bonus. Pat on the back dor my French. So I said, we live in Belgium. Farmer said, "And I don't speak Belge." Negating the French speaking population with a swat of his hand. Alright-y then.

The "bungalow" turned out to by one of those tiny trailers (caravans) the size of car, anchored in a field. It was not redecorated other than it had clean linens. It smelled as if it had been moldering in the field a good many years for unsuspecting tired tourists to come along.

Another theme in our stories - well, we were tired (or it was late) and we didn't know where else to go...so we slept in the yellow stinky trailer aka "chambre."

Pro or anti Daylight Savings Time?

Daylight savings sneaked up on me this last weekend here in Spain. Fortunately I had slept late, a prereq for a nice weekend morning, and my Sunday am appointment was not missed either. I noticed that despite having an extra hour, I was still running late in the end. Seems like you go into leisure mode when you think you have an extra hour!

Another shock came today when I went to the store after work and came out of the store to pitch black skies of night. How does that surprise you every single year?

The pro in this case was waking up to light. I really, really don't like to get up in the dark, so I do not mind at all the next few weeks that will give me a day lit morning.

I will miss the longer evenings though. For some reason, even though the temperature didn't change, going for a long walk in the dark doesn't have the same appeal as a sunset stroll. In the heat of summer, however, we had to wait until 10 pm for the streets to cool down enough for a walk. Us and the rest of our Spanish village! Now we are all scurrying to the park at 5 or 6 pm. Our internal meters all seek the same bit of light. Or it could be I'm getting to be more Spanish in my life style? They seem to do things in groups, rarely are people doing things solitaire.

 With Europe changing a week before the USA, I get messed up in my internal calculation of what time it is for my people back home. Then there's my grandpa in Arizona which doesn't participate in daylight savings so while his time doesn't change, I have to try to remember is this the season where he's 8 or 9 hours different from me?

I know a few people who are adamantly anti-time changing antics on the clock. Just leave it alone, they say. They don't care about long days in the summer.

I also have heard the other argument that they should just leave it switched so that the longer light is in the evenings, don't switch back and forth.

Extra light? No change? Which one are you?

Self discovery oddly enough via Pinterest

I'm not an avid pinner. I have a few boards. One is for characters in my books, one is for books I like. One I called "Food I Will Likely Never Make" because I'm a big one for looking but not actually doing -- as I suspect a lot of pinterest is.

The food page is where I made my self discovery. I opened the board for the first time looking for something I thought I'd put there that maybe I would consider making depending on the ingredients. What I discovered is that I am obsessed by the same basic foods.

I have pinned several versions of macaroni and cheese. I know, what am I 12?! Oh comfort food, I love you.

I would have admitted before looking at this that I like cinnamon rolls. Based on the board, I have to say I REALLY like cinnamon rolls. The shameful revelation is that I've never made them and my vehement pinning of cinnamon rolls is the hunt for a recipe that will finally be easy enough that I will actually try. I often eat cinnamon rolls and think I want MORE cinnamon. It seems that I secretly dream of a day when I find a recipe that doesn't involve raising, waiting two hours and kneading etc. but allows for easy mix up dough and LOTS of cinnamon. Disclaimer: I'm living in a country that doesn't have cinnamon rolls (except for Starbucks) so this may be part of my obsession. 

I pin a lot of enchilada related things. Enchilada soup, avocado enchiladas, chicken for enchiladas in the crockpot. If I go to a Mexican restaurant, I often order burritos so this is intriguing that I pin enchilada related things. I do love anything in the Mexican/tex-mex genre. On a side note: I have NOT pinned the four billion versions of adding things to guacamole. Why mess with something that is pretty much perfect? Corn and goat cheese in my guac? No, thanks. But I digress.

I have pinned frozen desserts that don't require an ice cream maker. Granted I've at least chosen two different flavors but I see a pattern again. Few ingredients and a pan in the freezer. I'm looking for the easy dessert fix apparently.

Overnight French Toast is another biggie with me I hadn't realized. Not sure I'm a fan of french toast to the point of obsession and repeated pinning, but I think the truth is, I love the idea of breakfast just being there when I get up on weekends. So the idea of french toast in a crock pot that would be all gooey and ready is appealing. I tried a breakfast egg casserole in the crock pot a few months ago for dinner. Turns out my crock pot here in Spain cooks super hot and scorched the heck out of those eggs in about 6 hours instead of 8. So much for the overnight idea. Scorched french toast just isn't as appealing, nor is getting up at, say, 3 am to turn it on so it's not scorched by morning. This is probably not going to happen. Ever. Thanks goodness for my significant other making muffins, smoothies and such! whew.

A lot of my recipe pins are crock pot ones, as I'm apparently on the trail of homemade food that I don't have to spend much time making happen. I want to eat well I just don't want to participate much. It's another pattern I didn't know was there.

The one trait I'm a bit horrified to admit that the pattern shows is I want it easy and effortless. I wish I was one of those people that enjoys the process and the art. That would seem more noble. I just like to eat yummy-ness but prefer minimal effort which doesn't always go together I find.

I wonder if everyone could go to wherever they hoard recipes and find a pattern? Do you have any food obsessions that you KNOW about or will it come out in some public forum someday?

 

Do you hear what I hear?

Have you ever noticed the explosion of sound when you close your eyes?  I went to have my hair done at a nearly empty shopping center. Normally I practice my Spanish and try to chat with the beauty technician, but I decided to close my eyes and listen.

I'm working on a senses edit of my next novel  trying to add another layer to the story of the five senses. I must be a majorly visual person. I never thought of myself that way, but I find it takes a big effort to focus on elements of a scene besides what I see in my mind's eye.

When the lady started putting the color on my hair, I decided to close my eyes and listen. I enjoy getting my hair done though I am a lot lax about doing it regularly. I find someone else combing my hair to be very relaxing so I slipped into a semi-somnambulant state.

The easiest thing to hear was a baby screaming somewhere in the mall. They always scream in confined places, don't they? Airplanes, weddings, shopping centers, church. When the baby took time out, I heard a soft buzz of adult conversations, probably upstairs on the restaurant level. The foil on my head made lot of rattling sounds and the brush applying the color made a pounding sound inside my head that accompanied the rattle of the foil.

In lulls between the plastic comb and paint brush applicator clacking together ad the foil rattles, I sometimes heard music from a nearby shop. Not enough to identify a song, but the beat or a crash of symbols, a high note. In the quiet there is also a big echoing sound of air in the mall. I suppose it's just the big enclosed space sound a whoosh of air and motion.

When I slipped deeper and concentrated harder, I could hear the purr of a motor. It reminded me of a quiet house when the refridgerator kicks on, but it's a beauty salon and there are no refridgerators. I can't really identify that sound and if I don't concentrate on it, it disappears again from my consciousness. I smell the strong smell of the ammonia in the hair color and  maybe a hint of food from upstairs. Even the scents are more notable with my eyes closed.

The other girl in the shop moves some chairs and they make scootching sounds against the tile floor. Like they think I'm really asleep, she and the lady working on my hair exchange a quiet mumble that I don't catch all of. Something about sharing something, food maybe?

I hear voices nearer probably of people walking nearby on this level and the occasional race car sound and motor from a child's ride in motion.

So a quiet shopping center with few people in it actually turns into a cacophony of sounds when you unplug your brain and your eyes and listen and smell. So what can you hear?

Linear brains vs shapes brains

People seem to come in two thought process categories. Those who think linearly and those who, well, don't follow the straight line, it's more of a free association of ideas. They see things differently and we need both in the world.

I read an organizational article describe it as the pilers versus filers. The visual among us need to see the papers or the objects that need attention. The filers can put these same objects in a file drawer in a folder and still do the task or find that paper and make it useful at the appropriate time. I'm a piler. If it needs to be done or dealt with, it needs to be where I can lay eyes on it. I use a file cabinet for deep storage, like receipts for next year's taxes. It's not something that needs to be dealt with on any regular basis or soon. It's very hard for me after I've been on kick of putting things away because I can't find anything. Usually something terribly important is missing after these organizational bouts. I KNEW where it was when it was in the pile on the desk. If you are not a piler, you will not understand what I have just described.The disadvantage is it leads to lots of piles and it's not pretty. I've tried bags - that is taking all those stray canvas bags and putting all associated things in a bag. It hasn't worked very well. Unseen, undone, unuseful.

Another way of looking at these different patterns is a formal outline versus a sort of  free shaping brainstorm. I was at a seminar where this was described a couple times and I can't remember or find on line what the real name is. Rather than I. A. a. B. b., you take a piece of paper with your main idea in a circle in the middle. Then you sort of free associate anything related that you can think of in other smaller circles on the page and you can eventually connect the circles that go together. It ends up as a series of shapes and lines, like a sloppy line drawing. It sounds messy, but for those non linear people it is very helpful. It turns the idea into a shape or visual that you can begin to manage.

One interesting thing I've noticed about this lately is that these two categories do not necessarily line up with personality types.  I hear people say they are a big idea person and not one for details. I think the idea people and the detail people can be on both sides of the linear versus shapes thought processes. 

I can be the idea person and often am, but I can execute the details too. It's odd to me that so many people see that as an either or question. Yet, how can I be a detail person and yet not be linear in my thinking? Or is it that I don't think linearly enough so I run rampant around my mind in circles until I've covered as many details as I can think of? I'm not sure I know the answer. I know it's not a straight line.

So which are you?

Real vs Fake

Coming out of a restaurant recently, I encountered chocolate mints. Hard candy like peppermints. This is just a waste of calories in my opinion. If I want chocolate flavor, I want chocolate, not hard candy doing it's impression of chocolate.

I love strawberries. That's my favorite fruit. Fruit being the key word. I don't like strawberry candy. That's not the real flavor of strawberries. It's just a sugary impression of something red. I'd really rather just wait for the real fruit to show up again.

I will eat fake things like watermelon or cinnamon Jolly Ranchers, but they don't taste to me like the real thing. They are just candies that I like the flavor.

I bought a cinnamon syrup to flavor steamers. I was thinking cinnamon like the spice I have in my cabinet. This is actually red-hot candy flavored "Cinnamon." It's not that it's bad, it's just not the real flavor. I have cinnamon tea that actually tastes like tea, not like candy cinnamon. So the real flavor does happen from time to time.

Can you think of other fake flavors that aren't, well, real?

Camraderie

Do you ever have instant rapport with someone? It's usually an evening of conversation that establishes some new acquaintance into something more, but occasionally something clicks instantly.

I think sharing a common experience creates instant bonds if not friendships. It seems that parents of the same age children often have a bond, if somewhat tentative, by the shared experience of having a toddler. Often people of different ages might bond over having attended the same university or school. Is it friendship or does the shared experience just give you something to talk about instantly, thus filling the conversational gap?

I don't know but I have noticed a few times lately and instant rapport with people I had only just met. With the missionary crowd, you generally keep running into each other at missions conventions or pastor meetings and such. It's the same series of questions usually and the same commiserations over our shared experience of fund raising and calling churches. It's almost humorous. I noticed it particularly on the East Coast because suddenly I was a newbie at the conventions coming in from the outside and yet we had the same conversations like we were old friends.

Recently I met someone who had spent several months in Spain learning the language. So, bing, instant connections. In the course of an afternoon of conversation, we found we had other things in common too and much to talk about, but that shared past experience was the basis for that new connection.

What triggers an instant connection for you?

My Stuff

I'm staying in a single bedroom, a big one, but a single room with a bathroom attached. It has been five weeks more or less. This amount of time brings out one of my challenges. Stuff.

I don't mean to, but my stuff builds up. Now, I'm never going to be on Hoarders but I tend to feel like I need to hang on to pieces of paper in case I need them. You know, stray phone numbers, names of people we met, receipts, lists of what I need to get done. Then there's things that might be useful to me or might be able to be used again. (shopping bags, anyone?) These and other things have built up on all the flat surfaces in my room.

A desk-pseudo-cubical in one corner is having to work as the kitchen/hotpot breakfast area. I'm trying to stay mostly with food/plates in this area but it is next to the mirror so occasionally make up products migrate there. There's not enough light in the bathroom for these activities nor a plug in for the hair dryer.

On the other side of the mirror is the table with the microwave. This has caught the make up bag, hair goo products, etc. but you still need to get the microwave open and not knock all the receipts off. It's a little tricky.

The side tables by the bed have papers, books, work "stuff", pens, etc. Sadly no flat surface remains untouched.

I try to keep my "stuff" in check and I'm better than I used to be. In danger of sounding like an advertisement, I'll say something that has helped me is evernote.com. You can keep lists, webpages, and other stuff there for free. This helped me get rid of many random bits of paper I felt like I might need while we were in the USA. In Spain, I  put the info on my evernote pages and I have it without carrying it. Very good for a paper pack rat! (free too).

Another problem I've had with stuff, is the word itself. It's such an all purpose word that I discovered after writing my first (unpublished) novel that I use the word entirely too much. I think I've weeded it out of my writing mostly -- this post excepted.

And now in the next few days, I have to get all that stuff back in two suitcases. Oh boy.

Hold onto your hat

I'm reinventing my blog with the idea of posting once a week for a year. A friend of mine did a piece of art a week last year and made it to the end of the year. So I was toying with the idea of posting some writing weekly. The thing is that I can't find a theme. It seems a little reckless and unrealistic to write a short story every week, well, not and expect it to be good.

I also saw the movie Julie and Julia where she blogs about going through a cookbook of recipes in a year. I was inspired again but still came up theme-less. I can't say I've resolved to do this for 2010 because at midnight last night I was still un-decided because of my lack of theme.

Perhaps I will randomly post myself into a theme. It's possible. Perhaps it will be a private journal that people will not read much.

I have had the conviction for the past few months knowing I was leaving my office schedule routine in Madrid for the more random public speaking, fund raising schedule in the United States that I wanted to write more in 2010. A lot of writers, and want-to-be writers say they want to write more "this year." I used to say more words on paper. I guess now it's just more words. I still wouldn't call it a resolution. An aspiration maybe.

Will I be among the many who disappoint themselves this year? Or will I stumble into something good? Maybe the simple act of doing will be discipline and reward enough. We shall see.

Upcoming ideas: crappy crafts, writing anst, story ideas.