Techno Rave

Yesterday morning we woke up at 7h00 to get on the road by 8h30. We still had two hours of road to cover to reach Mont Saint Michel. On the bus I got to be on the bottom of a pile of love. Daniel stretched his legs over me, then Tom came and sat on top of his legs, and then Laura came and sat on top of all of us. I am surprised that my legs stayed awake the entire time. In French the phrase is "avoir des fourmis," literally to have ants.

We arrived at what can be compared to a campground. There were dozens of cabins to house over nine districts of Rotary students. (There are usually at least 30 students in one district.) Jess and I decided to mingle, so we went up to as many people as possible to say hello. Instead of asking for names, we first asked the country of origin. I can place a face with a country now, but I met so many people that I only retained a handful of names.

We each had bag lunches that we carried from the camp to the foot of Mont Saint Michel. My bag broke, so Michael put it in his bookbag while we were walking. Everybody threw bread at the seagulls surrounding us as we ate. We all also freaked out at the possibility of having guano land on our heads.

After we ate, shoes were removed, and toes squished in mud as we began a guided tour around the land surrounding Mont Saint Michel. Apparently we walked for fourteen kilometers, but for some reason I did not think it felt that long, eventhough we walked from 1h30 to 5h00.

We took the bus back to camp. We were supposed to take a group picture at 6h30. Everyone felt absolutely disgusting. Eventhough the chaperones told us not to take showers because we didn't have time, I didn't pay attention to them and had wet hair in the group picture (including all nine districts). That doesn't really matter, though because I, like most everyone, was hdden by a country flag waving in the front. What did matter was that the boys got towels and bathrooms in their cottages, while the girls had to shower in a giant communal out-house without towels. Not cool.

We had to wait a long time for dinner because instead, we got to watch Normand folk dancers who looked to be seventy years old at the very least. The outfits were so funny looking, too. The women wore lace hats and gloves. Jess joked around saying that the song to which they were dancing was called "Swan Lace." This also corresponded to the fact that Carlos taught me how to fold my napkin into a crane!

The students from each country then sang their national anthems. Apparently, the Finland and Estonian national anthems are the same with different lyrics in different languages. All of the exchange students from amazing countries dressed up in the coolest clothes I have ever seen! My favorite was the dress worn by Azriel, a girl from the Philippines. It was blue with shoulder shields (vertical shoulder pads) covered in glitter. She looked like a beautiful ethnic Cinderella.

After dinner one of the boys from India who looked like a pirate in his native clothes danced for us in honor of the festival going on in his home country right now. We all loved it, and when he finished, we started our own dance party! By this time it was midnight and we danced until almost 2h00 AM. Surprisingly, the grinding was minimal. It was a lot of fun to learn how others from all of the foreign countries danced. The latinos are the most talented.

We didn't fall asleep until after 3h00, but Jess at least got a towel from one guy by hiding behind a tree when he went to get it.