21 juillet

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hey there everybody!
im back in france! i love it so much here. it feels like france. right now i am at my fourth farm for a week before i head to merlins forest for a day or two and then up to paris for the rest of next week. where i am right now has the most new development that i have seen in my whole journey. it is kind of sad. the buildings have the shape of beautiful french homes but they are so quickly and poorly thrown together, they remind me too much of the houses at home. there is no real love and life to them. but the countryside is just beautiful. the past two farms that i have been on as well as the farm that charly was at (that i visited for a day) have all been in the mountains (though each set of mountains have been totally different). it is nice to get a change of scenery. though i do love the mountains, they are much more wild. the landscape reminds me a lot of my first farm, as well as the feeling of the home. though this home seems a bit more mellow. i dont know how to describe it.

i know this doesnt fit the flow of things but often i have though of this in my journey and never have i remembered to write it... Patricia Nan, you are certainly here with me in spirit. one of the big french habits i have found is that when you eat your hands and arms and such are always on the table as you are talking and eating and listeneing and such. often i catch myself with my elbows on the table (which is common practice from what i have seen) and i hear you in my head, "amber, amber if youre able, keep your elbows off the table" and then last night when i was running in and out of the house cause we were eating outside i ended up running outside in my socks a couple of times (this is a no shoes in the house household) and i could hear you in my head, "now amber marie, what is the point of taking off your shoes to come inside if you are just going to run out in your socks and bring the dirt in on them?" it made me laugh to myself and put my shoes back on when i went outside the next time. just know that i am thinking about you and that you are with me where ever i go helping me to be a better mannered person and a stronger person as a whole. thank you 😊

i do have things such as the above for you all but this one in particular comes to me regularly being that elbows on the table just seems to be part of french dining 😊

this is all the time i have and i have really not said anything of my travels. hopefully i will get back to the computer soon. i love you all so very much!
amber*

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