La Cite des Insectes

for those of you who do not speak french, that means, the city of insects. for those of you who are still curious, i am at a place that has an insect museum. Unfortunately, it is closed for the season, until spring, when the tourists come back. But there is still a family living here, Jim and Regine, and they still have work to do during the off-season, so i am here to help. So far, i've planted a lot of flower bulbs, and am working on cleaning out the theater, where they show short informational videos about insects. The whole point of the place is to show how important insects are, for biodiversity, the health of the earth, and our gardens, so there is a lot of information about the relationships between insects and plants. The museum is really great, and the gardens are beautiful.










i found this place through an organization called WWOOF, willing workers on organic farms. you can check out the website, www.wwoof.com --- as you can see, i probably couldn't do anything without the internet. if you don't know about it, you should. you can find people all around the world who will host you (feed you and shelter you) in exchange for work. Each place is different, so you can find pretty much any kind of experience you want. Anyway, i think it's really cool, and that's what i'm doing out here in europe, with practically no money, and lots of time.
Here, i am staying in the house with Jim and Regine, and 5 cats, 3 of which are little kittens. awwwwww. i love it. luckily it is okay that i don't speak french because Jim is from the UK and Regine is from France, but she speaks very good english. we eat really good food, including, since it is france, good bread and cheese all the time, and sometimes some good wine. one day, the three of us went for a walk, and picked mushrooms and gathered chestnuts, which we ate later that day and the next day. We are right near the center of france, in the region of Limousin, which is in the middle of nowhere (kinda, the nearest town, is only about 1o minutes away, and a big city, Limoges, is about an hour away). But i'm glad we are in the middle of nowhere because it is so so so beautiful: rolling hills with fields, trees, cows, the sky, clouds, and a house here and there, nothing else. It is quite nice to be out of the big cities, and in the countryside.

i met another wwoofer already, when i arrived here, keiran, who is from santa fe. but he left a few days after i got here. i know i will meet a lot of travellers as my journey goes on. i do wish i had a travelling companion, and hopefully i will find one. there are positive aspects of travelling alone as well as travelling with someone, so i am having a great time, but if any y'all homebodies wanna come over here and get your hands dirty, learn another language, meet some cool people, learn some stuff, you're welcome. i'll probably be here for a while, y'know.

so i am here at la cite des insectes for another week and a half, and am then off to another wwoof farm about an hour or two away. halloween is coming soon, and there is talk of a halloween party, but i don't know if it will happen. I said it would be cool if we turned the museum into a haunted house. The french don't really celebrate Halloween, but of course they know about it.
anywho.... life is good and kitty cats are cute. i love you all.