Friday, September 29, 2006

French Cow Tipping

I have just gotten back from the French equivalen of cow tipping.

First, I've got to tell you, Saint Amand Montrand (the town I am currently in) is a very nice place, but it is in the middle of nowhere. After a goodbye dinner tonight for two of the French staff, everyone announced that we were going to drive into the woods to listen to the deer. I didn't quite understand, and I wasn't quite sure they were being literal, so we crammed into my rental minivan and drove off into the countryside.

Half an hour later I found myself sitting in the woods in the middle of the French countryside listening to the very loud mating calls of the local deer (or reindeer perhaps?). All I know is that our deer in the US don't make these noises. From every direction in the pitch black around us you could hear load grunts and moans of French deer getting it on. It was a veritible deer orgy.

One of the coolest things was that there wasn't a light for miles in any direction. You could see the Milky Way perfectly.

I think it is funny that I've been living in China for over one year now and one of the strangest things I have done in the past year was in France.