Angolême

   Drama here, drama there,  drama drama everywhere!  That's the best way to describe the time I spent in Angolême.  We drove 12+ hours from Lacoste on a bus to get here.  When we arrived the first time at our "villas," we were shocked.   The "villas" we stayed in were not at all what we were expecting.  When you hear the word villa, you expect something large and grand right?  In fact, the word itself means a large country house of Roman times, having an estate and consisting of farm and residential buildings arranged around a courtyard.  I do believe several people have coined the term "camp hell."  Instead of something grand (at all), we stayed in these little, tiny, dirty, houses in the middle of nowhere.  It literally looked like it could be the perfect setting for a bad horror movie.

We came for the 39th annual comic festival.  Basically it's the french version of comic con, or so I've been told.  What I loved about the city was the gorgeous wall murals.  Technically they were graffiti, but not what you would expect.  One thing that I find so nice for a change is that art and artist are actually respected over here.

 When the bus would drop us off each day, it would drop us off at the very bottom.  That first day we realized just how steep the climb would be.  Almost a 45 degree slope!  I am for sure getting my exercise on this trip!  Each day we had to make this climb because the rest of the festival was at the top. 

Our first day in Angolême was a dreary one.  We went to the comic book museum which was interesting.  I got so excited when I saw some of the books in German because I could actually read them, then was thankful that a good majority of the books there were in English so I could read them as well.  Afterwards we just walked around the city trying to see what there was to see.  My focus was mostly on finding a wifi spot so I could leave a message to Ken.  My friends and I found a nice little cafe and we enjoyed a nice cup of hot chocolate while drawing and checking in on the world.

 The next day was definitely not the best day ever...  The night before, one of my roommates was sick so the rest of us stayed up all night with her making sure she was ok.  Because of this, another one of my roommates got so incredibly sick that she had to be taken to the hospital.  Needless to say, I've had better days.  Other than that, I explored the festival- finding all kinds of amazing art.  Finally the sun came out and we were able to appreciate the city so much more.  And that night I took care of my other roommate after she came back because she still was really sick.

Our last day was probably the best day I had there.  My friend Sarah and I went to an artist lecture for the author of the book Mause.  It was not something I was expecting.  I did not know that he used to be an underground comic artist and I was not expecting to see that particular kind of "art."  We felt so bad when we left though because as we were about to stand up and leave, he made the comment, "What? Is my life so boring? Should I change topics?" because we weren't the only ones trying to leave.  So we stayed for an extra 10-25 mins until we couldn't wait anymore if we wanted to catch the bus back to Lacoste.  I was so happy to be able to pick up the first book in the french series "Le Balledt de Yaya."  It's such a cute series about a little girl and boy in Shanghai during WWII.  I can't wait to finish reading it!  Even thought it's in french, I can still understand everything that happens because it is so well written.  Then we raced back to the bus for our 12 hour ride back to Lacoste.

Me by the end of the trip