Danger Proof

A few days ago, the director for my program posted in our Facebook group that she was interested in doing some hiking through the calanques of Cassis (a town just outside of Aix) and she had room in her car for a few students. Having no plans and a desire to visit the area, I decided to tag along. It was probably in the mid 60s today…by no means warm, but still nice by Wisconsin standards. We trekked across town to the calanques. Like I mentioned in an earlier post, calanques are these little Mediterranean bays surrounded by high limestone cliffs—and they pretty much only exist in my region. They’re also totally awesome.

This adventure quickly changed courses for me. At the beginning of October while at the beach in La Ciotat, my friends started to really understand how crazy I was as I dragged them through the woods to mysterious beaches and crept towards the edge of cliffs for “cooler pictures”. They quickly decided that should a career in politics fail for me, reality TV is a viable option.

My show would be called ‘Danger Proof’ and it would entail any number of dangerous adventures, and the winner would be deemed…danger proof. Between what I put my friends through that day, and my trip to Mt. Sainte Victoire, this trip was episode three. I almost gave our director Kelly many a heart attacks, and I’m sure once my parents see the pictures from today they might too. Ma and Pa, if you see a photo of me standing in front of a cool background, don’t worry…I’m probably standing on the edge of a cliff. So I’m pretty much a chaperon’s worse nightmare, because not only am I running around doing crazy shit, I was inspiring my friends on the trip to try it after I did. No one was hurt in the making of this blog post, except me. I might have a few bruises that are all my fault.

Anyhow, after a few hours of hiking up and down the rocky slopes of the hills surrounding the calanques, we made it to a lovely beach. Our director told us to bring a swim suit and towel, just in case. In all honesty I thought she was crazy, but a practice suit and a sports bra are practically the same thing, so I figured why not. Upon arrival at the beach, I was glad I had a suit on because there was no way I was not going swimming. The air was almost chilly. The water was cold. However, spending a decade as a competitive swimmer with 7am practices outside during cool Wisconsin summers; this wasn’t anything I couldn’t handle. I still can’t believe that I went swimming at the end of October. Shit’s crazy. It was all fun until I realized that there was a jellyfish swimming right next to me. Lacking goggles to see where his family was hiding; I decided that was enough swimming for me.

I’ve seen more nature during my two months in the south of France than I’ve seen my past several years in Wisconsin. Then again, Provence is different kinds and amounts of beautiful than Wisconsin is. But hiking and I are on much better terms than we were this summer in rural Virginia. I will admit I am no longer anti hiking. I’ll still pass on the sleeping in the woods thing, though.