So I have been in Benodet for nearly two months now and I haven't blogged once. I'd love to say it's because so much has been going on I haven't had chance, but that's not strictly true... Benodet is a lovely little town right by the sea, with beautiful beaches and scenery. We've had a couple of weeks of amazing weather recently so the beaches were a dream, but being right by the sea also causes extremely tempramental weather and lot's of wind. I am currently sat in the tent I share with my newly adopted little sister Sarah. She's eighteen and I've taken her under my wing, trying to show her the ways of the world - like I have a clue. Our tent is usually pretty messy, although Sarah's parents have come to stay this week and her Mum, bless her, has actually tidied our tent for us and done the washing up!! Living in a tent may sound absolutely horrendous but it's honestly qute fun. Walking to the toilet block is a pain and we can't have the electric heater on full power because it causes the electricity to trip, but we have proper beds, a cooker, a fridge, and we've created a make-shift sofa out of two single camp beds. Honestly, what more do you need?
I did this job last summer but I worked in Holland, it was an amazing experience - although of course you tend to only remember the good times and forget about the times you wanted to tear your hair out, or rip down someones tent... So when I first arrived here in Benodet I couldn't stop comparing everything to how it was last year, which is the wrong attitude to arrive somewhere with because of course it's not going to be the same. It's a different place with different people, and after the first week or so I began to think about it as an experience in it's own right, rather than deciding I wasn't enjoying myself because this is different or that is different. One of the main difference is the fact that it's a much quieter area than I was used to last year. There's not many bars nearby and certainly no nightclubs. The local town is pretty but there's not alot of shops that interest me, and so far we've tried one restaraunt, liked it and stuck with it.
In a bid to spice thing's up, on my first weekend I suggested the "Circle Of Truth" which has now become a thing of legend. It began with; "Let's go around the circle and each say our favourite film", and led to questions like; "Let's go around the circle an say how many people we've slept with." If you're sat with a group of people you hardly know, the Circle Of Truth is one sure fire way to break the ice. The following weekend I partook in a game of "Strip Tops". Tops is a camping game, it involves two people sat at either ends of a table with a beer bottle in front of them. Each beer bottle has a bottle top resting upside down on the mouth of the bottle. The aim is to throw a top at your opponents bottle and try to knock off the top resting on it. I don't excel at this game (although the possibility of seeing my opponent having more than one of his tops knocked off, i suddenly played like a pro).
The weekend after i'd decided i'd had enough (the night before i'd ended up drunkenly crying on my friend Ant's shoulder for no apparant reason), I endevoured to find somewhere we could go and drink and dance, basically so we didn't go insane. There is another campsite about a 30-40 minute walk away that has a decent bar on it, we call it "PDP" but I don't actually think that's it's name. It does cocktails and has a DJ of a weekend, and really we're in no position to be fussy about where we spend our time. Since we've started going there thing's have picked up a bit, that and the fact that the weather has drastically improved. That is until yesterday when it was pouring down... Customers are funny when the weathers bad. They choose to come to the north of France where the weather is pretty much exactly the same as the UK, and then they complain about it as though it's your fault. Why not just go somewhere good weather is guarenteed? It truly baffles me.
Being cooped up on a campsite can cause you to behave rather out of character at times, I know this from last year, and whilst I have certainly learnt a few lessons from my time in Holland, common sense seems to go right out of the window as soon as I'm back under canvas. It is an extremely unique experience, I think it would make an amazing fly-on-the-wall tv show to be honest, it would basically show the lengths human beings will go to in order to cure boredom. Can you imagine living in a tent, only seeing the same fifteen faces everyday for six months, without a whole lot to entertain yourself with? Imagine if they gave alcohol to prisoners. You might be 75% there.
