The cold left me, but took my voice as it went. In a place full of new people, a summer school built on discussions and a prime opportunity to build a network of like-minded young scholars in the ecosystem services field, being voiceless is not ideal. I felt dull and plain, and like I wouldn’t be making a mark on anyone there.
Part of the summer school was built around a group project. We were all divided into smaller groups according to ecosystem service categories and in the end we were to present a synthesized ecosystem services assessment of the upper Verdon valley, where Peyresq is situated, and policy recommendations for how to make sure the villages in the valley will continue to flourish. In my voiceless state, it became an exercise in how to not have opinions about everything. Not an easy task for me. In the beginning, the discussions in the cultural ecosystem services group were many. But I’m happy with what we accomplished in the end – and we had a lot of fun getting there.
In the evenings, after the three course dinners, we socialized in the common room, played board games or danced in the makeshift bar. A couple of nights, some of the guys started playing a guitar and it developed into a (semi-drunk) communal singing session. It was painful, not being able to take part in the singing.
But, outside: The moon over the valley giving the hillsides a blue touch of fairy-tale. And in the elder tree, the house mice were munching away at the deep purple berries, jumping from branch to branch.
Katja Malmborg 