Now, the above might seem kind of fawning and patriarchal on the face of things, but I found it pretty-much the opposite. (work with me here?)
In short-- these three gals come from a range of backgrounds & scholarly ability, and are all vying to self-torture themselves through graduate school, essentially. For example, the advisor to Helen (the redhead below) is especially an enormous asshole, toying with her dissertation and future job-prospects unnecessarily, altho I suppose that's also par for the course when it comes to the academic grant-process, no? *sigh*
Oh, right-- what's happening here is that the school year is finally over, and they're spending a few days in the country at Helen's family's place. Fresh air, mountains, hiking, et cet.
Now, all three of them had pretty-consistently been dealing with shit from their BF's or love interests (and vice-versa) for the whole semester, so it was just nice for them to chill out, just girls, and symbolically as kids once again, with Helen's family.
Those are the lines that really killed me-- the idea that gifted academics can suffer such thoughts. Uh... "Imposter Syndrome," or something like that? So, meanwhile alongside their own accomplishments, they can be almost in a state of awe upon expert craftsman and people who make things happen with their hands, see?
If the pics don't show up correctly, try the page:
https://imgur.com/gallery/little-sequence-from-fascinating-slice-of-life-work-glory-days-i-e-le-bel-ge-by-merwan-2012-AVlBEKe
Merwan is just wonderful to me:
https://www.bedetheque.com/auteur-9301-BD-Merwan.html
Exactly.