"Je suis bête"
An entire week has passed since my hop across the pond and I must say, France is très belle. We already knew that, though. Let's see. I would like to give you as complete a description as possible, but I don't know if I can! So much has happened within the last week, that I'm having a hard time finding the place to begin.
Well, how about at the beginning? Allez!
So I left Houston, TX (as you know from the previous email, bawling like a baby) on a Saturday and arrived in Paris, France on a Sunday. I spent approximately 2 and half hours in Paris wandering around the airport, Charles de Gaulle. The vendors in the CDG airport look very different from the vendors in the American airports. For the sake of interest, I'll not bore you with what differences I observed. When I finally settled in at my gate, F35, I met a very charming lady named Odile who was traveling to Lyon to visit her somewhat estranged brother. She'd been living in 'Réunion' which includes Tahiti, and she was making her annual visit to the motherland. Anyway, we chatted for a long time and she asked the ticket-taker if she could exchange her seat for one beside me because she just loved me so much! She didn't say that specifically, but I assumed that was one of her reasons for moving. I think she explained to me that she enjoyed meeting international students or something like that...I prefer to think she moved because of the aforementioned love for me.
I arrived in Lyon totally unscathed, more learned on the history of Lyon, and fully satisfied from a delicious salmon sandwich and buttercreme pastry. The French really know how to put together an in-flight meal. Say yes to AirFrance, mes amis! The Gorrells (Ruth Ann and Ray) were patiently/anxiously awaiting my arrival and were more than happy to see that I was alive and well. After saying good bye to my new friend Odile, I began the next phase of my journey with the Gorrells (and all my 127lbs worth of luggage in tow) to my home of three months, Saint Etienne.
The Gorrells and I caught up as much as we could that evening and they allowed me to sleep in until 12 the next day. I talked to my mom and dad right before hitting the hay (you just don't say things like that in France!) and I regret to inform my papa, that as I was talking to him, I began to drift off. Jet lag is wonderful fun :) Monday Ruth Ann and I went on a three hour tour of Saint-Etienne including a visit to my school and a visit to see one of the girls Ruth Ann disciples. Monday evening I moved into my place on rue Charles de Gaulle, though most everyone from Saint-Etienne would say that I lived at Place Carnot (which I think is equivalent to the name of a neighborhood). Françoise, my host mom was and is more than accommodating. She invited the Gorrells to stay for an apértif and I was quite happy when they accepted her invitation. Since that evening she has gone out of her way to help me understand the language and the customs of France. Elle est très sympa.
The following morning, there was some slight confusion as Françoise didn't know that my normal sleeping hours actually range from 1 in the morning until 10 in the morning, or later depending on the day, month, season, color of my hair, etc. She woke me at 8:00 for breakfast and I groggily and reluctantly joined her in the kitchen. After finishing my breakfast I returned to my bedroom to read, lay around, and eventually pick out clothes for the day's events. It wasn't until two hours later that I realized something was wrong...Françoise had been waiting to take me to school because she thought I had classes that day; oh la la, c'est grave ça! I tried to apologize as sincerely as I could in French..I felt like a huge jerk, and she doesn't know anything about me really, so I was giving her a terrible first impression and so on and so forth. I think she has since forgiven me, because immediately following my apology she took me to get my train pass and show me a bit of the town herself. Getting my STAS pass is one of the best things I've done so far. Public transportation, as I'm sure most of you know, is excellent in Europe. I'd always heard how convenient it was, and now I know firsthand.
Later that afternoon, I hooked up with Ruth Ann to go grocery shopping, so I met her at 'Auchan centre deux' for a full tour of a typical French supermarket. It really is a nice place to shop because connected to Auchan (the grocery store) are a few clothing boutiques and a few food vendors. I would say it's very similar to a mall with a grocery/drug store attached. Does anyone remember when malls had pharmacies/drug stores? If you do remember, envision that, only ten times bigger with 80 times the products. So...Auchan. We were there for, gosh I don't know. Two hours? It felt like forever because all of the information I was receiving had gone past the point of absorption. I am in Ruth Ann's debt, however, as she showed me all the appropriate substitutes for my favorite American dishes. This dough for that, this cheese for cream cheese, this brick of chocolate for chocolate chips, this corn instead of that corn..on and on. I've never had to identify with America so much in my life. I just realized that. Weird.
Once we finished shopping, she took me to meet some other folks from the church GBSE
http://gbse.fr/: the Cordiers and another couple Xuan et Céderic. Very agreeable people, overly generous as I've found most of the French people to be since my arrival. The Cordiers' kids have been most helpful to me as they've transported me to various Christian-youth hangouts. We left the Cordiers' apartment with a promise from their oldest son, Timothée, to pick me up for the University bible study on Wednesday.
Wednesday arrived, and to my surprise so did a traditionally long European lunch! I met another Odile, one of Françoise's friends, and enjoyed her company as she chatted about the difficulties of living in France. I also rather enjoyed her three cigarettes in two hours, no kids about it! She had this fascinating way of preparing the tobacco in a plastic container and then cutting herself a cigarette from rolled paper. I watched her, obviously amazed, every time she pulled out her stash...haha, her stash. She was probably equally bewildered by me as I stumbled through conversation with my awful French. Everyday I think about the Chinese students I've met at A&M and, initially, I feel like our experiences abroad must be comparable. Then I realize that Chinese is not Latin-based or anywhere near similar to English and I feel sorry for them, and utterly absurd for assuming such a ridiculous comparison. So, lunch was super fun. After finishing lunch, I traveled to my program's center to sign up for some soiree for international students. Still weird to consider myself an int'l student. (<< there I almost abbreviated student; girls can't really refer to themselves as studs, though, i guess)
Françoise regularly baby-sits some Burkinabè (people from Burkina Faso) kids, so when I returned from my short jaunt to CILEC, we went to the park with a young master Si'lyah. Three years old. Totally wild. Huge afro. He was loads of fun and yet completely mischievous. Coming back from the park, we witnessed an older musulmane lady fall and bonk her head on the tram. For her, the tram was stopped and an ambulance was immediately called. Is that something that trams in the states would do? I attributed it to the nature of Socialism, but I could be entirely wrong. Alas, from there we continued on foot back to the apartment. We arrived about half an hour before Timothée so I had a quick dinner, and then it was off to GBU (the university bible study). All French, for the main discussion. My participation during the evening consisted of a generic greeting (name, city/country, studies) and a few "Quoi?"'s
I enjoyed the evening all the same. Tim was super nice for showing me how to get there as he's exceptionally busy with school right now. He'd been in class since 8 am and had just finished with classes before arriving to pick me up. Nice family, those Cordiers.
Thursday I spent the day exploring Saint-Etienne and going back to the café where GBU is held. I had a lovely conversation in English with a French fellow named Sébastien. His dad is American, so his English accent is almost totally on par with any other American. Sort of sad really, as I do love a French accent in English, haha! That evening Françoise and I again attended to the Burkinabè kids. This time Si'lyah's sister Suka'ynah came as well. They were good for a laugh and helped ease the awkwardness a bit. Earlier that day Françoise had twisted her ankle, and all I could think to say was, "Ca va?? et...euhh...je peux t'aider euuhh aveceuuhh quelquechose...??"
Friday I spent the morning with Ruth Ann, praying and having lunch. I was supposed to meet up with Françoise around 2 for a movie, but we changed the time to 4 so Ruth Ann and I could make another trip to the grocery store...oh lala. The movie we went to is called 'Entre les Murs' and il s'agit des collèges françaises. It was essentially making a social statement about the condition of the students and the junior highs in France. Very interesting stuff. I didn't realize all that was in store for me that day, because once we finished the movie, we said good bye to Ruth Ann and hopped in the car with some of Françoise's other friends. A couple named Jean-Clair and Claire. Haha. So French. Claire (the lady) drove us to the Burkina Faso exhibition and nearly made me wet my pants. French drivers are in a word: craszsy. I mean, she's this sixty-something year old woman driving twenty miles too fast and not paying attention to the cars she's cutting off in the middle lane and right lane as she swerves wherever she pleases. It was an experience, to say the least :) Plus J-C and C are a hoot. I hope to get a picture of them before I leave. The exhibition was very informative and entertaining. I met the director of CILEC there and we laughed about the thousands of emails I'd sent him over the past eight months. I think he felt entirely acquainted with me after he shook my hand. Just to give you a better idea, he's a British guy married to a French lady (who's very involved in the arts) and did that evening smell like he'd dipped himself in a tub of cognac. What a blast.
Françoise and I returned by tram with a Burkinabè artist to the apartment. She wanted to show him some of the pieces she'd been collecting. Unfortunately I think he was a little too fond of me, so I retreated to another room while they continued a tour of the apartment.
Saturday I had plans to do some more exploring but was happily obliged to go grocery shopping and to IKEA with Françoise and her sister Collete. Two older ladies and me...shopping all day. Let me tell you what, these older ladies are more fun than some of the young'uns I know. Maybe they feel like they have more freedom to do and say what they please, I don't know..but they were very amusing. At IKEA, I became a 'bête' because I broke the second piece of glass, first a glass-glass (ha!) and then a mirror, I'd handled that week. Françoise and Collete laughed and laughed when they'd seen what I done and simply took the mirror back to where it belonged and picked up another one. Morally, I felt like leaving a broken mirror with unbroken ones was wrong...but I was peer-pressured into thinking nothing of it. Is that lame? Should I have paid for it? ehhh c'est la vie, oaui?
We returned in time for me to chat with my pops and get ready for the Saturday youth hangout. Tim, Thomas, and Marie Cordier picked me up for the evening and drove me to the Gorrells'. We had a time of discussion, testimony, and then pizza. I was excited because a lot of the people my age that attend the youth hangouts are anglophones and I was hurting in a bad way to talk to someone in English. This past week I've noticed that the inability to express myself and what I'm truly thinking has been sooooooooo difficult. Well, I was slightly disappointed by the the anglophones' lack of desire to converse in English with me. I think because it was the first youth hangout of the year, they were excited to see each other again and had little time to make smalltalk with me. Hélas. I will have to commend Thomas Cordier for his conversation initiation. The more I think about those Cordier kids, the fuller my heart is with love for that family! You guys will have to give me some idea of what I can do to express my thanks to them, ok?
So Saturday was fun.
And at last (I imagine all of you sighing a huge breath of relief at this point), we've arrived at today. Or what was today, as it is now officially 12:34 a.m. I was picked up again by the Cordier family at 9ish a.m. for church. Norbert, the Cordier pop, led the service in community prayer, song, and the observation of a verse. After that, Randy Moyer, another American missionary gave the sermon. He talked about discipleship, which I love, and cited a few verses that I have really cherished lately: Colossians 1:9-12. It's my prayer everyday to live in a manner worthy of the Lord, so hearing that this morning, before I begin classes tomorrow, was such an encouragement! I met two Canadian gals this morning and Ruth Ann had all three of us stay for lunch. They're really sweet and I think their blogs are linked with the others that I follow. We chatted for nearly three hours before Ruth Ann and I had to meet Françoise for another Burkina Faso exhibition. We dropped off the Canadian ladies and chatted about the gift of tongues and prophecy on the way to the Theâtre. Ruth Ann only stayed for a bit, but Françoise and I stayed to watch a theatrical piece on the lives of the animals and people of Burkina Faso. Again, Françoise had taken me to another social rights production; does she know I'm a sociologist or what? One scene involved the animals becoming more like humans. Some unseen force had imposed a ruler on the animals of Africa and strangely the animals had to learn Latin chants...Do you see where I'm going with this?
Bref, I've had quite the cultural experience already! I can't believe it's already been a week, and I'm happy to say that I'm looking forward to starting classes tomorrow. The Lord has manifested His goodness and faithfulness so clearly through the events I've recounted above and by the ones I haven't. I hope you're able to celebrate His lovingkindness with me :) If you think of these things, please pray for my host mom's (Françoise) ankle to heal quickly and for me to pick up the language easily. I've been seeking to know the Lord's purpose for me while I'm here and I can't wait to describe what I find out more fully.
I miss you all terribly! Thank you Bill Simmons for speaking that curse over me!! And I hope and pray that all of you are well. I'm online regularly so if you see me, please chat me up! I miss not talking to you all face to face or via telephone. In truth my cellphone is off, but I would love to set up a time to chat. So, let's do that...mmk? Mom, Dad, David, Scott, and Courtney, I love you all. Bre...happy belated 22nd birthday!
School starts tomorrow...et je suis très content. Au revoir, Faites des beaux rêves, Bisoux à tous!!
