une étrangère

"...the US? Texas? ...Ah."

So, it's mid-week (did I hear a holler from my fellow students?) and I've decided to free-verse you a lil' somethin', somethin' about the goings-on here in France:

Françoise, Françoise you crazy cat,
I don't know how you get around like that!
You got one ankle twisted and the other old,
what you gonna do when the weather get cold?

i said "uh-oh"....I said "uh-oh"

Now listen up all you 'merican hateuhs
you don't know my life so i check you latuhs
i like tea and like coffee (sometimes)
make me a croissant and don't be snobby

i said "oh lala lala la", "oh lalalalalala"

the kids from eastern europe do it right
they wanna buy me lunches and stay real tight
bosnia, albania, turkey, and sudan (africuuuuh)
call me on my portable which is never in my hand

cuzzzzz myyyyyy lipglosssssss is Poppin'. It's Poppin'. It's Poppin'. It's Poppin'.


Alors, est-ce tu comprends? I get asked that ...tout le temps! My professor, for four days a week, three hours a day, announced her overwhelming dislike for the United States the first day of class without knowing my origins. Awkward. What do you say to that, right? Literally five minutes after she made this grandiose proclamation, it was my turn to say who I was and where I came from. My new Bosnian friend and I exchanged glances and raised eyebrows during her tirade. Oh lala. C'est la vie, oui?

Aside from that awkwardness in class, as my professor regularly points out the failings of the US to me in her asides, things are going well! Ha ha, yes they are. Françoise and I are getting along smashingly, albeit she's very sacrilegious and enjoys crude humor. I guess I hadn't caught on to the humor yet because a) I parlez english and b) her friend, Claire, had to explain it to me once while Françoise was doubled over laughing at one of her own jokes. Now laughing at your own jokes, there I can definitely identify with Françoise, haha! ...

Back to my country. Back to the discussion of the US. Now, for those of you who have studied abroad or lived in another country for longer than a period of three days, were you regularly told the politics, economics, and history of your country? It seems to me that everyone who is not a citizen of the US thinks that their understanding of the United States is superior to mine, and they must therefore explain to me 'what the united states is all about'. I've just observed this recently as my french has been improving (yay) and i've met more people (yay). C'est bizarre, non?

Ok. I'm done with that. I've made a few new friends within the past three days. Some of the girls from the church who are in the youth group have added me as friends on facebook and texted me. I'm not sure how they got my number, but I was glad for the texts. Since going to the youth group and meeting the youth minister, I've had this urge to be a part of some kind og discipleship ministry for the girls in the group. The group is in fact mostly comprised of young ladies. Anyway, they're charming gals and they love to chat it up.

My new friends from school are the ones I mentioned above in my free-verse rap. A guy from Bosnia, Srdan, who is married to a French gal. A guy from Albania, Julian, who is 32 and just finished studying in Italy. A guy from Sudan, Makewo, who is playing semi-professional sports for a St. Etienne basketball team. Enfin, a girl from Turkey, Cemile (pronounced "Jay-muh-lay"), who is super sweet and speaks close to zero French. Her english is better, but barely. None of these new friends know the Lord. In fact, they all come from countries where Islam and Atheism are highly prevalent.

I've met most of the Americans who have come to St. Etienne through the exchange program ISEP, but I am trying to stay away from them. They're all really nice, but we always speak English and I think aside from one girl, they're all beginners in French. C'est dommage.

Tomorrow, I'm getting my sportspass which is not the same thing as a sportspass at TAMU. It will allow me to take aerobics classes and stretching classes, otherwise known as Yoga. Très cool, yeah? Sorry mom, there are no football teams at Université Jean Monnet.


In keeping with my tradition of making a fool of myself (je suis bete), I've got a couple little stories for you ags & friends:

-today i went to the university bible study and noticed that one of the young men was wearing what appeared to be a gold clarinet around his neck. i began the conversation nicely enough by asking what he played, to which he responded "clarinet". i said, thinking very highly of my intelligence, 'yeah we call them clarinets in english'. to which he said in english, 'they're called saxophones in english'. ...oh lala!

-situation: brooke is on a tram texting furiously. leering person is getting closer and closer. and conversation commences. leering guy:"blahblahblah (en francais)", brooke:"je suis americaine. (en francais:) i don't speak french very well". leering guy: "blahblah je peux avoir votre numero?" brooke: "ok. hold on", reaches in bag and proceeds to tell leering guy her number. oh lala.
one may be wondering at this point why brooke gave her number to someone who she didn't know, met on a tram, and was leering...the answer is clear! because she is a fool. leering guy was harmless, but really, that's like breaking the first rule of international travel and the first rule of making friends.
was he cute enough to merit the number? ... je suis bete.


and now for the most important aspect of my life, the spiritual. I had my first conversation about the Lord with Julian the Albanian and Srdan, the Bosnian over coffee after the first day of school. I was surprised by their looks of shock when they found out i believed in God and that I regularly attended church. now, for them, it is merely something to do. i didn't explain to them why i think people exist, as that was the question we were tossing around. the albanian guy, Julian, was very passionate about believing that the world was created by the big bang and he attempted to justify every reason why science had disproven God. up until that point he had been a very calm, happy-go-lucky guy. over coffee, he was flagrantly opposed to any notion of God and wanted us to be quick to understand that. Srdan on the other hand said that he believes something greater than us exists, though he's not sure what. his wife is a practicing Catholic, but his parents are atheists. i can imagine the difficulty in reconciling the two life patterns. Today we were talking about getting drunk and what our reasons were for being wise about how much alcohol we consume. after a few laughs about americans getting totally smashed when they travel abroad, i mentioned that scripture tells us to be filled with the holy spirit rather than with alcohol. it came up pretty naturally as Srdan had just been talking about the importance of being wise even when you're drinking something that removes your inhibitions. of course he said it a less eloquently than that but that was the general gist.

Please think of my new friends when you pray this week. Pray that they will be able to see Christ in my life, and the Lord would give me His words to share with them.


So things are progressing in many areas of my life. I know that the Lord has brought me here to share my life with new people and thereby share Christ's love.

I love you all and I hope you are encouraged this week! Please let me know if I can be praying for you in any way :)