Joyeux Noel!

School is finished and it's after Christmas. And, as per usual I am behind on my updates.

After singing at the Maison de retraite, I had two days of testing. Thursday was the Oral comprehension and expression and Friday was the Written comprehension and expression. That weekend was a pretty low key weekend. My last test, the Grammer test, was Tuesday. Wednesday I went into Paris with Annina and another student at the school to see The Hunger Games :) It's been awhile since I read the books, so I had forgotten several things, which created a bit more excitement when they came up... I also think I enjoyed it more because I wasn't comparing it to the book as much. I love the idea of turning books into movies (some books, at least) but there are usually so many changes made (sometimes necessary and sometimes completely unnecessary) so I tend to be disappointed, but I was pleasantly surprised this time. Thursday we had class as usual and then a group of us went out to eat for dinner and came back and watched White Christmas while eating chocolate fondue. Friday we had a school wide brunch and 'sending' chapel for all of us who have finished at Les Cedres (myself included). That evening I helped Annina a bit with packing. Then Annina, Anna, Sabrina and I had dinner together, which is probably the last time we will all ever be in the same place. Perhaps not - you never know what your journey brings, but for now we have said our farewells. Saturday morning Anna and I took Annina into the train station and she returned to her family in Switzerland. Anna and I did some last minute shopping and then spent the rest of the day, and on into the wee hours of the morning, getting her packed for vacation, moved, and cleaning her room. She left for Romania the next morning and I went to Mimi's for the day. 

Since school has finished I have been sleeping a lot. Love sleep... On the 24th I went to Mimi's (and then Nicole's) and shared Christmas Eve with the Vandenbroucque clan. It was different from my normal Christmas' but it was nice. We started with Champagne and appetizers. Then we opened presents (and I actually got some - wasn't expecting that). Then we started on the next round of food selections, socialized a bit then had our cheese course followed by our desert :) Yummy, yummy, yummy.  

Christmas day I helped Mimi and Edgard (just a bit) get ready for family to come for dinner that evening. I returned to the school after dinner and woke the next morning to a text invitation to have dinner with one of the families who is staying in the area for Christmas. They have two adorable children (2 and 3 or something like that). I will actually be going over there for dinner tonight as well :)

This morning I had an appointment with an ear specialist. There is no nerve damage in my right ear (meaning that I can hear through the bone around my ear just fine) but cannot hear in the 'conversational range' - pas du tout. Not really a surprise. I will need to get a scan of the area behind my ear to see what exactly is going on, so now we play the waiting game. Wait and see and not jump to worst case scenarios...

Some more pictures...

From Musee D'Orsay and La Tour Eiffel

Oh, Les Champs-Elysee... At Christmas!

I have a clean bill of health! Except that I can't hear out of my right ear... Oh well, just getting used to turning my head a bit more and walking on the right side of people. Guess I now have a pretty good idea what my cousin and aunt deal with on a daily basis. :p

Life has been going on pretty much as usual. The most fun and interesting thing that I have done is going into Paris for the Christmas lights! Anna, Annina and I went in last Saturday late afternoon. First we went to Galeries Lafayette, a large mall in Paris, for the Christmas decorations. Talk about expensive...everything. In this mall you can find Tiffany & Co., Chanel, Gucci, and every other big brand name you can think of. Yeah, so we walked past 5,000 euro plus watches, 160 euro gloves, and who knows what else.

Galaries Lafayette

Tree in the Center

Other Areas of the Mall

Then we went to the Champs Elysee! Lots of lights, vin chaud, and marche du Noel.

 

For Annalea! No, we did not go in, it was too packed

Snack time!

Santa on a zip line

And today some of the students from the school (including myself) sang Christmas carols at a maison de retraite (retirement home). It was rather fun and I hope that we were able to bring some joy to the residents today. We sang on each floor and my favorite floor was the 2nd. There were two gentlemen who really got into the songs. The one kept hitting the table with his hand and saying "Superbe!" and the other would clap his hands in time to the songs. Pretty sure he used to do something with music when he was younger. I don't have any pictures right now, but hopefully I can get some from some other students another time and post them.

Sigh... well, I guess I was bound to get sick sometime...

Hello all,

Not much in the way of exciting news for this week and last, so it will be a short post. As you know, last Monday I ended up not having class, which  was both nice and weird. Tuesday we had class again, but Cecile (a director) taught the morning part instead of Regine. We had Carolina for the afternoon as per usual. That evening, I had dinner at the Wheatons, with those who go every Tuesday for a prayer and share time. Things seemed to be going well, but at the end of the evening I noticed that my throat seemed a bit irritated. I didn't think much of it at first, but it kept getting worse and worse as the evening went on. I tried drinking some lemon tea with vinegar in it before going to bed, but it didn't seem to help much (then again, it may have been worse had I not drunk that...). Wednesday morning I had class again (to make up for Monday) and then did my homework and took a shower before heading to Mimi's. I had debated all morning if I should go or not, because I now knew I was definitely sick. Well, I went and I'm glad I did. She gave me some meds for my throat and I just relaxed at her place...took a 2, 2.5 hour nap...des choses comme ça.
The next two days were pretty normal. Classes, test Friday, chugging lemon tea with vinegar, taking maxilase (what Mimi gave me... made a huge difference when I took it and when I didn't). Saturday I spent most of the day relaxing - didn't feel up to much. Pretty much the same on Sunday. But there was a change in the evening. Can you guess?
If you said my throat was better you are half correct. My throat seemed to be mostly better, but then I started having some pain in my right ear (Blehhh!!!). And I could hear/feel liquid behind my eardrum. Now, for those who don't know my ear history, I'm going to give a brief rundown...

-Pretty much came out of the womb with ear infections.

-Had three sets of tubes by the time I was 5.

-Had my tonsils removed when I was 5. Chronic ear infections stopped and had very few in general after that.

-Had a lasting hole in my right ear drum from the last set of tubes. The doctor wanted to wait till I was done growing to patch the whole because there was a possibility it would tear (with the patch being a different type of tissue, it would not be as flexible) and I would have to have the surgery again.

-Had to use ear plugs and such in the water pretty much all of my childhood.

-Scheduled the surgery to patch my ear when I was in eight grade (so 13 or 14 years old). Went in for the surgery. Because the hole was not in the center of my ear, the doctor had to cut behind my ear and flip it over. Ended up being a good thing because he then discovered that I had cholesteatoma (basically my eardrum had tried to heal itself but the skin cells fell back onto my mastoid bone and started to grow, digging deeper and deeper), so he drilled that out and filled in the bone with some type of bone filler. Because there was a chance that that could happen again if he left my natural eardrum in, he removed the whole thing and gave me a completely new one (with my own skin tissue taken from the incision made to flip my ear over) and viola! Here I am today without perfect hearing, but as close to perfect I have had and probably will ever have.

Anywho, I haven't had an ear infection in about 5 years, so this is pretty annoying. Monday I went to class in the morning, but skipped the afternoon and slept. Tuesday I completely skipped class and went to a doctor for antibiotics. Oh, and slept some more. Wednesday we celebrated Thanksgiving at the school, so I slept in till 10, got ready and went down to help decorate (a few pictures below, but I didn't get many). We started eating a bit after one and by 2:45 I was done (I had debated about going up to my room before then, but held out till I was done eating. After all, when am I going to get such large a selection of good food again?). I called home, and then was asleep by 3:15. Didn't wake up till after 6. Thursday I skipped classes again, but I was less tired, so took that as a good sign. Today, I did go to class, but slept during lunch. For the most part I haven't had much pain other than the first night, but I've had drainage and my ear is very congested. I actually can't hear very well, so class was a bit interesting - took a bit more concentration than normal - but I'm glad I went because we started a new chapter and new grammer points. And I now have to make-up a test at some point. Don't know when that will be.

Well, that's the last two weeks. Guess it was a bit longer than I expected. Enjoy the pictures below and until next time :)

All the delicious food

Some decor

Some Centerpieces

Eiffel Tower by Night

Well, before I get on about this past week, I realized I forgot to talk about a pretty bizarre and striking incident that I witnessed.

Last Saturday, as Annina and I were waiting for an RER that stopped at Massy-Verrieres, we had the pleasure of listening to three very talented drummers on the Chatelet Les Halles platform. All three men looked to be from different national decent and each had a different type of drum. So, we were watching and listening to them while talking and waiting when I suddenly saw a youngish looking man in the tracks. I did not see how he got down there, but he was clearly on something (drugs or drugs and alcohol, but I think he was too far gone for it to be just alcohol) because he stood on one of the rails and then just fell on his back into the middle of the tracks. He stood up and looked around, but didn't really move. I was thinking what could or should I do. My first thought was that I can't speak French very well and he was not in his right mind, so how could I really communicate. I was also thinking about the fact that I (and Annina) are two young women, alone, and would it be safe to go over to help him. Thankfully, a middle-aged woman saw this man and went straight over to the track, as did several other people. She said "Prends ma main" (take my hand) and "Attention" (be careful). The guy just looked at her and the others by the track with a glazed expression on his face like "what's all the fuss?" I wasn't sure if he would take thier hands, but he finally reached out his arms (and began to fall backwards) and the people pulled him up to the platform.
At this point, just about everyone on the platform realized what was going on - the drummers stopped and people walked over to where this man was. The guy just walked around with a that glazed look on his face, and began to walk along the edge of the platform again! Thankfully, several people pulled him away from the edge and formed a kind of barrier between him and the edge. Then an older man held onto his arm and called someone (I assume the police). The younger man kept saying "Let me go, I'm fine" but the older man said, "No, you are dangerous and violent." After about 5 minutes or so, the whole incident was over. The two men disapeared and the crowd dispersed. The drummers waited a few minutes more and then began to play softly, gradually building in intensity until they were back to full speed.
This incident could have ended quite badly. Thankfully no trains came during this time. But, what struck me the most was the fact that not only did people respond but that so many people responded. In my Psych classes we talk about a  phenomenon called the bystander effect. Basically, the more people present the less likely it is that anyone will take responsibility and act because the thought is that someone else will do it. Here, at least half of the people on that section of the platform responded in some way. I was very much taken by surprise, but it was a pleasant surprise.

Now, onto this week.

This past week has been a pretty good one. Went grocery shopping Tuesday, to Mimi's on Wednesday,  had choir practice Tuesday and Thursday (the school sings for a nursing home every year at Christmas time) and, you know, just the usual. Saturday I went into Paris with Annina and Lindsey. We went to le Musée d'Orsay in the morning where I listened to the audio guide in French for close to 2 hours. Definitely didn't understand everything, but it was good for me to hear more French. For a late lunch, we went to Le Dernier Bar Avant la Fin du Monde. It's got this great scifi feel, and is filled with games and objects from different scifi movies - Star Wars, Doctor Who, V for Vendetta, Firefly, and much much more. This bar is pretty close to Notre Dame and we walked from there to the Eiffel Tower to see it all lit up - yeah, took about an hour, give or take. But it was a good walk, great exercise and it kept me from getting too cold, as I didn't really think through the whole 'it's going to be cold in Paris today' thing when I got ready that morning ;)

Sunday was a leisurely day and so is today. I found out at breakfast that my professor is sick and the person who would normally take her place had to be at a conference all day, so I got the day off :) Granted, I will have class Wednesday morning, but just in the morning, so... I guess that's okay.

Here are some pictures from the clock at Musée d'Orsay - Annina has some more, so I'll post those when I get them from her.

And the Eiffel Tower by night

See ya!
K

Swiss-German, Pancakes and 2 hours of exercise? No problem!

Hello all!

Sorry, I haven't got any pictures for this post, so it will strictly be written words. Let's see... I've been back to school now for over a week. For the most part it's been going well. Not too much different going on in class, so I won't dwell on that...

This past weekend was interesting. Seven of Annina's friends from Switzerland came to Paris for the weekend, so I got to meet them. :)  Anna, Annina and I made dinner for them Friday evening and Saturday I went into Paris with Annina to meet them for the day. We didn't do anything particularly touristy, but rather just enjoyed being in Paris. We went to Montmartre again and because it started raining, we ducked into a restaurant for coffee, hot chocolate and conversation. I had a 'chocolat a l'ancienne', which means I basically drank liquid chocolate (mmm..., and it was dark chocolate too...). As we drank our liquid warmth and ate our crêpes we talked about materialism and social justice issues. Specifically, we talked about consumption of clothing (aka, buying lots of cheap clothes that are made in sweatshops) and what our roles in this area of society are and could be. Where do you draw the line, because most stores outsource their production of clothing, which does create jobs for people who may otherwise not have jobs, but allows for a gross lack in humanitarian rules and regulations to the detriment of the workers. Also, many people can't afford expensive clothes, but if we did buy fewer, better quality, fair trade clothes, would our mentality about clothing change? Would we take better care of clothing and wear things that may not be in perfect condition anymore, but are still in good enough condition that you can't justify tossing it? It is some interesting food for thought...

After it stopped raining, we walked around Paris some, went to the Champs Elysee and window shopped, then went to the Jewish Quarter for falafels. Oh, by the way, all of her friends spoke Swiss-German, some spoke French and most could also speak and understand English, so it was quite the mélange of languages.

Sunday I went to church at the school, ate lunch with Anna and Annina, relaxed, etc. Monday was Armistice Day so we had no school. Rather, we had brunch with Sabrina, one of the professors at the school. She made us pancakes! They were the best pancakes I've had in France (also, the only one's I've had in France, but who's counting?). Afterwards, Annina and I were talking about our favorite exercise routines and decided to use one of the classrooms to work out in. We ended up working out for 2 hours. No big deal, just, you know, a bit sore now... Anywho, we did about an hour of cardio and strength training and an hour of stretching! I love stretching like that :)

Tuesday I read my meditation in culte! I think it went well... For those who are interesting, I've typed it up below (in French - And I'll give you an English translation too...). The dark red, crossed out words are my mistakes and the light red words are the corrections of my professor. And, not to toot my own horn, but I totally wrote this in French. I did not write it in English and translate it into French! Toot, toot.

Bible verses: Jacques 5: 7-8
Frères, patientez donc jusqu'à ce que le Seigneur vienne. Pensez au cultivateur: il attend les précieuses récoltes de sa terre. Il prend patience à leur égard, jusqu'à ce que tombent les pluies de l'automne et du printemps. Vous aussi, prenez patience, soyez pleins de courage, car la venue du Seigneur est proche.

James 5: 7-8
Be patient, then, brothers and sisters, until the Lord’s coming. See how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop, patiently waiting for the autumn and spring rains. You too, be patient and stand firm, because the Lord’s coming is near.

Romain 5: 3-4
Mieux encore! Nous tirons fierté même de nos détresses, car nous savons que la détresse produit la persévérance, la persévérance conduit à la victoire dans l'épreuve, et la victoire dans l'épreuve nourrit l'espérance.

Romans 5: 3-4
Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.


Quand j'ai vu que j'ai dû je devais écrire une méditation au culte en classe, j'ai pensé "Je voudrais vais dire quoi? Quel verset? Qeul sujet? Pourquoi moi? Je ne suis pas missionaire! Je n'ai jamais pensé que je voudrais pourrais écrire une méditation en anglais et maintenant j'ai dû écrire une méditation en français. C'est de l'ironie." Donc, j'ai réflechi et réflechi et j'ai stressé un peu (mais pas beaucoup) et j'ai pensé "Je veux parler en français comme selon ma capacité en anglais." Et voila! Patience. J'ai besoin de patience pour apprendre le français. Je pense que c'est similair la même chose pour vous. C'est une chose que est la même pour tous les étudiants aux Cédres, peut-être. Je ne suis pas missionaire comme vous, mais un point qui est trés important pour nous est la communication en français.
Maintenant, je veux parle comme je vais parler quand je vais quitter la france. Je pense "Qui est-ce que je vais être? Est-ce que je peux parler et comprendre le français fluidement couramment?" Jacques, chapitre 5, verset 7 dit, "Pensez au cultivateur: il attend les précieuses récoltes de sa terre. Il prend patience à leur égard, jusqu'à ce que tombent les pluies de l'automne et du printemps." Pour le cultivateur, il est toute les années. C'est chaque année il doit exercer beaucoup de patience. Pour Dieu, c'est tous le temps. Le Seigneur est trés patient avec nous. Pour nous, c'est un temps pour apprendre la patience du Seingeur. C'est un temps pour comprendre les chose étranges à nous qui nous sont étranger. C'est plus dificile de vivre dans un pays étranger où la langue est complètement différente. Toute les choses sont plus compliquées. Si je suis malade est-ce que je veux aller chez un médecin? Non. Avec ma tante, peut-être, mais seulment moi? Vraiment non. Je pense souvent que à "Comment je peux faire ça? Ou comment je peux obtenir cette chose? Ou commet je peux voyager là  à cet endroit?" Chez moi, aux Etats-Unis, c'est trés facile pour moi. Ici, pas beaucoup du tout. Mais, Romains, chapitre 5, cerset 4 dit "Car nous savons que la détresse produit la persévérance." La persévérance est trés importante pour vivre dans ce monde. Pour moi, ma vie aux Etats-Unis est facile et confortable. Pour beaucoup de gens, leur vie n'est pas facile ou confortable. Je pense que c'est trés important que je comprend comprenne cette difficulté parce que si je peux comprendre ça je peux les comprendre gérer. Et, si je peux les comprendre je peux les aider mieux davantage les autre. Même si je ne dois pas suis pas missionaire pour ça.

When I saw that I would have to write a meditation for chapel in class, I thought "What do I want to say? What verse do I use? What subject? Why me? I am not a missionary. I never thought I would have to write a meditation in English and now I have to write one in French? That's irony." So, I thought and I thought and I stressed a bit (but not a lot) and I thought, "I wish I could speak French like I can English." And voila! Patience. I need the patience to learn French. I think it's probably the same for you all. It's somthing that is the similar for all the students at Les Cedres. I am not a missionary like most of you, but something that is important to all of us is the ability to communicate in French.
Right now, I want to talk like I think I will be able to talk when I leave France. I often ask myself, "who I will be be? Will I be fluid in French?" James 5, 7 says, "See how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop, patiently waiting for the autumn and spring rains." For the farmer, he has to have a lot of patience every year. For God, it's all the time. God is very patient with all of us. For us, this is a time to learn the patience of God. It's a time to understand things that are foreign to us. It's very difficult to live in a foreign country where the language is completely different. Everything is more difficult. If I'm sick, do I want to go to the doctor? No. With my aunt, maybe, but just me? No. I often think, "How can I do this? Or get this? Or get to this place?" Where I live in the States, it's very easy for me. Here, not really. But, Romans 5:4 says "but we also glory in our sufferings, becuase we know that suffering produces perserverence." Perserverence is very important to live in this world. My life in this world is easy and comfortable, but for many people, thier lives are not easy or comfortable. I think that it is important that I understand this difficulty because if I can understand it, then I can better understand the people whose lives are difficult. And if I can understand them, I can help them more effectively. I don't have to be a missionary for that.

Till next time!

Last day of vacation is tomorrow... So sad :(

**Warning, this post is a bit longer than normal. ;)

Bonjour,

Wow, as I sit down to write this post, it's already 4:30pm on my last free day of vacation. Where has the time gone? And I still haven't written my meditation for culte (chapel) in class for next Tuesday. I have no idea what to write about - it's not something I thought I would really ever be doing in English, let alone in French. I also have no idea what Bible verse I want to base it on… maybe something to do with wanting to be beyond where you are (as I want to be fluent long before it’s possible).

This week has been a pretty wonderful week. As you all know, I moved onto campus. I think the last day I wrote about was Monday, so here is the rest of the week.

Tuesday - Ahh! such a wonderful day. I slept in a bit (not as late as Monday), then got ready to go to the Barrs with Anna and Annina. The metro system took a bit longer than we planned. Aka, we waited for 30 minutes at the Massy-Verrières stop before we could get a train to take the Massy-Palaiseau stop to transfer to another train that actually continued to the end of the B-line (all of these stops were on the B-line, it's just that no train stopped at Massy-Verrières that went to the end). Once we finally got there, it was completely worth it. We had a wonderful time. Cameron and TJ (two other former students at Les Cedres) were there as well, so it was a full house. We ate a late lunch (it was after 3) and had pumpkin pie!!! That was the main point of going to Les Chevreuse, of course ;)  Afterwards, we walked up to the château overlooking the village and watched the sun set. Anna and Annina took lots of photos (I took some too, but they are much better photographers), of which I have posted a few below. Before leaving, Carol gave us each all the ingredients we needed to make our own pumpkin pies – how great is that?!

 Walking to the Barr's

 

Pie and Lunch!

Walking through Chevreuse and the Chateau

Getting back to Massy proved to be a bit of an adventure again… Because the Massy-Verrières stop is a small stop, not every train stops there. I think we waited at least 30 minutes (if not more) again for a train that went to our destination. Oh well, it was not nearly as bad as if I was waiting on my own. On our walk back to the school, we stopped and got kebabs for dinner Tuesday, and to have leftovers for dinner Wednesday. After eating, we watched an episode of Arrow online. I have to say, living at the school really does free up my time and makes it much more feasible to do things comme ça. :)

Wednesday – Anna, Annina and I went into Paris. We left the school just after 10 and went to La Place de la Concorde where you can get some really nice shots of le Tour Eiffel, l’Obélisque, and general architecture in France. 

We then walked down l’Avenue des Champs Elysee toward l’Arc de Triomphe...

 ...and stopped in a beautiful café named Laduree. Oh, my. I will probably never pay so much for a shot of espresso ever again in my life, but … It was so worth it. We had planned to stop there, so we were all dressed in dresses (with leggings or tights because it would have been too cold without them) and carried our heels in just for this. Again, it was beautiful. We also had macaroons, treated to us by Annina, and we just sat and talked and drank our tea or coffee and took pictures for at least an hour, possibly more. Again, pictures below courtesy of Anna and Annina (or at least of their cameras – I did take a few). 

Annina's Tea, Anna's Cappuccino, and my Espresso 

 My Espresso

Chocolate

 The Menu

After leaving Laduree, we walked the rest of the way to l’Arc de Triomphe and just took in the grandeur of Paris. 

A crêpe stand on a bicycle                              

Our next stop was at the Sacre Coeur. After exiting the metro, we meandered up the street, stopping in some of the shops along the way and taking some pictures. 

Once we reached the top (just below the actual cathedral) we sat on the steps and ate lunch, looking over the city. We also got some unexpected entertainment during our meal. A street performer was manipulating and dancing with a soccer ball, while standing on a pillar at the top of the steps, and even hanging from the lamppost at times. I have to say, he was very talented and had marvelous control of the ball. 

After our lunch and show, we walked through the Sacre Coeur. (You are not allowed to take photos inside, but here are some close-up photos)

 
As it was now close to 5 (I think, though perhaps it was nearly 6) we decided we should walk through Montmartre before it got too dark. That was lots of fun as well. We just walked around, enjoying the art, stopping in the shops. 

I bought a mug for myself, which I priced all evening before actually buying it (and changed my mind on which one was my favorite). 

And, yes that is a spoon in the handle

On our way down from Montmartre, we decided it would be a complete oversight to not see Paris by night from the steps of the Sacre Coeur, so we made our way back there and looked out over the city again before walking down to the metro and going back to Les Cedres. There we ate dinner (our leftover kebabs) and watched another episode of Arrow  :)

Thursday was another lazy day – didn’t do much myself, other than sleep, read, watch tv, etc.

Friday – Went to Mimi’s! I had a lovely day with Mimi. We just talked, watched Pearl Harber, I opened a package from Michelle and Annalea (thanks guys!) and baked a pumpkin pie (yes, from what Carol gave me), ate supper and got back to Les Cedres at about 11pm.

Today, Saturday, I have finished my homework, have not written my meditation, typed up this blog…by the way, it’s 5:30 and I need to go make supper for the three of us (Anna, Annina, and I), so I’ll post this with the pictures later this evening.

A bientôt!

Okay – it’s 9:40 and I think it’d time this thing got posted. - or more like 12:34 now that all the pictures are finally uploaded...

Night y'all.