My 23rd Birthday and a Trip to London.

Friends and Family,

I appreciate the well wishes and am fortunate to have had a great weekend and a few things coming up to be excited about.

In celebration of my birthday, the Eiffel Tower people created and displayed a new light show Friday night. The typical light show lasts for a few minutes at the top of the hour, and the Tower sparkles. It's definitely a pretty neat sight, but for the next month, following the premiere Friday night, they are showcasing a fairly psychadelic light show. There were patterns and all colors of the ROYGBIV, sometimes reminiscent of Las Vegas, others of a Lisa Frank era bygone. Add some tripped-out flame-throwers into the mix, and voila - a pretty spectacular beginning to a birthday weekend.

[Disclaimer: the light show is actually being conducted to celebrate the anniversary of the Eiffel Tower, and not my birth.]

Saturday presented a fun-filled afternoon of shopping and exploring, mostly at Chatelet, which is a huge mall connected to the metro station, and a cool spread of shops and cafes and such above ground in the surrounding vicinity as well. Carey was sweet enough to buy me some birthday lunch at a neat pizzeria. Oh, and I got a great couple of things at H&M that I shan't mention considering there may have been some Christmas gift finds for some certain friends and/or sister. :) I had a fun day Sunday at church, working through the impossibilities of Jesus in Mark 10, and the disconnect that we face between being unflinchingly compassionate and being utterly obedient. It's another of those impossibilities that we must not 'balance' these aspects of our faith, but that we must be 100% of each. Obviously, it's impossible for us; and why it is so stinking incredible that we have a Lord of impossibilities.

And now I am in London.

All of French schools have Toussaint [All Saints] Holiday break for the next week and a half, so I have taken off [with the family] to London for the week! We are staying in a pretty rad flat in South Ken [so posh using the abbrevs.] which is close to the coolest museums and only a couple of tube stops from the other major to-do's in London. Plus a few of things that aren't on my personal list, but that are still fun, I will get to do here and there with Jennifer [the boss] and the kids during the mornings. We're here for a whole week, so that gives me six afternoons to get a chunk of this town under my belt.

I'll keep you posted.

[Get it?]

Crisis Averted.

Saturday night I came back upstairs after Indian chicken for dinner and a partially-watched 90's movie called Sliding Doors, to find a horrible-looking blue screen on my laptop. Some have referred to this as the blue screen of death. Well, it was.

This blue screen was staring at me saying in that weird, programmer font that if this is the first time I am receiving this screen, that I should just restart, and life will be ok. It doesn't actually tell you that life will be ok, but I do feel as though that is virtually implied. I mean, it was my first time getting the screen. I would totally understand if this is like the third time I got the blue screen and re-booting didn't work. Nevertheless, my rebooting didn't work. In fact, I feel like this only made it worse. The blue screen at least gave me some information [that I should have read more carefully, and perhaps even written down before attempting the restart]. This new, imposing, black screen only showed me a handful of words. "Hard Drive 0 not recognized. F1 to retry boot." People, F1 did nothing but beep at me.

So, dead laptop. I grieved and mourned, I really did. If you ever saw that Making the Video of Britney Spears' Lucky - [I assume no one actually watched the video once you saw the making of] well, you have a mental image of what I looked like. I SOBBED. Over a laptop. I mean, one might have thought I was horribly depressed or something. I was.

This silly little piece of technology is kind of everything to me. It is communication to and from home, it is Facebook and blogs, it is online TV, it is my PDF books, it is even my Song of Songs study series. Travesty.

Sunday morning I woke up in denial. No way did that really happen. [It is one of the steps of grief, after all.] I quickly moved on to angry, and then to rushed because I needed to know the weather forecast in order to get dressed for the day. If I had had a working laptop, I would have known a light jacket was an inappropriate choice for such a chilly downtown day in Paris. [Bitter?]

Well, I had plans to check out another church. The American Church of Paris, right on the Seine. Carey had come with me, and after a great musical worship - I experienced something I haven't in a while. Some really awesome worship through prayer. I remember back in my youth ministry days at Trinity [home church], learning to understand how to worship in ways outside of Sunday-morning songs. I will also admit that I haven't done such a good job of my own worship through prayer, as mine tend to be "Help me, Help me, Help me" and not enough "Thank you, Thank you, Thank you." [Credit: Ann Lamott in Traveling Mercies.] But we opened up a pretty awesome floodgate: prayer for the church body, for each member's ministries, for hearts and open-minds, for Paris' working poor, for the orphaned children, and for true movement as the body of Christ. Really, truly cool stuff; and the sign of sincerity that I look for when being churched.

A great gospel lesson and sermon later, meeting some new friends in coffee fellowship was the icing. I love how many study groups, discussion events, and 'niche market' followings this church offers. I am looking forward to that fellowship for sure. Carey and I are pumped for our new Sunday plans, and participating in the all-church retreat to Normandy that is coming up in November. We had a picnic in Champ de Mars, went to St. Germain-en-Laye for a movie, and ended a fabulous day of revelling in what the Lord has done for me. We're talking direct results of prayer - fellowship, a church family and true spirits to befriend. Praise Him for that. [And thank you to any and all of you who may have been praying with me!]

So I get home and my laptop is still dead. I pray about it and realize that I am fortunate enough that this home has another computer I can use, and that really instead of curling up in bed with my laptop for some online TV or Facebook, that I should be directing my time in more productive ways. I pray for and receive peace about the whole deal. It's just a thing.

Luis [boss-man] agrees to take it to IT at his office the next day, where they push the button and it turns on. IT TURNS ON. No blue screen, no black screen, no robot font. All is well.

Thank you, Jesus, for realigning my priorities. And for giving me my laptop back. I get it now.

I'm Impressed.

Thursday I successfully baked a French quiche from scratch.

This morning I made Nutella crepes for breakfast.

What's next? Croissants? Beignets?

One can only hope.

Always Learning Something New.

This weekend was pretty fun - Friday night I met up with some girls and we grabbed some wine to just go hang out at the Eiffel Tower. I feel like life was a bit surreal at that moment, with the light show starting and the Eiffel Tower sparkling; sitting and having a bit of wine and some chocolate [new favorite combo]. The way back was definitely stressful - we had to figure out the Noctilien [or night - or knight :)] bus. There aren't very many easy-to-read maps, and we ended up finding one to the Arc de Triomphe, and then just splitting a cab home. All in all, not bad though, because with 4 people to split it, it came out to be what I paid for cabs in Costa Rica and Mexico.

Saturday night was the famous Nuit Blanche. I don't know if you followed the Nuit Blanche wikipedia link that I left, but it is basically a night of free art exhibitions where museums and galleries are open and free, and there are art displays in the streets and live music performances - basically an artistic free-for-all.

As I was working Saturday night, I didn't even head out until midnight, catching the last train out of Le Vesinet into Paris. After following some directions to a bar in the 19th, I met up with some friends and we walked to a train [two lines were open all night] and went to Chatelet for a bit, grabbing some 'kebobs' and hanging out in the streets. Now, you may be picturing kebobs as a few pieces of meat and veggies on a skewer, right? No, my friend, not the case. I think I have found a new love in this food - it's a giant sandwich-type thing with meats, veggies, cheeses, sauces... and upon trying the lamb kebob, I think I fell in love a little bit.

We walked to the Louvre, which apparently even on all-night open free-for-alls, closes by 4:30am. HUGE BUMMER. So, we sat on the steps of the Louvre until 5:30am to catch the first train home. And such was my Nuit Blanche - overall fun, a bit disappointing, and definitely something to give you an appreciation for dressing warmly and sleeping at night.

I started my french cinema class Monday. Also a bummer - I mean, I was truly disappointed. In college, I took a Hispanic Film course where we studied film in Hispanic societies from its origins. Pre-Franco Spain, Post-Franco Spain, all through the South American continent, Mexico and Cuba. It was fabulous, and easily one of the most challenging and my most favorite class of college. So, I guess it is fair to say I had high expectations. And why not? French film is a pretty big deal here... class consists of an old man who has a VHS copy of some movie from the 70's [maybe as recent as '82] that is about a woman who is the director of a tennis club, but is somehow physically disabled. ?

This is all we got, because of course, the VHS doesn't work and the volume on the projector doesn't work. I had some nostalgic reminiscences towards those 1986 copies of movies that we recorded from the TV - I think we have Mary Poppins and a couple of Christmas movies like that, complete with 1986 commercials that you had to fast-forward through. Well, this was like that, where the snowy lines show up every ten seconds. Except worse, because you can't even hear what anyone was saying.

The rest of class was spent lecturing about a handful of verbs, what they meant and how to conjugate them. Absolutely ridiculous - we do this in grammar class, and we do it better in grammar class. I was doing my best to be patient and understanding, because obviously this man did not plan on his movie not working. I think he genuinely thinks this movie is good, that it would contribute to our understandings of French language and culture, and that it would work with the technology provided. However, after about an hour of suffering through his lecture [which NO ONE learns from someone just telling you 'this is how you say this'], and being frustrated at the group of about 8-10 girls who wouldn't even whisper during this awful class time, I began to wonder if I should even try to stick out the last half hour of this mayhem.

Well, I did anyway, mostly because I couldn't get up the gumption to just walk out. Hopefully, it will be better the second class. If it is the same, I will make a complaint to the office. Then if it still isn't better, I think I will try to get a refund, and just not go. We shall see.

In other news, I am working my way through different Bible studies. If anyone knows of some good podcasts to download, I have found that I really enjoy having some media or sermon with which to study. Currently, I am doing the Song of Songs through a disk set that my Dad gave me ages ago from my church. I never had gotten around to it [insert excuses here] but brought them with me and learning my way through that twice a week, and working through some other books in the meantime. I want to be at a place where even if I can't spout scripture with the right numbers, I can at least pull it to reference in the right time and situation. It is also pretty neat how the Lord is speaking to me through what I am learning in life's situations and in my study: for example, in a couple of places [Colossians, Phillipians and Jonah] we are called to work steadfastly and honorably. Not slacking off when no one is looking, not complaining or arguing - but serving your boss as you serve the Lord. That one is kinda rough sometimes, when I want to sit and eat my lunch first, or when I grumble about sleep or arguments with a 3-year old. Kids are hard, but learning to be selfless so as to love kids and work for their betterment is worth it.

If you are inclined to help me pray, pray for my depth of knowledge and insight for His will. I know through prayer that I am meant to be here, but knowing His purpose along the way will help me to maintain discernment in my heart. Pray that I will grow in patience and kindness, and that I will be gentle and not too stern. I am praying that I will not be too caught up in earth here, but that I will be thinking of what is waiting for me; what is stored up in Heaven, and that I continue to stockpile there, and not here. Please pray that sisters in Christ are presented for community - I have made some neat friends, and I am glad to have them, but I also desperately need fellowship. I am trying another church this weekend, and I pray it is a good fit, or else the right community will be shown to me. It's a struggle not having those friends and family here to really delve into Christ's love and participate in discussion about His wonders as readily available. So, all of you people back home - know I am appreciating you even more than I already did. [And believe me, I appreciated you at home, too.]

Until next time.

Adjusted.

In the last week or so, I have become what I like to consider "adjusted."

I have gotten into a fairly familiar routine, which is comforting and gives me some normalcy. But of course there are some splashes of fun, and I love the independence I get here. I feel like I am growing into a better version of myself. One that is more patient than ever before, who is more adventurous, a bit more daunting, and with more toned calves from all this walking!

Since we last chatted, I met some new friends. We went downtown on Saturday, which was absolutely beautiful, and walked through a flea market, toured a fabulous old church with all the carving, fresco and romance of all the great old churches, and went shopping in a humongous mall that is linked above and underground with the Metro. Definitely a great afternoon. The pictures from that adventure are up on facebook labeled Chatelet.

Sunday I tried my second church. Joelle, who is following this blog, lived here in Le Vesinet and was an au pair for a different family, but as she babysat for the kiddos I work with, I got to know her a bit as the reference Jennifer provided. [And, one of the new friends I made is Kitty, the replacement-for-Joelle au pair.] Well, Joelle recommended her church in Paris, so I tried it out. Props, Joelle. I loved the vibe of this eglise - it was one of those free-flowing, all-out praise type gigs. I think my favorite part was while the instruments played, the people called out their praise and prayer, worshipping fully and wholly. Very cool, and one of the more genuine church services I have been to. We discussed love; Jesus' accepting love that we are called to embark upon. That no-holds-bar, accepting, non-judgemental, deep and wide river of love. As we pulled from scripture in Corinthians, Proverbs, Matthew, Romans... [it did get a little hard to keep up with all of the verses, seeing how the whole service was in French], my cup was refilled. I mean, how amazing and incredible is it that above all else - hope, joy, faith - God is love. GOD = LOVE. So good. We are so blessed to have a Maker who just wants to love us. I am so blessed that even when I am thinking wretched thoughts, forgetting my Bible time, or praying in that lazy half-asleep prayer before bed, that the CREATOR OF THE UNIVERSE loves me. That's why I am called to keep on keepin' on - lovin' on his children, my brothers and sisters.

That afternoon I had a fun picnic with a couple of other friends [see - I am not a total loner!] on the Champ de Mars under the Eiffel Tower, with a little wine and some good chocolate. [Those pics are the musical-chairs ones also on fb.]

This week has been pretty cool: on Tuesday, I had to run some errands. Probably the coolest errands I have ever had to run, since I was in Paris to do them. :) I needed to 1) get my phone fixed because the email was being incompatible with the wifi and 2) get my books for my classes. So I head on over; I have mapped out my plan for the metro and where to turn for each store. I kid you not I get to BOTH stores and am told BOTH times that I have to go to a different location. It's like going to a Barnes & Noble back home, realizing they don't have what you're looking for and having to go to another location that they tell you has the books you need. EXCEPT AT HOME I KNOW WHERE THINGS ARE. But, the lady was nice enough to let me spread out my map, and tell me where to get on and off the train, and where to turn for the other bookstore. Ok, done. So I head out to find the cell phone store [the 2nd location was somewhere on Champs Elysees]. I don't know if you realize, but this is not only a pretty famous street, but also a really long, and really wide, and really high-traffic one. But, all that time wasted at the first two stores, getting lost and having to make pedestrian u-turns paid off. I got my books, I got my phone fixed, and then I saw Elton John. ELTON JOHN, PEOPLE!!! Dude had the quintessential cross earring, the floppy/frumpy old lady hairdo, the blazer - fabulous. He did tone down on the shades though; I almost didn't recognize him. Ha, right. So, I guess running around in Paris, a little frustrated, a little lost, and a little bit blistered [I swear, even the shoes I thought were the most comfortable at home don't stand a chance here] resulted in a pretty neat surprise. Thanks, God. I needed that one.

Started school Thursday. Classes should be interesting - I feel like I am definitely in the right level, with everyone similarly efficient at speaking. [Which is a bit more than minimally.] I met a neat Dutch girl, Roos [pronounced like the flower], and a couple Mexican girls that I got to speak Spanish with, which is fun. I am much more excited about my Monday classes though, because I am taking a French film course! Hopefully it is great, because Hispanic Film was my favorite class of college. [Little known fact.]

Tomorrow is Nuit Blanche which means that all the museums and galleries and artsy places are open ALL NIGHT FOR FREE! Thus, I will be going out. And not coming back till morning. I need to stop by the grocery store for some Red Bull. :) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuit_Blanche

More to come, I am hoping for some great stories from this weekend!

Much love, and thank you so much for caring enough to keep up with me. I want to know what's going on in your life too, so shoot me an email or leave a comment!