le coupe

I've now played soccer with the French and the Mexicans this year... and the World Cup had it backwards... French should have made the second round. They play quite well.

Marseille

Saturday, left Lyon for Marseille. Nearly missed the train (they changed the gate after I had already gotten to the original gate). One of the teens from the Lyon church and I went together. Good trip.

I'm staying in a skyrise in northern (?) Marseille, near the church, with 5 other guys, two of whom are interns, the others just here for the CEM week like me. All are college-aged, most know English, and some are from C/C colleges, so we have friends and places/groups in common. So, we've basically all become fast friends. One of the guys knows as much French as I do, so we've been getting through the language barrier together.

This week is bascially a mission-focused week for training and applying young Christians... so teens and college students. We have lessons with the missionaries, lots of meals together and fellowship/relationship time, and some excellent applied mission work projects. This morning, my group went and fed some homeless people in downtown Marseille.

It's a mix of guys and girls, and a mix of nationalities... some locals, some from USA, some from other francophone countries.

Tonight a few of us had a French dinner (implies several courses) with the Youngs, missionaries from Penn/New Jersey area, Katie and Craig. They had us go around and tell our "life story" (french meals are long enough for this.) When it came their turn, Katie told a powerful story of how they had been called to the mission field after taking a world tour with Stanley Shipp. She talked about how in Calcutta they were blown away by the American materialism, but that it wasn't until they got to France that they saw such consummate spiritual absence.

The rest of the week is likely to be quite full. Camp at the end of next week.

Last Days in Lyon

Today was the last day of French classes. We all "graduated," but at different levels. I passed the A2 level, which was better than some, not as far as others. I'm pleased.

Lunched with Duncan, Walid, and Sola (Brit, Lybian, and South Korean, respectively) at a Korean restaurant. We talked politics, linguistics (it's hard not to), culture, and education in French. Duncan and I thought it was notable how our class bonded, even though we hadn't known each other that long (yes, I should add sociology to the above list...). It's broadening to say that I have met and befriended people from such diverse countries, cultures, and religions.

Speaking of which, I got a new housemate this week, Cagaty, a Turk who knows English and is studying French. We went to the Parc Tete D'or last night and walked around. There was an elaborate theatre production going on there, but we couldn't understand the French poetry.

In anticipation of one of Dad's probable questions... my favorite thing to do in Lyon was sitting out at the cafes, reading and sipping expresso. French culture seems to me quite compatable with my own. The people tend to be a bit proud, and some students think them cold, but they love to socialize and not take life too seriously.

I head to the seaport of Marseille tomorrow for CEM, a week of intensive Bible study and application. Yes, that's about as much as I know too. It should be a blast.

Photos to come... once I steal them from friends' facebook albums.

Trip's half over!

Five Moments in Lyon

The French teenage girl band plays a cover song of the American group Blink 182 at the Music Festival.

A honking car speeds by, horn blaring, Portuguese flag streaming from the window, screaming of the 7-0 soccer win.

An aged woman from church regales me with stories I can't understand, catching words like "Morocco" and was that "giant squid"?

The older ladies at the outdoors cafe gather in groups and gossip, just like the pidgeons that surround their feet.

The man dances with his arm up in salut, his brown skin swaying and sliding in perfect rhythm to the music on the cobbled square.

Vienne

Top two pictures: At the Gallo-Roman Museum in Vienna, France. The very top picture is of a house heating system that the Romans developed in the first century BC.
Arlin & Pamela (and Scott Williams) in the next picture. A chateau we ate at (my dessert), the others.

The language learning is going well. I don't speak terribly clearly, but I can now use four or five tenses in conversation. Comprehension: I understood most of an exchange between the Hendrixes and the host at the chateau today. My main problem is vocabulary. Once I can pick out more words, I think I'll have not too much trouble following everyday conversations. It is somewhat comforting to know that the Hendrixes still have trouble with the language on occasion. As to writing, I'm improving. Reading, I can understand the gist of most things. We're up to 8 or so tenses (depends on what you include) in class.

One more week of class, then to Marseille. I'll be at the CEM (Chrétiens En Mission) for a week and working at the two-week camp (doing dishes and perhaps other work which doesn't require stellar French skillz). If you've been counting, yes, that means there's one more week. They have confidently told me, "We have a place for you to stay." (Is it still a quote if I've translated it?)

To important news... France lost last night (Arlin is quite an enthusiastic fan), America tied today, and England will, with luck, lose or tie tonight.

Musée et Amusé

Yes, the potential for wordplayFrench is enormous. I'm thinking of writing a poem with "saint" and "sans" which sound nearly the same.

Saturday, the Brit and I arranged a group to go to the Contemporary Art Museum. We had a number of Japanese and Taiwanese girls go with us. It was great in an intercultural way talking to them (an opportunity less common in Oklahoma...). The museum itself was one large exhibition by a single artist (Ben someone...). In French and English, a lot of the art was meta-art (art mocking/examining/critiquing itself), and a lot of it appropriated other genres. For example, some of it used the genre of confessional art (e.g. Sylvia Plath) but in a wry way... so the artist painted "I am conceited. I want others to like my art. I want to use my art to get girls" etc. on boards, but it seemed to point to the meaninglessness of art since it was so sarcastic. He also had some funny performance-art that he had done, as in one picture of him sitting outside a traditional fine arts gallery with a sign that said "free painting signings." He would sign his own name over whatever art (not his) you bought in the gallery, for a fee. In general, it was dadaistic and fairly trite, but some of it was funny (e.g. another sign which said "You paid to see this gallery even though you could have created all this yourself").

Afterwards, we ate at the cafe there and went to the zoo nearby at the Parc Tete D'or (see previous blogs). Overall, a pleasant and worthwhile outing.

Since then, I've been watching "le fut" World Cup. Highlites: America tied England, and Germany won their game 4-0.

Going to Switzerland Thursday with the Hendrixes and their young friends the Williams (Lipscomb folk).

The Good, The Bad

The title of this post is in honor to a famous French rapper (MC Solaar) who wrote a song of the same title.
Not as many pictures this time. This one is of a few people from the class, Australian, Brit, and Mexican. I will try to get some pictures of the flat next time.

France: Good:
-- Pastries
-- Architecture (not sure what it's called. Reminds me of Prague)
-- Fresh food/markets
-- Weather

France: Bad:
-- Showers
-- Smoking

School and Friends

The first picture is a few of us at a cafe near Place Bellecour after class. Yes, we're all students, and we'd all just had some expressos (and way too much future tense).

The other pictures are in Vieux Lyon (Old Lyon), the middle one with the Williams' friends and the other of the Rose Tower (apparently it's famous for being in lots of movies).

In good Shank tradition, I thought I should mention the weather. It's been somewhat drizzley the last few days. There may have been thunder, even, on Sunday.

For the Americans reading this... the World Cup (s-o-c-c-e-r) begins this weekend. Yes, I'll be cheering for France.

The French class is getting a bit more demanding, but is still good. We've learned 3 tenses in the past couple days. Une tete bien pleine.

Mont Blanc

Today I went with my host family to Mont Blanc, the tallest mountain in (Wikipedia says Western-) Europe. It lies on the France-Italian border, and apparently both the French and the Italians claim it as their own. A famously impressive tunnel goes under it and connects the two countries.

We went to Chamonix, a resort town at the base of the Alps. There, we ate an amazing meal . . . various meats sizzled before us on a small bunsun burner type grill on our table. Good red wine, and ice cream afterwards. We sat on the deck of a restaurant that looked straight at Mont Blanc's white pate. It was leisure in the French style of a stout meal. Next, we hiked for an hour or two up a trail. Halfway stood a little cafe/florist perched onto the edge of a spectacular view of the mountain ranges.

On our way back to Lyon, we stopped at Annecy, a smallish town but tourist hotspot, and in spite of the tourism, it was quite picturesque. Somewhat like Venice, situated on a lake with wide boardwalks. We got real gelato there and walked around. There was a prison on one of the rivers that goes through the town and a couple ancient but quaint abbeys.

Anyway, it was a nice surprise, since I was planning on just hunting about Lyon for some excitement. Mais, je suis fatigue.

Head of Gold

Top pic is a couple guys from the class, the Brit on the right and the Libyian on the left. We had lunch in the school cafeteria (and it was much like any other cafeteria...). The other pictures are from the Park Tete d'Or, Head of Gold. There's a zoo there too, but I didn't go through the whole thing.

It's been a clamer week. I've enjoyed sitting out in the cafes and reading/writing. I've run a couple times along the Saone. The host mother and I watched the Tennis tournament today. It was exciting.

School is good, plodding along. My comprehension is rising fairly steadily.

I may go to some more museums this weekend.

School

To catch up, Monday was fairly uneventful. I walked to the park Head of Gold (Tete d'or), and while walking back by a different route, got quite lost in the northern Presqile.

Language school began yesterday. It's from 9-13:00. I had to talk with one of the instructors in French for a few minutes as the placement test... kinda annoying that it only considered speech abilities.

There's a T/Th teacher and a MWF teacher. They are both women, lively and expressive. We've been going over various topics that lead to vocabulary, grammar, and language concepts. It's a fairly rigorous morning.

The students are quite a mix. An Australian couple, middle-aged. He teaches theology. There's a Brit businessman, rather intelligent. Two Americans, one from George Tech and one from U of Central AR. The rest is non-Anglophone... a Mexican older lady, an Arabic man, chinese student, Filipino girl, and several Japonese and Tainwanese girl students. Everyone seems to get along well. We are all at somewhat different levels.

I have been eating lunch at a Boulangerie (bakery) or a cafe. I enjoy sitting on the outside tables and reading for a while afterwards. After eating in Bellecour Place (a large square) yesterday, I ran into someone from church quite by accident. We discussed American right wing politics! Quite random.

(Oh, I've not been neglecting the main attraction of the boulangerie... the desserts. Amazing chocolate and fruit pasteries. Oh, and I eat fruit on occasion. :-D)

Today I took a run along the banks of the Soane. Brigette (host family mother/wife) and I watched some tennis today. No big plans for a bit. It's nice to be in a routine.