Une blog blague

Since last week, a couple special events have happened. We DID see the tour de france. The whole camp trekked to the road where they were coming by (last photo). We had lunch there, picnic, and then watched the parada that rides in front... a kind of caravan with specially designed vehicles that advertize and throw out goodies (3rd pic from the bottom). I actually got an LCL cap, which is the same bank whose ATM ate my debit card. About an hour afterwards, the bikers came coasting down the mountain, and passed us in a climax of 5 seconds. Most of them were huddled in a group. In the top pic, you can see the biker back on the road. It was a fun trip, and supposedly, we saw Lance Armstrong, though we didn't know that we saw him (or did we really see him if we didn't know that we saw him? famous philosophy of mind question).

Tonight, Aaron (roomate, was in Marseille with me... he's from Freed-Hardaman, touring French churches) and I climbed a nearby mountain, Mont Gerbierdejoncs, which is supposed to be the source of the Loire, the longest river in France (other three nature pics). It was a great trip... a decent amount of hiking, but nothing ridiculously strenuous. I think most of my readers are familiar with Sugarload in AR, and it was about like that. At the top, we had a magnificent view, and we read, journaled, and marvelled until after sunset.

Otherwise, everything is going fairly well. Food is good. We're learning a lot of dishes words. Playing basketball most days. Camp is half over, and I am missing home while enjoying the end of time in France.

New favorite french phrase: Tu sais francais comme une vache espagnol! which translates, You know French like a Spanish cow! very useful

(Lynda, sorry if I made any grammatical mistakes! My battery dies...)

Camp

I've been at camp since Sunday. We're in the mountains of central france. It's beautiful, cool, remote. I've been washing dishes. It's been amazing. That's the short of it. Kids are running around the few of us who have dared to reveal our laptops, now. The sun has set, but there's an afterglow of red orange yellow green fading into the lower mountains below us.

We've been busy, but content. Basketball. Devos. Lots of pots, pans, silverware, mops, hot water, and silly French regulations.

Tomorrow, the tour de France is passing nearby, and the whole camp is picnicing to see it. Yeah, awesome.

Great food; enough english to keep me sane; rest time for reading... Wittgenstein, Dickens, and current fantasy.

Pictures later. There's bound to be a great one of me with my hairnet, apron, and beardnet (the envy of the cleaning crew).

Bonjour, Barcelona

Top pics from Barcelona... the writing one is an English "translation" of the Spanish caption... doesn't make any sense to me... last two are the guys I've been living with in Marseille.

Headed to Barcelona Tuesday by train. Took most of the day, got into a hostel along "La Rambla." The hostel had hot water problems (which worked out well, as you'll infer later), was stuffy when I shut the window and loud when I left it open (had a nice balcony, though); however, I paid for a single private room and got a double... which was good, since the one mattress didn't shield me from the metal bar on the bed, so two worked well. Meagre breakfasts there.

I walked most everywhere in Barcelona, despite the great metro system (like Paris's). Probably 7-10 miles per day. I did low and high estimates. Mainly, I explored, mapless. No wi-fi at the hostel, so it was pretty much just discovering the city unaided. I spent plenty of time along the ample beaches, getting a nice sunburn the first day (this is where you make the inference). The Picasso museum was good for learning about his development as an arist, but not many famous works (I realized that I'd seen them all elsewhere before...).

La Sagrada Familia is the most impressive Cathedral I've seen. Immense. None of my pictures turned out well... it's just too big and packed with sculptural architecture. I went up a metro-funicular to the mountain overlooking the city, then successfully avoided (for the second time this trip) another funicular to the castle (above). Great view from up there. Real-used castle. Cannons.

It was a fun, unstructured trip by myself, but a bit lonely. I'm glad I'll be with people I know the rest of the time in France. The next two weeks are camp. Looks like money is going to work out fine. Not sure if I'll be posting at camp.

Oh, we played some of those group games (involving running around the room and chairs) with the youth from church tonight, which, if you think they're awkward in English, try playing them in French!

Spain

I'm headed to Barcelona, Spain, tomorrow for the rest of the week. I'll get back Saturday, and we leave for camp Sunday. Camp is two weeks, afterwhich I'll come back and stay with one of the missionaries until my flight leaves.

A little setback I've had that got resolved today. Saturday I was trying to get cash from the ATM, when it retained my card. I entered the wrong PIN too many times, thinking it was my old account. The bank didn't open until today, but one of the missionaries (Phillip) went with me, and after a few calls to my bank, we got the card and got it reactiveated, and I was able to get money.

A couple people let me borrow money in the interim, as I was out. Christians in France have been continually generous to me. It's been quite a testimony.

More after Spain, if I have internet. If not, this may be the last post for a while.

pictures

Several pics from Chateau D'If, famed prison of Dumas's The Count of Monte Cristo. A picture from the banquet... Canadian and Croatian friends from this week at CEM.

The week's been excellent. Very full. Morning till late night. We finally toured a bit today. The missionaries here are really living for this ... mission. I heard some amazing testimonies and interacted with needy people in real ways that taught me and helped them.

Well, not much of a post. Feel free to ask questions, as I know that things that are transparent for me maybe hidden for you. Church (& potluck :-D ) tomorrow.

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.