Italy, part one

We took the 15h11 train from Montpellier to Nice, from whence we were supposed to take the night train, which left at 21h07, to Florence. About 45 minutes after we left Montpellier, our train broke down in this little middle-of-nowhere train station in Arles. For two hours. We took turns leaving someone with our stuff and taking walks outside, all the while trying to think where we were going to sleep that night since we were going to miss the train to Florence. Once the train finally got going again around 18h10, the conductor came over the loudspeaker and said the night trains to Rome and Venice were going to wait for us. That was fantastic for us, since we were going to Florence, but we were confused since according to the train schedule there was no train to Rome. We wallowed in our confusion for the remaining hours of the train ride, got to Nice around 22h00, and lo and behold, there was the train to Rome and Venice, but alas no train to Florence. We started dejectedly wandering off, now trying to think of where we were going to sleep and how we were going to get to Florence the next day. As one last resort we checked our train number and realized that, though it didn't say Florence anywhere in the terminal or on the train, the train to Rome and Venice was indeed the our train. By this time the conductor was blowing his whistle to signal the departure of the train; everyone had already boarded. We frantically ran up to him, blabbering in French about how this was our train and we needed to get on it. We ran to the nearest door (which was fortunately the car next to ours) and jumped on board as the train started pulling away. Some nice man who was laready on held the door (which was trying to close) open for us so we could climb on as fast as possible. I wsa pretty sure at least one of us was going to get left behind. We made it to our room. At this point it's like 22h30, none of us have eaten since lunch, and there's no food car on the train, so we split a bottle of wine for dinner, then went to bed.

But we made it to Florence! Florence is gorgeous and I could have spent our entire week there. We saw some amazing churches and cathedrals, including the one that had the preserved body of one of the archbishops of Florence from the 1400s on display. The priest in there was the cutest little old man ever and spoke to us for a few minutes in simple Italian (most of which we were able to get the gist of from French) and some broken English. If I lived in Florence, that's the church I would attend: I loved it.

While we were there we also saw Michelangelo's David, which was magnificent, and the graves of Michelangelo, Galileo, machiavelli, and Danti, who are all inhumed in the same churched. We walked around Florence a lot and just marveled at how gorgeous it is. We alos found a Mexican restaurant! We were nearly beside ourselves with excitement. France doesn't have any Mexican, and we all sorely missed it. So probably the most exciting thing in Florence was eating Mexican. Go figure.

Updates coming soon on Rome and Venice!

I have bruises to prove it

Today we went on our last planned excursion, this one to St-Guilhem-le-Désert. It's this little tiny town all by its lonesome in a mountain valley about an hour from here. It was really really pretty. And what was even more exciting was that we got to go swimming in the Hérault river, which was utterly gorgeous. It was really really clear, and the perfect temperature. Cold when you first got in, but just right after that. Also, the river, since it is in a mountain valley, it's surrounded by cliffs, which makes it perfect for cliff-jumping! So I jumped off a few cliffs. The highest was about 15-20 feet in the air I think. It was a ton of fun, though I did bruise my leg hitting the water. But it was a small price to pay! It felt so good to be in the water, and just to be active. Some friends and I are thinking about getting a membership to the pool and going there once or twice a week, since that will give us something active to do all semester. And my mom just sent me my dance shoes to I can do that as well, so hopefully I'll be able to be pretty active while I'm here. I'm looking forward to that. Yay France!

Also, tomorrow I leave for Italy!

Patriotism

Today on the tram a few of us were talking about patriotism, and we ended up talking about some stuff I hadn't really thought about before. I had mentioned that despite the common perception that American is extremely nationalistic, most Americans really aren't that patriotic. They are, but when I went to Turkey I saw so much more nationalism there than I ever would in the US, so it made me think about how patriotic the average American is, which doesn't seem to be all that much. But then today I was talking to my program director over here and she was talking about how when she went back to visit the States this summer (she's been living in France 15 years), she was surprised at how patriotic they were. She explained that in France you don't see people flying the French flag or playing patriotic songs (such as Proud to be an American in America) all the time or anything like that, that it would be really weird to see that.

So I've come up with a theory on part of why that is, because I like to think about such things. I don't think France is any less patriotic than America is, and perhaps even America isn't any less patriotic than Turkey. I think they just show it different ways. In Europe, you're in very close quarters with a bunch of different countries, so flagrant shows of patriotism or national pride can be viewed as offensive or even aggressive by neighboring countries, whereas in America there's not really anyone close by to challenge us. Thus the French show their patriotism through preserving their culture: they have tons of laws about language and music and all parts of culture, in order to try and keep it as unaffected by foreign cultures as possible.

Here in Europe, your culture is mostly challenged with being swallowed up by the surrounding ones, so it's a fight to keep it alive. In America, we don't have that challenge, so we're free to be flagrant with our flags and our songs, etc. American culture is based on a mix of cultures, essentially built on the flexibility and constant change that comes from having a mélange of people-groups. So change is considered normal, and it's not necessarily your specific accent or mannerism that's as important as showing to others that regardless of your background, you are American. Here you don't need to show anyone you're French; it's through the preservation of the culture through the correctness of your speech, your French mannerisms, etc, that shows your loyalty to your country. It's an interesting discrepancy. Any thoughts?

One week til Italy!

Well, I have one more week of grammar and civ classes, then I have a week off before I start university classes. My friends Sarah and Caitlin and I are going to to leave Sunday morning for Nice, spend the day there, then take the night train to Florence. From there we'll go to Rome, then Venice, then back to Nice, then back home to Montpellier. We'll get back next Sunday afternoon, so it will have been almost exactly a week. We're pretty excited about it.

Aside from that, classes are going well. We have an official wine tasting during our civ class on Wednesday, then our finals for our grammar classes on Saturday before our last excursion. After that we are free from Pré-stage, something we're all pretty excited about. When I get my classes for this semester, I really want to see if I can keep my Fridays free for traveling purposes. This is my list of places I want to visit, in no particular order:

Normandie
London/England
Paris
Barcelona
Dublin
Germany
Austria

I know there are some I'm missing. Any good ideas? I know I probably won't get to go everywhere I want to, but I need to have a full list before I can figure out which ones to prioritize.

Life is going pretty well; I love France, but I wish I could share it with all my friends back home! Email is my main mode of communication, since I have limited internet, so I'd love it if you shoot me an email and I'm trying to get back to people within two to three days.

I miss you guys!

Some recent adventures

Things are going well here! Two weeks of classes are over. This weekend we're going to Avignon. After this next week, I have a week break, so some friends and I are going to travel Italy a little bit. It's gonna be fun times!

Some recent adventures we’ve had:

Dimanche, le 26 août, 2007

All of the American students (there’s about 100 of us) here in Montpellier had a scheduled excursion to Carcassonne, which is about a two-hour bus ride away. It was all done through the IEFE, the Institute for Exchange Students. Apparently, the other bus was cold, but I don’t know if our air just wasn’t working right or if our bus driver didn’t want to turn the air on very high, but it was hot on that bus. But it wasn’t completely unmanageable, I managed not to get sick, and after two hours we were in Carcassonne, which is a medieval French city that has been restored to it’s 13^th century self. It was daggone hot outside. We walked around the castle, then had about a two-hour break for lunch, during which I got to see the church there (it’s gorgeous! And it has one of the oldest organs in Europe). Then we all were so privileged to be able to go so a reenactment of 13^th century European jousting. We were sitting on metal bleachers in full sun for about an hour and a half. We were sweating galore, and I definitely got sunburned. The jousting finally finished, and hot and tired, we went back to the buses to start the drive home. Our bus driver wouldn’t start the bus before we were actually leaving, so we all stood outside, where at least there was a little bit of breeze, and sweated til we left. It was still really hot on the bus but someone had opened the ceiling window vent things, so there was air coming through and it was alright.

After about an hour, the bus pulled over, and the bus driver got off. We in the back had no idea what was going on, and since the bus had been turned off and now there was no air moving, it started getting hotter and hotter in the back. After about ten minutes, it was no exaggeration at least 100 degrees and we decided that whether or not we were allowed to, we were getting off. As it turns out, the bus had an oil leak, so from then on we would have to stop every 6 kilometers to refill the oil tank. The bus driver was able to call another bus to come meet us, but it was going to be about 50 minutes before he could get there, and we would have to drive a little ways to meet him. When you got back on the bus, you could feel yourself walk into a wall of heat. We sat on the 100 degree bus for about 15 minutes as we drove to meet the other bus, and even in that short a period of time, there were several people on the bus about to get sick. We finally reached the spot, which fortunately had a gas station so that we could get ice cream, and then we stood outside in the sun, which was still cooler than in the bus, and waited for another bus for like 45 minutes. After that bus arrived, we still had about a 45 minute ride back to town, from where I would need to walk about 10 minutes and then take a tram for another 30 minutes to get home. I was so exhausted by the time got home that I went to bed at like 9.30.

Mardi, le 28 août, 2007

Two days later, the IEFE had arranged for everyone to go to the beach. One bus was leaving at 2, then another would come back for anyone who wanted to go at the 3. Most of the UNC kids signed up for the 3oclock bus, along with five or six Minnesota kids. For all of the IEFE excursions so far, the buses had picked up the Minnesota kids in front of the dorms they were staying in and then swung by the front gate of the school to pick up us UNC kids, which is a little easier for us, since the university is like 30 minutes from most of our homes. So we met at the gate, all of us before 3, and waited for the bus. And waited for the bus. After about half an hour our graduate assistant was making jokes about how everything runs late in the south of France. After almost an hour, she decided to call one of the assistants, who was already at the beach, to see what was going on. So she called and found out that the 3oclock bus had come and gone, and that what had happened was that it stopped at the dorms and then another assistant who was on the bus, despite the fact that like 20 people had signed up for that bus and only like 5 were there, said that they weren’t going to make a second stop and that they were just going. So they left us there. I’ll be honest, we were pretty livid. At first we were just going to play in the fountains in another part of the city, but then they called back and said the bus was going to come back for us, and that we should be able to leave for the beach by about 4.30, though we’d still have to come back at 6 like had been scheduled. It’s about a half an hour to the beach, so we ended up getting there around 5 and leaving at 6. So we did get to go, but it was an ordeal. And I don’t even like the beach!

We’ve decided we like France, but not the buses!

Voila!

Voila! Here I am, in France! When I first arrived my groupe traveled to Sommieres for a short orientationm then a week ago we retourned to Montpellier and moved in with our host families. I love my hostparents! They're so sweet. It's an older couple, orthodox Christian, and they have been so nice to me, helping me with my French, etc. We have these in-depth conversations about religion and life at the dinner table every night; it's pretty cool.

This has been our first week of classes in what's called the préstage, which is like three weeks of language and civ classes before we start at the university in September. Those are pretty straigh-forward and not overly difficult , which is nice, but it means I don't have much free time right now.

Our group of UNC students is fun. We what 14 girls and 1 lone guy, and a few of us get together to do something most evenings. In August, Montpellier has wine tastings every Friday, so a group of us went to that last week. I've discovered that I don't like wine; I want to acquire the taste before I leave but at the moment I can't drink more than a few sips of it. Even here in France where it's legal for me to drink and people don't drink to get drunk like they do in the US, I still have zero desire to drink, and I haven't yet decided if I'm going to go out with some of the other girls and try a drink or not sometime. Any thoughts?

So far I love it here, but I do miss people, and I miss being on campus. I think the hardest part of that is feeling somewhat left behind by your friends because you're not with them doing the things they're doing, something that's exacerbated by the 6-hour time difference that makes it hard to talk to people at all. But this is a beautiful city that I'm quickly falling in love with, and I can tell already that I'm going to be really sad when I have to leave.

En France

I am in France! I'm currently in the Paris airport with about two hours to go before my flight leaves for Montpellier. I'll arrive in Montpellier and then head over the program office, from where we'll leave for Sommieres for a few days for orientation. While I'm excited to be doing this this semester, right now I'm mostly just kind of intimidated and a little overwhelmed. I haven't yet been forced into a situation where I need to make conversation in French, and I think once I do that I'll feel a little better. I can read all the signs and such, but I have to listen hard to understand bits of the conversations going on around me. I think it's just going to take a little while to get used to everything being in a different language. So far there haven't been any problems though, which is good. I'll have to take a taxi once I get into Montpellier; that makes me nervous. Hopefully there will be other people there from this program that I can split it with, but I don't want to count on it.

Once we get to Sommieres, I'll be internet-less for a couple days, and after that, I'm not sure how soon or how often I'll be able to get to an internet cafe, so I'm not sure when my next update will come, but hopefully it won't be too long. We move into our host homes I think on the 16th, which is also really nerve-wracking, but should be okay. My host family is an older couple whose children no longer live with them, but I think some of their children are students in Montpellier and they have a grandchild that's around some too. I'm more nervous about the language than anything else. I don't want to misunderstand something and cause problems.

I really want this semester to make me fluent. It's kind of overwhelming to be so surrounded by French, but at the same time it's exactly what I want, because it's the only way I'll become fluent, which has been my goal since I first started taking French. Hopefully it will work!

Summer is ending

Tonight is my last night in my host home. I'm sad; I'm going to miss them while I'm in France. I love having kids around to play with and snuggle with and hang out with. The four kids here are so fun and so cute, and my hostparents have been so awesome this summer, and I can't believe it's already time to leave. It's kind of hit me all at once that summer is ending and I'm about to leave everyone and everything for a semester, and I know I'm going to have a great time in France, but at the same time, I'm kind of like, What was I thinking? I think it's just going to be hard, especially after this summer, after I've built all these really close relationships with the other people in the Institute and with my hostfamily and with people in the church, to just up and leave all that. I kind of feel like I'm abandoning it. But I will be back in four months, so maybe I'm just being melodramatic. But I do love my hostfamily, and so appreciate everything they've done for me this summer and how sweet they've been to me, and I'm going to miss them all a lot. I'm going to miss my room here, with my roommate, and hearing the children at 6.45 in the morning, discussing life with my hostparents, just being a part of the family here. I love that, and I'm sad I have to leave so soon.

Here we go . . .

I'm back from Central Asia! It was an amazing trip! I'll admit it, I almost didn't want to come home. While I was there, I journaled every day (quite the feat for me), so now that I'm back, I'm going to type up those journals and backlog them here so they look like they were posted on the day they happened. It may take me a couple days to get them all up, so I'll leave this post up til they get done. The posts should be relatively in depth, but if you have any other questions about the trip, feel free to ask!

*For safety reasons, I've changed the names of our guides and of a few people who went on the trip with us who are going to be moving there next year. I also won't mention the name of the city we were in, but will just call it "our city." 

Central Asia: Day Five

Today was a pretty chill day. We got to go to the city where two of the workers live, which is about an hour away, and meet their wives and children. They were such sweet women! You could just see the joy that the Lord has given them through their devotion to Him. The boys left to go do something else and the girls just sat in the worker's living room and talked. It was such an encouraging time. It was so nice to go and spend some time with an American where we didn't have to continually worry about have sit, where we look, how much we speak, and every little thing, to avoid offending someone. We talked about being a woman in this culture and how you're almost forced to become really close and intimate with the only other American woman, because usually she's really the only one who knows how you're really doing and everything that's going on in your life. It was so refreshing to see the interaction between the worker and his wife, to see the mutual love, how he cherished her, how she offered to serve out of love, not cultural obligation. We also talked about how a daily personal quiet time is a job requirement when you're on the field. At home, even if you miss a quiet time or two, you're still usually getting some truth spoken into your life from someone, be it a mentor or a pastor or a Christian radio station or whatever. On the field, you don't have any of that, so if you're not having your quiet time, it doesn't take you long to get sucked under by the culture surrounding you. God's Word is so important.

I got a little bit homesick (which is unusual for me) on the van ride back to our hotel. Missed my family. I've been bouncing around so much it feels like I haven't really seen them in a while, which I guess is true. The last time I spent significant time with them was last Christmas. I miss them. God has blessed me with such amazing parents and siblings. My mom, who is the kind of woman I hope to grow into; my dad, who is so supportive of all the crazy things I want to do, like move to France for four months; my brother, who is such a great encourager; my younger sister, whom joy just bubbles forth from; my youngest sister, who has such a sweet and loving spirit. I look at families here in this nation and compare them to my family and the pervasive love in my home, and I can't help but marvel at how incredibly blessed I am. It matches me ache for all the families here that don't have that, and I long to reach out to them and tell them about the freedom and joy they can have. If only life were that simple, where all I had to do was say it and they would realize the truth. All I can do is pray God will soften the hearts of these hardened people and share when He gives me the opportunity. God will do the rest. (Unfortunately, knowing that doesn't make you feel any less burdened for the millions of people outside your hotel that are all going to Hell.) God, save them fast!

Edit: I'm in the middle of my quiet time, but I wanted to share this.

My new life verse: Galatians 1.24 - "And they glorified God because of me."

That is my purpose in life. At my funeral, I want people to say that they glorified God because of me. Not because of me, but because of God's work through me. But in order for me to have that said of me after my death, I need to live up to it now. I challenge each of you to feel free to ask me, if you observe me doing something I shouldn't to remind me - "Becky, will people glorify God because of you through this?"