Day 2: The Metro et Le Vesinet

Last night I went out with Grace, Ryan, Giles, Brittany, and Judy. We went and saw the outside of the Musée Pompidou, la Cathédrale de Notre Dame, et l’Hôtel de Ville. We had a problem finding a metro (the one we were going to was closed) but then we found one that was working—only we ended up going the wrong direction on it. We got off at a stop, got lost in at the Chatelet, managed to reorient ourselves after Grace and Ryan talked to some nice French people, and we did make it back to our hotel.

This morning we went to see the BYU apartment where M. Erickson is staying in Paris. We had a lunch break for an hour and since the BYU apartment is right across the street from la Tour d’Eiffel, I went with some of the others in our group to look at it.

(Jessie, Joy & Beth)

We found out that the value of the euro had dropped and several of the people in our group were filmed by some journalists/news guys to be excited Americans talking about how they are excited they can buy more in France now.

(Camera Man, Betsy, Giles, Jessie, Paige, Brittany, Ryan)

After our lunch break we went to the Institute building in Paris—where we will be having class, church, and where the Outreach program for the Church is located in Paris. It was a beautiful building that was built in the 1600s (1624 or 42 I believe).

(Institute building)

The tour of the Institute building ended in us being set free by M. Erickson to be back at the hotel by 4 o’clock. Several of us went to find la glace (ice-cream) place that Grace had discovered yesterday and loved. Unfortunately it was closed, but we did get some gelato at an Italian place on the same street. Five of us had to figure out how to work the metro to get back to our hotel—not as much of an adventure as last night (because everything looks different in the dark), but still an adventure.

After sitting in a bus for 1 ½ hours, Grace and I finally arrived at our host family’s home. It’s actually just one woman; her name is Madame (Mme) Pucheu. She is a sweet elderly lady. She is quite active and is excited that both Grace and I know French—even though she knows that I am timide with speaking French. It’s alright—Grace makes up for my lack of conversation right now. And I am learning lots of vocabulary and cultural customs. We had carrot stew, ratatouille on rice, a green salad with a vinaigrette dressing, baguette pieces and camembert for dinner. C’était délicieux! We ate outside. Her backyard is charming!

Overall, it’s been a good day, even though I didn’t get as much sleep as I would have desired last night.

Day 1: Too long on a plane

The plane rides were very long, but I'm very grateful that my parents were able to see me off from my gate in Salt Lake. That was a huge blessing. On the way to Cincinnatti I sat next to a woman who was going to visit Georgia, where she grew up, though she informed me that she's been married for 61 years to a guy from Utah so she's been living there. She was a pretty cute old woman.

Then I had my two hour layover in Cincinnatti. I didn't do much; I walked around because I knew I'd be sitting for a while. I did talk to five of the eight elders who would be on the plane to Paris; they are going to serve in Ukraine. On the flight to Paris, three of the elders sat in the middle row behind me and three more sat five seats in front of me and I'm not sure where the other two were, but they were on the plane. Their presence allowed me to talk a little bit about the Church to my neighbor, John.

John was a fun guy to sit next to. He's been married for nineteen years to a little Filipina woman (he's 6'3"). He has two daughters that look nothing like each other because one takes after him (Anglo) and the other takes after his wife. He told me about his conversion from Lutheranism to Pentecostalism. We talked about schooling--mine and his. He actually knows where Livonia is because he used to work there when he lived in Dearborn and went to Henry Ford Community College.

I had a horrid stomachache pretty much my whole journey yesterday and today--it started on the flight to Cincinnatti. Towards the end of the flight to Paris, he told me that he would pray for me. I responded by saying I'd been doing that the whole time and it wouldn't help if his prayers joined mine. When I landed in Paris, my stomachache gradually went away as I wandered around the beautiful and stylish terminal, but then it returned on our crazy ride to the hotel.

So Rem always complains about Utah drivers--a lot of people complain about Utah drivers. Holy cow! If you want to see crazy drivers, come to Paris. There are people on scooters in every space between cars, people are honking their horns and never slowing down. I was grateful I wasn't the one driving. But my stomachache did return during the drive and then left after a while once we got to the hotel.

I haven't done much exploring yet. I was dead dead tired when we got here. I couldn't sleep for very long but I couldn't manage to get myself up off of my bed and go be with the others in my group, so I was alone in my room (because Grace isn't here; she's with an old roommate right now). Because of my tiredness and laziness and inability to muster the willpower to get up, I missed my opportunity to go to the Directors' apartment and call home. That made me sad. I really wanted to talk to my parents real quick. But I guess I'll get to do that on Sunday.

Not all my posts will be as long as this one but I'm just sitting here locked in my hotel room with no where to go because everyone else is gone and I can't leave by myself.

It's strange thinking I'm in Paris. I can't wait till I have some more structure in my schedule again. And get a good night's rest. Je suis à Paris!

Thoughts in preparation

15 April 2010 10:19PM
Quelquefois je suis triste à cause des choses que je ne sais pas et que je ne peux pas savoir ou connaitre. Alors, la plupart de temps je suis contente, ce n’est que je suis seule dans la nuit. Mais je connais qu’il y a un plan pour moi et pour mon avenir. Peut-être maintenant est une autre époque dans ma vie quand je dois rappeler ces faits et ces vérités ? ...haha...France m’attend. :)

16 April 2010 9:57am
What am I supposed to do? I thought as I stared down at my hands, thinking about the past week and my impending trip to France. I looked at the white Book of Mormon resting in the book rack on the back of the previous pew and pleaded internally, Please help me to know.

I opened up to Moroni 7:45: “And charity suffereth long, and is kind, and envieth not, and is not puffed up, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil, and rejoiceth not in iniquity but rejoiceth in the truth, beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.”

I read through this scripture—a very familiar scripture—several times and saw new and specific meanings for me right now.

Later, when I had access to a computer (which is right now) and no longer had access to a print copy of the scriptures, I looked up the definition of charity in the Bible Dictionary. It reads, “The highest, noblest, strongest kind of love, not merely affection; the pure love of Christ. It is never used to denote alms or deeds or benevolence, although it may be a prompting motive.”

Not merely affection. I think that goes back to what President Monson was referring to at this past General Conference when he was talking about his love for his wife. It also is intertwined with the definition given by Elder Holland at this past Conference about the difference between love and lust and the difference between the different kinds of love we can feel, but ultimately, it is charity that we should strive for.

With that in mind, I will try to more fully have charity be my driving force. A lot of people that go to France as tourists misunderstand the people and the culture of France; with this reminder about charity and with the words of my Dad’s blessing from Christmas in mind, I am going to go to France ready to understand and appreciate les gens et la culture française.

Aussi, avec mes amis, (un ami en particulier), je pense que je dois montrer plus de charité. Les traits de charité ce qui sont expliqué dans Moroni j'essayerai à développer avec cet ami dans mon âme. Je ne sais pas l’esprit de Dieu, mais je connais qu’Il me donne des choses dont j’ai besoin.

To-be-coming

This is where I'll try and post at least weekly some of my adventures and thoughts about my stay in France this spring term. Hopefully I'll get some pictures up every once and a while too, but we'll see; apparently it takes a long time to upload pictures internationally.