Today for our last Culture class we all prepared food dishes typical of our home country. We had a good combination of entrées, plats, and desserts. (Appetizers, main courses, desserts). It was a good time. We all stuffed ourselves full right before our last grammar test;) All I have left is tomorrow, and then I will be done with my classes. On Friday vacation begins and I will be heading to Greece for a week. When I come back I will have plenty to share with you, but until then, au revoir!
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Easter in France is not widely celebrated. Last Sunday, Palm Sunday, there was hardly a mention of the holy week ahead, and the sermon was about Noah, since the film Noah had just been released here. I was pleasantly surprised when our grammar teacher brought up Pâque in class on Wednesday. We discussed it and the words associated with it like "réssuscité" (resurrected). The holiday is recognized by the government since France was a Catholic nation at one point (and still claims to be, but really isn't), so today businesses are closed and classes are cancelled. I'm also positive that the Catholic churches in Caen had beautiful services yesterday and probably today as well. However, the only special event I went to was a Saturday night concert at our church in Houlgate. A Paris evangelical church came over to sing for us. It was a good group, and I was blessed by the music they shared. Here is the link to some of the videos I took:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCS43kUeGHMgnUSXcQ3j8Fjg/videos My first trip to Paris was so that I could meet up with a high school friend who has been touring Europe. I was a bit nervous about having to deal with the metro and RER systems once I got there, since I've never really used the subway in America, but the navigation to where her hotel is went quite smoothly. (I'm rather proud of myself). However, I then walked around for an hour or a bit less trying to find the hotel, because--as is very common with me and Kassie--we had left details out of our planning like the actual address of her hotel and my cell number.... It wasn't that bad though because I stumbled across this cute little garden. She and her roommate, Abigail, eventually came to find me and we met up on the sidewalk. From there we headed straight to the Louvre. Abigail directed us through the RER and Metro this time, and they had wonderful passes that allowed us to by-pass all the lines. Unfortunately, I neglected to charge my camera before coming so these are the only pictures I was able to get.... however, Abigail took lots and will be sharing them with me shortly, and then I will share them with you.
Talking and catching up with Kassie was wonderful, and meeting Abigail was just as wonderful. Unfortunately we left the café a bit late and I missed the train I needed in order to get back to Caen in time to catch a bus back to Franceville, but it all worked out in the end because Danielle is amazing and came to pick me up from the train station in Caen. I went to bed very tired, and a bit sore from all my walking, but it was a very good day. Today I sat in while Steve shared some of his knowledge about the history of France, and specifically the way Normandy and England were combined under William the Conqueror.
Apparently, William had the stereo-typical French attitude about learning English, so even though he was King of England he never bothered to speak his subjects' language. Instead he replaced all the leadership, everybody except a few Reeves who ruled the Shires (Shire-Reeve= Sheriff, head of the county) and all the peasants, with French elites. This obviously created a massive separation between the two groups which caused several things to occur that impacted today enormously. First, since William and his fellow rulers could not understand English, they were afraid of revolt from all the peasants and built many castles. So, many of the monumental castles in England were actually built by William and the French. For example the Tower of London. More importantly than this, however, is that since Normandy and England were not completely united, the King of France was able to attack Normandy and take it back under French control, leaving France and England separate countries. It could have turned out that Normandy and England became a single country, which would've changed history quite a bit. It's interesting to think about, at any rate. On Saturday I taught the high school students, who are here for the week, the basic, beginning words and phrases in French. I, of course, had to make it all very pretty and had fun preparing for it
It went really well. They picked up on it and pronounced everything decently and at the end they created wonderful conversations using some of the phrases I taught, and also asking for other words. Today, then, Jessie added to their knowledge of the language while teaching them phrases to use when they need help, prepositions, and how to tell the time. It was fun, and again the students were really good about being engaged. I'm beginning to see/feel the joys of teaching! Yesterday Jessie and I spent some time on the beach tanning and then playing volleyball. It was the perfect temperature without too much wind! Then in the evening Elvira, Immy, Jessie and I went to our last theater show. Unfortunately I was not allowed to take any pictures for you, but it was a great one to end off on. The theme and script weren't the best--something about money and having people entertain a queen or goddess--but the main show with horses. There were too big horses that the guys swung on and off and stood on and did flips on, a horse that was trained especially for different styles of walking, bowing, laying down with the rider, etc, and two miniature ponies who could "waltz" and who a girl rode standing up (one foot on each pony). It's always cool to see the cooperation between animal and human, and these horses were well trained and well cared for (that I could see. My favorite part was the ending. The people took off the horse's saddle and bridal and then just watched/imitated him as he walked, trotted, and basically showed off. It was beautiful. God's creation is always beautiful, and I'm glad that we were able to appreciate it in such a way. Then to top it all of, we stopped at McDonalds to get some ice cream:) Oh, and then there was this awesome moon. :D Today our afternoon classes were cancelled because the carnival for all the students. We weren't really sure what would be happening, so we stuck around for a bit. Turns out it's a time to dress up, drink, dance, smoke, and who knows what else! Needless to say Jessie and I left after seeing the awesome costumes (or really horrible ones that I did not take pictures of. I've decided to rename the carnival the "Carnival where guys think they don't need to wear pants, and sometimes not ever skirts...") It was also just a beautiful day out. Then after we got home Jessie and I played some volleyball on the beach.
And now... IT'S THE WEEKEND! Two more weeks of classes. If I had any doubts that God is largely absent here and wherever they originated, I have no more doubts.
Nature was never more welcomed. I went for walks this weekend and found quiet with God. I have a feeling I will continue to do so the rest of my time in an attempt to balance out the city. This next month is going to be harder than my first few weeks. Hopefully May will be easier. Please keep me in your prayers. Not much has happened the last few days, but I figured I would write you all a bit of something:) We have a group of six students here this week from Lexington Christian Academy. They're a lot of fun and on Saturday Jessie and I got to do a bit of a French Language session for them about cleaning vocab! There were several mistakes, and although I have tried to fix them all there still may be a few. :) Not that most of you will be able to tell.....
Yesterday was warm and sunny out during out two hour break in-between classes so Jessie, Biwa, and Joy Ana basked in the sun and goofed around:D I'm not sure what's up with the wide open mouths, but I did it in a few other pictures too.... 0.o Girls are silly. Also the University had elections for different student rights and whatnot. If there's one thing I can say about their student body it's that they're persistent. Got all but one of those yesterday. I didn't end up voting, but from what I understand they were interesting topics. Other than all this super exciting news, I got an A on my last test, and I'm pretty sure I aced the test I took today, so things are going well:)
Two more months. |
AuthorSalut! Je suis etudiante de francais. Well, I'm doing my best to learn French at any rate:) Je suis Son (I am His) is the documentation of my semester in Normandy with the Chez Vous Institute and the Universite de Caen. Categories
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