A Long Awaited Update...

Sorry all! It's been a while since I updated - it's not so much that I've been incredibly busy (although some days that's the case), but I don't often get to the internet and when I do I'm easily distracted. Well, we've done a lot this month - done things with the youth at the church, attended many seminars in both English and French (if I try, I can more or less understand the pastor when he speaks - but it's very tiring), visited an international church on a couple of Sundays (English worship...so nice for a change), engaged strangers in Starbucks..... let's see, what else - on Monday, we painted part of the pastor's home. My shoulders are very sunburned from that.

Next week, we'll be spending most of Monday through Friday doing odd jobs for a radio ministry in Versailles - that should be good.

Here in a bit, we're off to see "Diary of the Dead" (original version, i.e., in English)...probably have to call it a night after that, because we're getting somewhat of an early start tomorrow. (Yann and Rita are leaving for South France soon and they want to spend a lot of time with us over the next few days.)

I miss home, and Abilene and school...but the summer is going well, and I feel like I've made spiritual and social progress since I've been here.

I keep forgetting to bring my camera places, but I'll take and post more pictures before I leave Paris.

Paris and Parisians

In case anyone is curious, it is difficult to use a French keyboard (I cannot find a number of key writing elements, like quotation marks). I shall not say much today, for this is a laborous process. We are beginning to feel quite at home in this beautiful city; whoever says that Paris is ugly and Parisians are rude has not gotten very far in the culture.

We spent a great deal of time at the church this weekend, getting to know some of the young people better. On a somewhat pessimistic note, we are not going to be able to break the language barrier in these few weeks; on the bright side, many people here speak good English.

We climbed many stairs yesterday to the Sacre Coeur area (also the artist quarter) to see the Salvador Dali exhibit (300 of his works, lacking The Persistance of Memory and his famous Crucifixion). That fellow was out of his mind.

Among the four of us Americans, we have begun a game of Spades to one million, to be continued next school year and concluded (regardless of the score) in May. Things are going well.

One Week in the City...

It really is a very beautiful city - many trees, flowers and parks, beautiful buildings. Relatively clean also - for a major metropolis - and the mass transit will never cease to charm me.

We've mostly just been exploring so far, acquainting ourselves with the lay of the land and hitting most of the touristy areas early on (I'll put some pictures below). We've met the church and they're a very welcoming group - have several activities planned with them in the near future. French lessons begin in earnest this week (though the past several days have been good practical experience as far as that goes).

A diversity of peoples, cultures, cuisines and languages! And so big. Today, though, I somehow passed the same person twice (in the same area of the city, near the same station). Sometime this week, I am going to pay a visit to the biggest library in Europe (in southeast Paris).
(It's hard to format these pictures into a post.) Look up there for shots of Notre Dame, the Eiffel Tower (I didn't go up into it), the Arc de Triumph and Versailles.

Interesting trivia: Did you know that the Eiffel Tower was constructed as a grand - but temporary - attraction for the 1900 World Fair? After some debate, they decided to keep it around. Good thing too - it pulls in a ton of money, and obviously it's THE iconic image, not only for France but for Europe.