A Nice Mundane Post

A few nice, normal, not scary highlights from the week:

Getting settled into the routine and rhythm of daily life in Albertville.

Waking up each morning to the mountains outside my window.

The animation and enthusiasm of my French teacher.

Sizable comprehension of last week's sermon.

A package with a Paternoster Christmas letter, lots of fascinating drawings from a variety of wonderful people, a few letters, and a magazine with an article about Fierce Compassion. (go here to view the online copy. The article about Fierce Compassion is pages 16-17)

Perpetually entertaining classroom dynamics.

Dinner at the little hole in the wall restaurant famed to be Albertville's best kabab eatery with two new friends. Excellent meal and excellent fellowship.

A few piano lessons with Anna.

A morning with Ben and Maggie.

A full week in the classroom learning French and only French.

No more Power School, no more grades, no more GPA's, just learning French.

When people are late to class, they don't need tardy passes. It's just assumed that as responsible human beings, they had a good reason. What a novel idea.

Vocabulaire Biblique Lessons on Fridays - a day to learn Bible vocabulary and hear Bible stories in French! Hearing familiar stories being recounting in an unfamiliar tongue is really quite wonderful as you begin to comprehend the previously unfamiliar tongue.

A big group of high school students from Ohio are here visiting. They're painting one of the classrooms. It's nice, if not slightly odd, to have people to converse with in English who are also not here to learn French.

Lunch with the Wills - a missionary couple with World Harvest (the same agencies the McCropders are with) who spent fourteen years as missionaries in Spain, and who are now heading to Africa. They were at Urbana too, working at the World Harvest table in the Exhibit Hall!

Reading through the Chronicles of Narnia again (finished The Silver Chair last night, onto The Horse and His Boy after this blog post).

Listening to Urbana seminars online while cleaning the room, doing the laundry, ironing the clothes, and so forth.

A game night with the French youth group on Friday. Games are a great vehicle for reaching across cultures and for learning more French.

Grocery shopping at Géant (a massive grocery store). Actually the shopping itself was not the highlight, but rather the walking there through the slush and snow with the Alps surrounding on every side with a new friend was the highlight.

A walk to the river with an assortment of McCropders and friends.

Just got back from the Post Office, about to go eat lunch with the American's from Ohio, and then an afternoon of French.