Tales of Travel: Part One

I shall now proceed to begin to recount the tales from my soujourns afar. These shall be rather detailed accounts, so I'm not sure if I will have sufficent time to finish them all off for there quite a number of stories to be told, but this is at least a start!

Leg #1 of the trip: Albertville to Geneva
Method of transportation: Car with Carlan
Departure time: 4:15 AM
Thing #1 that went wrong: We got lost, but thanks to some built in cushion time, we made it to the Geneva airport just minutes after our target time of 6 AM

Leg #2 of the trip: Geneva to Amsterdaam
Method of transportation: Plane
Departure time: 7:10 AM
Thing #2 that went wrong: I got in a check your baggages line thinking it was the security line.
Thing #3 that went wrong: Once at the proper security, I took off my scarf only to realize that I had put my shirt on backwards that morning. A minor detail, to be sure, but still something that went wrong.
Thing #4 that went wrong: I got out of security and then the brilliant traveller Kathryn Wong said to herself, "Okay. Now whereto? Vienna, of course! That is my final destination! Right? Oui." So she finds her gate - A8. Voila! Nothing to it. Pas de probleme. So I sat there for a while, happily contended with the fact that I had come thus far without any major glitches. By the grace of God (there's a lot of that in these stories) I decided I needed to go to the bathroom, henceforth compelling me to look at the screen of my departure gate (something I probably should've done upon arriving at said gate). An odd fact registered in my head - it said the flight was departing at 7:20. Doesn't make sense, thought I to myself, and I contemplated this fact of life whilst washing my hands, because it definitely says on my ticket that the flight goes out at 7:10 and not 7:20. As I washed, a revelation struck me:all these people were going to Vienna, so I would be able to navigate the Amsterdam Airport no problem! I could just follow them through the airport to my gate...wait. Oh, NO! THE AMSTERDAM AIRPORT TO MY GATE?!?! I HAVE THE WRONG FLIGHT! THIS FLIGHT IS GOING DIRECTLY TO VIENNA! I AM AN IDIOT!
Thing #5 that went wrong: I went up to the desk, explained my error (in French, I'll have you know!) and the lady directed me to the correct gate and told me to go up the stairs. So I walked over to the escalator, and it wasn't moving. I started to walk up the not moving escalator. Well about 1/4 of my way up, it decided to start working in a downward motion. And I was caught trying to go up on the down escalator. How ridiculous. I booked it up that escalator as fast as ever I could, which was difficult as I had burst out laughing at the hilarity of it. And so then I ran through the airport, and by the Grace of God again, my real departure gate was really quite close to my false departure gate. I went running up and VOILA! The last two people were just boarding the flight. Fantastic! That's the way to board a plane - no lines, no sitting around and waiting, just get there and board. Super.

Okay, c'est tout for now! Slovakia is beautiful and wonderful in every way that it could possibly be!

Les Vacanes!

From Saturday of this week to Saturday March, 9th, I shall be a very busy little girl. Currently on the agenda we have three main items that I am anticipating with much excitement -

A weekend in Sisteron, France with the McCropders.
Five days (including travel...) in Slovakia to visit my most dear friends.
Morgan's visit and a trip to Paris.

Shortly thereafter, we have exams. Thus I shall unfortunately not have much time to study over the vacation. And donc, I shall end this blog post now so that I can go get some studying in before the mayhem commences on Saturday. So stay tuned, pray that I can maneuver Europe successfully, and prepare yourselves for some epic posts in about two weeks.

Actually since I'm here, I may as well give you a quick recap of the week thus far:

Alyssa et moi cooked dinner for lots of people on Tuesday night. We made food for a slightly belated Chinese New Year celebration! Egg drop soup, scallion pancakes, and beef and broccoli with rice. The food was dubbed a success despite an unwelcome boiling oil shower that singed my lip in the making of the food, and the egg drop soup dropping quite literally off of the stove and on to the floor. Wednesday brought with it two fun-filled hours of puzzles and playdough and drawing and knitting with the ever wonderful Anna and Abi, tickets for Slovakia were purchased, I studied a bit, caught up with the mundane necessities of life that I have neglected horribly as of late. Sarah and I had quite the trip to Géant complete with breaking bikes, open backpacks, forgetting wallets, lots of laughter and the like, and the day finished with a game of Catan at the McLaughlins (yes, never fear, I got the longest road).

Donc, c'est tout. Prepare yourselves for the plethora of stories that shall transpire in these next two weeks!

A Lovely Day

Hopefully more ski story installments to come later (trust me, there are plenty more stories to be told!) For now, however, I should like very much to tell you about my day. It was lovely.

Church this morning was grand for a number of reasons. Each Sunday, I find myself comprehending increasing amounts of the sermon. A nice feeling. A spectacular feeling, really, when you don't even have to translate it into English in your head, and you just know what it means. Today the Spanish opera singer Pastor Pablo gave the message, and since French is his second language, he speaks it a bit slower and it's easier to follow. Plus I was sitting next to Sarah. Trying to understand what's going on in this world of the francophone with Sarah is always a blast.

Directly after church, Sarah, Alyssa, a friend of Alyssa's who is currently visiting from Scotland, and I went on a little hike. The weather was sublime, the skies the purest blue and the sun casting a wholesome and magnificent golden glow in the crevices of every mountain and scintillating sparkles on the babbling brooks. (Alliteration, je t'aime). 

We hiked for what seemed like a rather long time (but it wasn't really, just felt like it due to the steeply inclined mountainside). But though long, it was not at all wearisome because of the beauty that surrounded and the cool breezes and invigorating alpine air. We hiked up to a little town called Mercury. Spectacular views of mountains all around by a church in a graveyard awaited us in Mercury. While Alyssa and her friend sat on the wall of the cemetery and ate their lunch, Sarah and I enjoyed exploring said graveyard. Families in France get buried in the same lot, and as a result, most gravestones looked brand new, having been replaced with more recent family deaths though the majority had people who had died some 200 years ago.

I do love a good cemetery. There's nothing quite like wandering through a graveyard, reading the tombstones, contemplating life. It was very beautiful, and I wished we might have stayed a bit longer exploring the quaint little town, but  the hike down was glorious. More so than on the way up, for we walked down the actual path this time instead of the road (having missed it on the way up!) and I do believe it was the loveliest, muddiest, twisty-turniest little path I ever did walk on! I love the soft feel of a path in late-winter - layers of snow and ice melting over layers of decomposing leaves creating a smooshy, muddy, gushiness like none other. I stopped for a bit to watch three little children jumping on a big trampoline out in the open, their little shrill voices jabbering on in French. What would it be like to grow up here, here in this tiny village, with mountains just as big as the village is tiny... Ivy-covered farmhouses with barking sheepdogs and grazing horses completed the picturesque landscape nicely. Bridges crossed over mountain steams, crystal clear water pouring over mossy rocks. 

All too soon, we were back in the city. And then back at the school. But another treat awaited. Les Misérables! Although I already had the pleasure of viewing this musical phenomenon in the States some 24 hours after it was released, the opportunity to see it here in France was just to good to pass up! Quite a number of people went from the school. The French cinéma was a good deal nicer than Quality 16. And when I say a good deal, that is an understatement. Mercy and I sat together, and the two of us more or less sobbed the way through the film, though I hear that the other adult women were just about as stoic as stoic can be, and it sounds as if we were the worst criers of the theater. Not a role I'm accustomed to playing, let me assure you. 

The conversation in the car on the way back home was, naturally, virtually all in song. Subsequent conversations to follow continued to be sung. Vastly entertaining I must say.

And so that was my lovely day. Thank you for listening. Or rather reading. I hope it was enlightening and edifying and that you enjoy the following pictures:

Albertville, so tiny, so far down...

Cemetery!

Mont Blanc!

Mercury...

The lovely path of squishiness and decomposing leaves and mud and snow and ice!

Skiing - la troisième ET la quatrième fois!!!! Incroyable.

Eh bien, mes amis, c'est vrai. C'est incroyable, mais vrai. J'ai fait du ski pour la troisième ET la quatrième fois et encore, je vis!

Well, my friends, it's true. It's unbelievable, but true. I went skiing for the third AND the fourth time, and still, I live! (At least I think that's what I said)

Saturday my alarm brought me from deep slumber at the appallingly early hour of 5:00 AM. I had been so anticipating this alarm going off early, that I literally jumped out of bed at 11:00 PM (after having slept for two hours already), and turned on the lights, afraid that I had overslept. Eventually I realized it was 11 PM, and thankfully was able to fall asleep again without much of a problem.

5:00 came around, and I was ready to go! After a satisfying breakfast of eggs, a fruit and granola raspberry yogurt parfait, toast, and some veggies, I bundled up in a great quantity of layers and went out into the deep darkness of the morning before dawn.

There is something terribly exciting about a rendez-vous at such an hour. The hushed voices, the darkness all around, the cars gathering, the furtive hustle and bustle of preparing to depart. The excitement of it was enough to keep me awake for about 2 minutes after pulling out of the school. Then it was back to sleep until we arrived at the slopes. 

After a few bumps and problems with location and snow blowing machines (I still haven't figured out exactly why they felt the need to use these machines, all things considered. Or rather all snow considered.) we were finally set up and ready to go. 

Sarah et moi, in the dark, ready to ski!

We started out with the longest lift of my entire life. Not that that's saying a ton, but I hear it was even long by the more experienced skiers' standards. It went on for what felt like an eternity. And it was spectacular. It was no longer black outside. The sky was a delicate porcelain soaring overhead. Mountain peaks protruded magically from a light purple fading to pink haze. I considered pinching myself as a standard way of verifying whether or not a situation is real or just a dream, but thought better of it since every exposed area of skin (and many covered areas as well) had gone quite numb in the frigid morning air, thus rendering pinching rather ineffective, whether it be in dream or reality.

Up and down and through and over the mountains we went. Across the valleys, thick with layers of unadulterated snow. Past the fir trees, their branches starkly dark underneath blankets of dusty snow. Near rock formations, piercing peaks of this legendary mountain range reaching high into the crack-of-dawn skies. A penetrating, omnipresent silence radiated up from the ground even as it rained down from the skies, surrounding us in every way on every side, broken only by our voices when we spoke, if we spoke.

It was the ride of a lifetime, and I relished every last second of it. You can view the pictures below, but sadly, they cannot do it justice. 

Now. As for the not quite as magical parts. I would like to note very clearly that the last time I had gone skiing, the blue mountain was terror beyond all terrors. Helpless to do anything else, it became necessary for me to slide down the mountain. So terrified was I that any sense of embarrassment in relation to the other professional skiers gliding effortlessly past me was utterly non-existent. 

So it was with some trepidation of the heart, perhaps more than just some, that I realized this fact: To get from point A to the desired point B where free breakfast was being served, there was only one path. And it was a blue path. In retrospect, I am not full of fear, but rather full of gratitude that it was just blue and not red or black as it very well could have been. But at that moment in time, it was certainly trepidation that permeated my trembling self. 

Mais, n'inquiète pas! But, do not worry! At least that's what I was repeatedly told by the two from our group that kindly stayed behind to ski directly in front of/behind me. And it is true that there was really no reason to fear. Later in the day, I would find that to my surprise, I truly was 100% capable of conquering these blue slopes. Pas de problem. 

The biggest thing that I remember about that fearful ride down the blue slope was that as I was (attempting to) zig zag back and forth down the mountain, I went directly into the snow bank rather than turning. I promptly fell. Not by any means a wipeout. I'm quite certain I meant to fall for the alternative was to go down the blasted hill and that surely was inconceivable to me at the moment. One of the French presumably employed by the ski resort had also been following us, and he kindly and most expertly showed me how to get myself out of the snow (actually that little lesson has been useful to me ever since). Once I got to the bottom of that slope, there was yet another chair lift, and I lost my ski pole while getting on. Not both, just one. But still. The same French skier had to retrieve it for me. This is the part of the story where the terror starts to fail to be a good substitute for embarrassment. It was, to be sure, slightly humiliating, especially since then when we were at the top of the mountain eating breakfast, I was continually trying to not bump into him while trying to not wonder too hard if he was telling the story of the American novice ski girl to his other French professional ski buddies.

But never fear! This experience did not put a damper on the rest of my day. There was no sunrise over Mont Blanc, because Mont Blanc was rather covered in clouds, but there was nonetheless beauty all around. Beauty like that I have never seen before. Snow drifts swooping up into majestic formations, mountains and mountains and piles of mountains all around on every side - completely surrounding, all encompassing mountains. To explain it is impossible, for even to go back to that place in my head and experience even a sliver of the wonder and beauty and awe is impossible.

But alas! I fear that this post must come in installments, for it is time to return to class! It is, no doubt, better given in installments anyways since it seems this post is already quite long and we've only covered maybe the first two hours of the third skiing outing...

Photos à grace d'Alyssa pour le plupart from the breakfast site:

Time with les Enfants McCropders!

Recently, I have enjoyed substantial amounts of high quality time with the McCropder kiddos, particularly in the form of two organized events.

Event #1 - School on strike!

There was no school for the preschoolers and kindergardeners on Tuesday, for there were no teachers to teach their little charges, because they were on strike! Je ne sais pas pourquoi... But evidently, it was a very organized deal - only happened yesterday, and the families got a good bit of notice prior to the strike that it was going to happen. Thus, four McCropder kiddos had no school on a day that their parents did have school

And so Aunt Sarah (who will be the children's teacher in Burundi) held the first day of l'école McCropder that afternoon, and I got to participate! We did all sorts of wonderful activities - practicing letters, singing songs, making up stories, reading stories, counting objects inside and outside, running up and down and up and down and up and down the hallway, learning shapes and drawing them, following rules and taking turns, playing hot potato, learning about opposites in French and English, the alphabet mat... A grand time was had by all with only two major meltdowns!

Event #2 - Valentine's Day!

Today, the four McCropder célibataires hosted the seven McCropder children for a Valentine's Day party. This entailed making and decorating heart sugar cookies, a pizza lunch, a story from Uncle Carlan, a valentine's day scavenger hunt, and Valentine's Day crafts. Fun galore. 

A few highlights:

1. A fun math story problem:

Aunt Sarah: "ONLY TWO HEART COOKIES FOR EVERYONE. The rest will go home with you."

...a few minutes later...where did all the cookies go, and how does the math with all kids having two cookies each add up with what's leftover?

2. Kids are decorating the cookies with pink frosting. Eventually (not sure how long this was going on for) someone noticed that Ben was contentedly shoving frosting into his mouth rather than spreading the frosting on the cookie. Good stuff.

3. The general mayhem, chaos, madness, and overflowing amounts of energy bursting through the walls perpetually.

4. Can't quite recall which kid it was that said this, but I believe it was Miss Anna's reaction to the fact that we were eating the pizza straight off of the table rather than getting plates and henceforth creating lots of dishes... "Wow. Guess this is how we eat when the parents go out on dates! This would never happen otherwise!"

5. The splendid weather this afternoon in which we found hidden candy and ran all around and did a lot of swinging. Good stuff.

And so the past two days have been full with all these wonderful little people. Tomorrow, more or less the whole school ventures out on the Sortie du Ski! Twill be a grand adventure...

A week's recap, a "culte", and an announcement of great happiness

I am very apologetic about my woeful failure to blog for over a week. It was, I can assure, not for a lack of material to blog about! Quite the opposite - there was simply too much to blog about and too little time to do it.

It was a superb week; below are some noteworthy highlights.

Samedi, le 2 Février - dîner chez Anne!

Anne is my most animated, enthusiastic, energetic, patient, passionate and kind French teacher here in Albertville. On Saturday, the same day that we Americans celebrate groundhogs, the French celebrated La Chandeleur - a holiday for crêpes! Anne invited the single ladies over to her house (which is literally some 30 feet away from the school) for crêpes. They were delicious beyond all description with such a plethora of options for the inside part of the crêpe that we had crêpes that were smaller in size - that way you could try more options! 

Dimanche, le 3 Février - Grenoble

Rachel, one of the girls living here on my floor in the room right next to mine, had a friend visiting from Holland for the weekend, and on Sunday, a number of us took her back to Grenoble to the airport there for her flight back home. I enjoyed playing on a playground in the back of a gas station near the airport, watching with never-dwindling fascination the French countryside zooming by, and the good company.

Mardi, le 4 Février - Mon Culte dans la classe 

As part of your schooling at the Centre, you prepare and deliver two different 10 - 20 minute spoken devotions: one for the whole school, and one for your class. On Tuesday, I gave mine for the class. In case you are interested, it went like so:

Qui a lu les livres de Narnia? Et qui a lu Le Fauteuil d'Argent? Aujourd'hui, je vais parler de Narnia, et surtout du personnage Jill Pole, parce que je pense que je suis comme Jill. Et, peut-être vous aussi.

Maintenant, je vais lire un extrait du livre. C'est quand Jill parle au grand lion – Aslan. Ils parlent sur la montagne, et Aslan a donné une mission à Jill...

Aslan a dit, <<Sois calme. Dans un moment, je t'enverrai. Mais premièrement, ne pas oublier, ne pas oublier, ne pas oublier mes instructions. Dis les à toi-même quand tu te réveilles le matin, et quand tu va au lit la nuit. Et si les choses étranges viennent à toi, continue à suivre mes instructions! Toujours.

Et la deuxième chose – je te donne un avertissement. Ici sur la montagne, j'ai parlé clairement à toi. Je ne vais pas faire ça souvent dans Narnia. Ici sur la montagne, l'air est clair. Votre esprit est clair. Mais quand tu vas à Narnia, ce ne sera pas la même chose. Alors, fait attention. Mes instructions ne sera pas les même dans la réalité comme elles sont dans votre tête. Elles seront différentes de ce que tu comptes! C'est pourquoi il est tellement important de savoir mes instructions dans ton coeur. Ne pas oublier mes instructions. Crois mes instructions. Pas autre chose est important.>>

Je suis comme Jill. Elle n'était pas une personne importante. Elle n'était pas une personne avec beaucoup de puissance. Si vous lisez le livre, vous voyez qu'elle est une personne très faible et simple.

Mais Aslan l'a choisie! Il lui a donné un but. Il lui a donné une mission. Et il lui a donné quelque chose de très important. Il lui a donné sa parole. Ses instructions pour elle. Il lui a dit ce qu'elle doit faire. Exactement comme Aslan, Dieu nous a choisis. Il nous donne un but. Il nous donne une mission.

Jill n'a pas terminé la mission avec perfection. Au contraire, elle a oublié parfois les instructions. Elle avait tentations. Parfois, elle ne voulait pas continuer la mission. Elle voulait une maison confortable avec de la bonne nourriture et des lits chauds. Elle n'était pas digne d'être choisi pour cette mission, mais encore, Aslan l'a choisie! Aslan aurait pu faire la mission sans Jill, mais encore, Aslan l'a choisie!

Et Aslan ne lui a pas donné seulement ses instructions. Jill ne pouvait pas faire la mission seul, donc, il lui a donné deux partenaires! Eustace et Puddleglum. Ils l'ont aidée terminer la mission. Aslan a donné Jill une aventure qui a changé sa vie. Une aventure incroyable, mais une aventure qui n'était pas toujours facile ou confortable. Une aventure effrayante. Une aventure de sacrifice. Mais une aventure avec de grandes récompenses à la fin.

Exactement comme Jill, je pèche. Je fais beaucoup d'erreurs. Je désobéis aux instructions de Dieu. Mais Dieu m'a choisie. C'est incroyable! Il m'a donné une mission. Dans sa parole, la Bible, il me raconte ses instructions:

On t'a fait connaître, ô homme, ce qui est bien; Et ce que l'Éternal demande de toi,

C'est que tu practiques le droit,

Que tu aimes la loyaauté,

Et que tu marches humblement avec ton Dieu.

Michée 6:8

Prions.

Seigneur, merci de nous avoir donné une mission. Pour nous donner un but. Nous ne sommes pas dignes. Nous sommes des pécheurs. Nous sommes faibles. Mais tu nous as choisie. Tu nous appelés par notre nom. Nous allons te suivre. Aides-nous à suivre tes instructions, ton parole, aujourd'hui et demain, et tous les jours. Amen.

Vendredi, le 8 Février - Dîner chez Kim

On Friday after school, I went with the Kim family to the ski rental magasin - on Tuesday (possibly Thursday, weather dependent) the whole school will be going on a field trip. A field trip to the ski slopes! The Kim family kindly let me accompany them to the ski shop to rent skis for this occasion, and afterwards they invited me over to their house for dinner.

The Kims are in my class here at the Centre, they are going to Africa to do medical missions, and they have three very wonderful, precocious, engaging, enjoyable children who I hadn't had a chance to get to know until Friday. Julie cooked a veritable feast of the most sumptuous Korean dishes. Kimchee, tofu with amazing sauce, scallion and seafood fried pancakes also with the amazing sauce of deliciousness, white and sticky rice, chicken stir fry, pork, bean sprout soup... I'm practically drooling as I recall that meal. Their children were simply delightful, and I had a grand time participating in an elaborate, homemade arcade, playing paper golf, and having a drawing contest. 

Samedi, le 9 Février - Faire du ski at the crack of dawn

My alarm went off at 5:10 AM on Saturday morning. We (we being the people pictured below) (it was, by the way, no accident that this picture was taken with the bright yellow sign warning skiers of that precipice because it is not a ski slope and that skiing off of it is not exactly advisable) (there were, perhaps, certain people in our group who took this sign to mean that it was a good idea to do just the opposite) (the fact that I am currently alive and well ought to serve as indication to you that I was not a part of said group, if it did indeed exist) drove out of the school at around 6:00 and got to the mountains when it was still dark. This experience really deserves a post of it's own, so for now I have just two things to say. First as a preview to the post about this ski expedition - almost the entire time, I was bursting with all sorts of phrases and word images and analogies and similes and metaphors to attempt describe the indescribable. I really don't even know if it's worth it for me to record those phrases etc., however, because it was utterly superb beyond anything I could ever depict here, and so you should probably just go skiing in the Alps yourself one day in order to understand the magnificence for yourself. Second - at last, after much practice, pain, and failure, I am overjoyed to report that I believe I can say with a substantial amount of confidence that I know how to turn successfully, and turn relatively quickly with not a large amount of hesitation, and turn many times in a row as I zigzag down a steep mountain.

Dimanche, le 10 Février - Des billets

Aujourd'hui, I made a trip to the Gare (train station). Pourquoi? Parce que Morgan Kelley. (That's the announcement of great happiness). In case you are sadly unacquainted with Morgan, she is a most fantabulous friend of mine who has also attended Knox Pres for the entirety of her life and was in small group with me all of high school. She is an incredible ballet dancer, a faithful friend, a constant encouragement, a girl who is always laughing and perpetually spreading her joy, and she is coming her to France for her week of spring break which also happens to be my second week of vacances. I bought train tickets today because she and I are going to Paris together for the first part of her week here. Excitement abounds in large proportions. If you have any advice, pointers, thoughts, insights, etc. regarding Paris and how to best take advantage of Monday - Wednesday in this famed city, please do feel free and even compelled to share avec moi!

À bientôt,
Kathryn

So Much Love

A huge highlight in Haiti was the day the mail came. It came maybe once every 10 days, and was always received with great joy.

The thrill of getting mail in France is similar, and in the past week, I have received two items of mail in particular that I would like to especially note!

Last Saturday, this came -

A package of letters from Ms. K's 5th grade class. Ms. K. is a very good friend of mine, and her class read a few of my blog posts to learn about how descriptive words can enhance writing. This itself was heartily encouraging to hear, and I was truly amazed that she actually found my writing worthy enough to use as classroom material! 

Then, as an entirely optional assignment, she told the kids that if they wrote me a letter, she would send it to France. Well I got a whole stack of most magnificent letters from these amazing kiddos! Their appreciation for my writing humbled and encouraged me. Their concern for my post-skiing state of health and wellness was very endearing, though it was indubitably concern mixed with amusement! I was so encouraged by their words; it felt like getting fan mail!

Secondly, a parcel of letters with marked as being from a mysterious sender came a few days ago. They were letters from my three sisters, Clara, Hannah Grace, and Abi.

Abi made me a book with simple and powerful truths that we all need to be reminded of often:

Hannah G.'s card also was so encouraging and full of great truth! Jesus shares his love for you! Now share your love with the WORLD!

So thank you to Ms. K.'s classroom, Clara, Hannah G., and Abi, and everyone else who has sent me love here and in Haiti! Acknowledgement also goes particularly to Rachel Schloneger and my Nai-Nai for being such faithful pen pals this year. Je suis vraiment reconnaissant.