Wow, long time no post. It's been an eventful few weeks here. We had our winter break all of last week and so we (Elea Geerlings, Will Lutz, Matthew and myself) decided to hop up to London to visit the other Covenant students at Oxford and to SIGHTSEE!

Traveling in Europe CAN be cheap - but you have to know what you're doing. For us, we had a little of both. So Saturday morning we took a train into Nice where our flight would leave from. The cheapest train ticket was a 6am to Nice and the cheapest plane ticket out of Nice was at 9:15PM. Needless to say we had the entire day to explore Nice (with hefty backpacks - and a suitcase for elea). It was beautiful and we were pumped 1) because we were exploring Nice but 2) because we were leaving for LONDON!

Some of the things we did in our entire day in Nice included but not limited to: taking pics at the mediterranean, eating at "ah-ha!" chinese restaurant, the boys explored a waterfall while elea and i grabbed a quick café americain, saw all of old nice AND new nice, saw the set-up for the Nice Carnival, walked the entirety of the boardwalk, etc etc.

We arrived at the airport about 2 hours early worn out and ready to go to London. So I could make this story into a dramatic, pitiful, truthful story about how we were miserable and had no idea what was going on and when our plane was coming, but I'll cut to the chase and say that we had a 4.5 hr delay. Which if you do the math correctly, put us into London at 2:45am. Yikes. So our options were to wait until the public transportation started running again at 6am or hire a private taxi for a lot of money. After spending over 24 hours traveling, we decided to splurge for the taxi. Now this wasn't just any taxi, this was entertainment + ride! We got in the car and after a few minutes Will asked "so, how ya doin?" and that opened the floodgate! This guy did NOT stop talking for 45 minutes! I'm not even exaggerating. He had a stereotype for every single ethnicity including pakistani in which he said "no matter what country you go to you can find a pakistani taxi driver". He proceeded to go into ALL of the comedians he knew and listened to etc etc. Wow.

Well, we got into Tooting Bec at 3:45am (where Will had hooked us up with housing through his cousins who live in London, but their flat isn't big enough for 4 people, so they found 3 guys from church who had a bigger flat and agreed to let us crash). Lauri woke up and walked us to the flat we'd be staying in at 3:45am! He was so generous, and he told us there was a big jug of milk and cereal for whenever we got up - we are SO blessed! So we crawled into bed after a long journey and SLEPT!

Sunday morning (after our large bowlS of cereal) we met Ken and Guy who were our hosts for the week. They were so generous and wonderful showing us the map, inviting us to church, leaving 4 umbrellas for us (it's London ya know). We decided to hit up "speaker's corner" which is a hundred year tradition of dialogue between different opinions at High Park. BYOS(bring your own soapbox). This is the essence of freedom of speech. It was way cool and a little stressful if you don't really like distress and loud "dialogue". But overall it boiled down to Christians talking loudly with Muslims. Fascinating!

That night we joined Ken and Guy at their church service which was absolutely delightful! It was a small church plant that met in a school gym. Every single person introduced themselves to us I think, and we had to explain how we "knew" ken and guy and it was quite a night! After church a group of people usually went to a pub for a little fellowship - naturally we went along!

Monday was our day to Oxford! We found cheap tickets and rode the Oxford tube out to see our friends! It was such an incredible feeling to see a familiar face in a foreign place. When we saw Kate we didn't really care what we looked like, we just hugged and laughed and hugged some more. We bought some lunch food and headed back to their ginormous house and cooked a big meal together, Kate, Al Gore, Hannah Vanbib, Laura Hutton, Will, Matt, Elea, me. After lunch they gave us an AWESOME walking tour of Oxford, we just kind of went everywhere. Finally that evening we met up with Hunt (who had been studying hard all day) and all went out for dinner together! It was just an encouraging time and it was so good to see all those people and be all in the same place even just for a day.

So Tuesday and Wednesday were our big London days. Tuesday it was raining ALL day and kinda nasty, but we powered through and even were joined by some of the girls from Oxford who came out to London for the day! We saw Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, Westminster, the National Gallery, and more! That night Elea, Matt and Will went to see Vampire Weekend in concert and Hannah, Laura, and Kate joined me at my flat for pizza and we watched when Harry Met Sally. Basically an all around great day!

Wednesday it was GORGEOUS outside! We walked the entire south bank. There wasn't a cloud in the sky and it was just a great last day in london! We saw the changing of the guard, big ben (this time in the sun!), London Bridge and the tower bridge, London Tower, St. Pauls etc etc. Amazing day.

And now we're back! Getting ready to celebrate Eleas 21st birthday (which is today!). Classes start back up - I can't remember if mine were canceled today or not, so I'm not sure what the plan is for me today. And yea, that's life. It was really good to be "home" in my own bed and having a few more options for clothes. And it was definitely good to be back in wifi range :)

So that's London; here are some pictures!

This is the "dialogue" I mentioned. Notice the devil's horns.

Fellowship!!

THE GROUP!

Sorry it's cropped funny. You can ask me about that personally if you want to ;)

I mean we're in London!

Big Ben is used to the rain; I am not.

From India to England! Represent!

Tower Bridge - awesome.

They are happy campers with their 4.5 hr delay don't ya think??

it's a universal system

So we're getting into the swing of things around here...slowly but surely (lentement mais surement). Matt and I have a ton to learn about the culture, language, and each other. yikes! Since our schedules line up almost exactly (with the exception of Thursday when I have ZERO classes and Matt has a 9am lab - yea he's bitter) but on our walks all the other days we have a lot of time to talk and ponder and ask questions. It's been a really interesting experience living with Matt in particular...because we could not be more opposite people (I mean if he was like in the mafia or something it'd be even more extreme, but in the realm of possibility - we could not be more different). Matt is very plan-oriented and seems more black and white where I'm more of the "whatever" person and love to live in the gray. We laugh all the time about how different our communication and learning styles are. it's been a challenge learning to live with a guy who isn't my brother and where there's no romantic interest (some of you may have been wondering) and it's tough because we're "on the same team" so to speak and yet we're not on the same page half the time! God has a sense of humor...and He's teaching me to be less in control and more willing to compromise communication strategies. Blah.

Mind you, that lesson I'm learning is with the other American that I already knew, you can only imagine what the lessons God is teaching me through french people are like!

Ok, so here are a few universal human traits I've come up with in the past couple days as I've been pondering this subject:

1) It is absolutely impossible to brush your teeth and spit only in the sink. All people, all over the world spit on the counter, the faucet and there is toothpaste all over. It's universal.

2) The world falls apart when mom's not home. Let's just say Mama Vero was gone last night and somehow: manon and charles got in a fight and manon locked charles in his room and he proceeded to pound and throw the contents of his room against the door; the entire kitchen looked like all the food was outside of the cabinets and fridge when i came down this morning; and we somehow managed to get it all picked up before Mama Vero got home :)

3) Gossip Girl. This one is embarrassing but I'm gonna write it anyway. Matt and I found out Manon knows the show Gossip Girl (dumb teen show based in NY about a bunch of rich HS kids who are acting like pathetic adults) so we've kind of sort of starting watching an episode before bed, let's just say it's a great bonding experience and Manon can practice her english!

4) Iphone. Everyone has one - they're taking over the world.

5) Laughing. This one is my favorite because I LOVE to laugh. Since I've been here I've laughed with people from America, China, Japan, France, Russia, UK, Italy, Spain, Korea and probably a few I forgot. And most of our communication has been in broken french which is hard and fun and totally amusing! It just continues to remind me of our need for relationships in this world and how rich other cultures are. There are something things we can totally learn from other cultures and some things God gave us all. Love it!

6) It is impossible for guys to NOT pee on the back of the toilet. Sorry all you guys out there, but it's called AIM! (Can you tell I was in charge of cleaning the bathrooms today? toothpaste, toilet...)



Anyway, there's a little idea of what to expect traveling abroad; don't expect for other countries to have mastered this small list of things, because at least France hasn't.

Stay tuned next week for our travel to London, Vampire Weekend concert (in London), Cov kids reunion etc etc

happenings

So I'm sitting in the computer lab at the university and outside the window the sun is shining, coffee brewing, and a man playing an accordian in the street - welcome to france!

Matt and I have been pretty busy with classes and family, and sometimes we just don't know where to start on this thing; but Matt is off to his over-achiever class and I'm waiting so we can eat some lunch before we both have our language courses.

Language courses: I have never loved a class as much as I love this course. I think that might be too bold of a statement, but all that to say, I love my class! I'm learning so much and am forced to use my french because the professor asks us questions and we struggle through an answer knowing she'll help us along - it's so freeing! My professor is very interested in current events and will often ask different students from China, Japan, Russia and the US what a certain topic is like in the other countries, I can tell she really loves foreign students and has a gift for working with us. So anyway, Madame Moreels (or Natalie as she asks us to call her) is truly a blessing to my intake of the french lanugage. My listening comprehension is definitely my weak spot but no better way to learn than listening to the asians speak french. It has gotten a little easier, but it's still really tricky. Sometimes I find myself wondering if someone is speaking Chinese or french, I never thought I would think those languages sound similar!

Food: this is Matt's area of expertise and he's been documenting a lot about it, but I just wanted to say that last night's dinner is the reason I don't eat red meat. To say it was still "mooing" is an understatement, because in the states we use that phrase for meat that is more cooked than what I ate last night. BUT, I got seconds. It was somehow really good once you got past the fact that it mightaswellhave just come off of the styrofoam plate. Plus we had some fantastic red wine to top it off, and I almost want to reclaim myself as a red-meat eater...but only time will tell. Um also, Dad, Charles (the 12 year old) made that bananas foster last night for us that you make all the time, and wow, I'll teach you when I get home :) he had only the bananas in the pan and threw the match and liquor in at the same time, oh la la!! c'est fantastique!

Money: So I think this is interesting; Matt and I have been working through budgets for ourselves (now that the "soldes" are over -- big huge governement mandated sales and everything is super cheap) and I came to the conclusion that I was going to be very very broke by the end of this semester. Matt and I have to pay for lunch everyday and all meals on the weekends...this didn't seem like a lot until we sat down and did the math. Most students are like planning to go to Greece, Italy, Germany AND (not OR) Spain (add and subtract several other countries) during their time here, and I'm like "ohh yea, I'll probably be staying right here in aix because i have no money"...sooo we did some thinking and offered our host mom our cleaning services on the weekend in exchange for FOOD! A brilliant idea! So every saturday matt and I will be making the house spotless in exchange for our meals on the weekend. This opens up a plethera of options for us which is wonderful!

Travel: We have our first break coming up this month, the 13th-20th, so Matt and I along with the two other Covenant students here this semester, Elea Geerlings and Will Lutz, have all purchased tickets to LONDON to visit other Covenant students studying at Oxford! After a ton of stress and not working credit cards, we finally found and purchased the most affordable trek to London. Will also has cousins there that have offered to put us up in London - hot dang! So, slowly by slowly everything is coming together here!

Culture: Ok, so I'm a sucker for culture and LOVE watching and finding all the little differences between cultures. For one, people walk everywhere and I love it! That's an easy difference to spot; It's a little ironic too because people smoke like chimneys and hike it everywhere so maybe it evens out on their lungs - I don't know. Also people tend to be a lot quieter and keep to themselves more. This is especially a difference at night in the bar scene. Matt and I have gone bar-hopping a few nights (as a culture experience of course) and the people just don't get quite as rowdy as Americans do when they're drunk. I appreicate sitting in a bar having a beer and minding my own groups' conversation. Of course some people get rowdy - but in general it's less so. Outside of the bar-scene people are just plain quiet. You don't smile at other people on the street, or even make eye-contact. I've had two run-in's where something funny was said or happened in a store and I got to talk to the person behind or in front of me, but there have been hundreds of times where I've wanted to say something and it's just not "the culture".

So those are some thoughts for now...no pictures today because these computers are dumb and don't let me hook up my camera. Considering it's most likely our Mom's reading this, love you, miss you!

pictures because we know that's what people like to see

This is one of our many "cultural experiences", we are most certainly at and Irish Pub...in France.

Sherylann, me and Elea -- bottom's up..."chin-chin!"(cheers!)

We gave up on taking pictures of Matt and I (see below) so Will and I had a fun little photo shoot instead!

We can't take a serious picture apparently

(enter Matt's storyline) Apparently France thought we would be safest behind bars...

Lara was released from prison for a photo shoot in downtown Aix...

While I was released from prison to be part of a photo shoot at the Château des Baux de Provence. Rough terms of release, huh?

...but really we were just having a fun night out in downtown Aix! And Matt was posing on a cliff-wall thing that was about a 100ft drop.

C'est tout pour maintenant!

When in France

It was nine o'clock on Wednesday night and unfortunately I had a significant amount of homework. I had to write about a page and a half of information for my Cours de Langue course the next morning at 9am. I began working on the homework and found it really slow going (that is the story of my life....slow) and very quickly became jealous of the fact that Lara didn't have any classes the next day. While she was fooling around in her room I was obligated to try to come up with a set amount of lines in response to a text that the professor provided. My brain was thinking "it isn' fair" (which I learned the next day in french is "Ce n'est pas juste," from our host Father, who agreed with that sentiment), but thankfully I was able to enlist the help of our homestay children for a little while, which sped up the process considerably. It did make me somewhat sad that I was reduced to get the help of a ten year old with homework, but a lesson in humility is always good, right?

Well, I worked on the projet until twelve and then turned in for the night. I set my alarm for six the next morning and jumped out of bed the minute it sounded. Well...it might have been more of a rolling action than a jumping action.....and it might not have been the minute it sounded. Nevertheless, I was eventually up and at it again and, with a little bit more help from the children, I had completed my first assignment. We will see what type of grade I get....But really, the important part was that I got it done.

On the way to school I reviewed some other homework questions and like the assignment asked, tried to think of a little story to go along with my answer. I came up with some stories right before I arrived and then took my seat at one of the booths in Labo 1. We had to listen to our teacher read something in french and then try to transcribe what she said....I ended up making up a lot of words, which was fun, but challenging. Making up words in french is more difficult than you might think. You have to be careful not to add too many vowels and accents, and you must not be overly zealous in your use of consonants either. It's a fine line to walk, but when in France...(this phrase has become a common refrain of Lara, I believe it is derived from the phrase "when in Rome," but I'm not entirely certain).

Well, Lab ended and we then went to a different classroom for another two hours of french class. We all told our stories that we had prepared and I ended up singing in Chinese for the whole class, something I had not prepared for, but when in France, right? (Lara often uses this phrase at times that don't entirely make sense, I think I just sucessfully did the same thing, but...when in France). I have to thank Jessica Chen for teaching me that song, it saved me in a moment of peril, thanks Jess!

Thankfully, the rest of the day did not requrie me to speak in any language other than French. However, I am realizing more and more that I was looking forward to becoming fluent in a language, but I wasn't prepared for the work. I often hope that one day I'll wake up and just be fluent in french. That would be incredible! But until that day happens it's french classes and french homework for me. Well, I hope that you are all doing well and you can incorporate the phrase "when in France" into your everyday speech at some point this week. Peace!

variety is the spice of life

So classes were good today! Im starting to figure out means of stress relief and more importantly figuring out why this transition is so overwhelming - allow me to share:

first: the core french courses are no less than 3 hours each, 2 hours for the electives. I don't care who you are - that's a long stinkin class.

second: you can't just zone out, because its a different language! it's not like 3 hour classes in the US where you tune out but you're still mostly keeping up with the context and the flow of the lecture...it's like you zone out aint no way you're gettin back in that immediate train of thought, you have to wait for a break in the lesson to recap what you missed and everything else that flowed from the part you missed. whew!

third: (at least in my class) there are mostly asian students from China, Japan, and Korea -- now this has two points 1- a japanese person speaking french sounds unbelieveably different than an american speaking french; so talk about straining your ears! but 2 - having so many asians is way cool because their first langauge is chinese or japanese etc, so there's no resorting back to english for common ground - FRENCH is our common ground! if you dont know a word you 1)act it out or 2) find synonyms until you get your point across in french.

Anyway, needless to say - it's a hard adjustment, I'm guessing it will be like this for a while and progressively get easier to transition to and from english; or i might just forget how to speak english all together. I know my professor can tell I'm desperately trying to take it all in because she called me out on my big eyes, she said for the whole class to look over at how big my eyes were - it was a tad embarrassing, but then they all started looking at the colors of all the Americans' eyes and it was good.

Matt and I are having a ball with the kids in our french family. In fact I think Eve is helping Matt with his college-level homework right now! It is not uncommon for Charles to be following us around the house with his latest card trick (which by the way totally fooled me with a beginner slide of hand behind the back trick!) or he will come in the room and stand until I ask him whats up and he scampers off saying "rien!" (nothing). Eve is always looking to giggle or ask us questions, or even just sit in the room while matt and i struggle to put together conversation in french - all in all it's everything i could want in a homestay.

anyway, c'est tout pour maintenant (that's all for now), let us know if you have any questions, mom the virtual route to school is coming!

Lara

oh and picture 1. matt and i with some friends posing outside the city of sorgues or gordes -- i cant remember now
2. same place, but i just want to point out that this is an actual representation of matt and i's friendship...

les classes commencent

ok, so I'll get on this whole blog wagon. theres so much to say and this french keyboard doesnt help me get it done any easier. so ignore the poor grammer and occasion mishaps of the a's and q's and m's and ,'s. c'est trés difficile!

now that my disclaimer is out...france is awesome!! our family is wonderful!! and the town is everything i thought a small french town would be. today i actually witnessed a dramatic opening of the shutters overlooking the rue and smiling at the weather- love it! Even though that was a fun sight, don't let that make you think we're having good weather - it's stinkin cold! You can ask Matt, any room that i'm in you are SURE to find me sitting up against the radiator -- I'm not from Maine! Georgia is cold to me! France is freezing...so I'm layering my socks and wearing long johns to help, I can't wait for the good weather!

ok, classes started yesterday for me and today for Matt. Let's just say i just finished my second pop quiz of the semester (I made a 13/20 on the first one so I might be failing out soon -- désole M. Neiles!). Ill keep you updated - not sure I want to go into detail just yet...Im having a hard time thinking in english, and I can't quite say what i want in french, so overall communication is a little rough for me right now.

a little rough? scratch that -- really rough -- I'm blanking all together on words so I'll sign out for now...à bientôt!