Je t'aime Paris

The first time Paris and I met it wasn't meant to be. The weather was cold and wet, I was sick, and we didn't meet very many people. Frankly I was happy to leave. It's been exactly three years. This time around has been very different. Though it's still rainy it's not quite as cold. I'm not sick. I actually speak french (a little anyways). And the brothers and sisters we've met have been incredible. We're staying with Edyta. She's from Poland. She is the cutest little thing you could ever meet. Her boyfriend Jean (togolese) is friends with Yahli so that's how we met.

Sunday we said goodbye to our 'family' in Tours. Yahli said with us till the very last moment when the train began to leave the station. I was very sad to leave. After we dropped our things off at Edyta's house I dropped Channing at the Louvre and went to see a cathedral that is famous for it's stained glass. (will post pics later on flickr). It felt like I was inside a kaleidoscope. I walked around a bit more, past notre dame, ect. Then I joined Channing in the Louvre. The poor thing looked exhausted. We tried to find the tetragrammaton but couldn't. And of course most of my favorite rooms were closed for renovation. After that we went back to Edyta's and had dinner with another couple from her hall. It was so nice because for the first time I felt like a was actually a part of the group conversation. It was like validation for being here a month. Like it was actually worth it.

Monday was a great day. First stop was Le cimetière du Père-Lachaise. Like a city for the dead, there are street names, and a map too. We saw Molière, Edith Piaf and many more. Then we headed off to Montmartre. We walked around and saw were Van gogh lived, heard Bob Dylan song coming from one of the apartments, saw Eric satie's home and too many other things to name. I bought to music boxes. And Channing saw the Eiffel tower from the top of Montmartre. So of course our next stop was there. We got there just as it was getting dark. In the line, to the front of us were three Russian guys, the oldest was the father of the other two. Though I don't think he spoke any english he was such a gentle man. And behind us were two American ladies from the south. We were able to tell them that we were Witnesses and why we were in France. At the top of the tower the wind was glacial. But it was great. The whole city was lit up.

Tonight we're going to meeting with Edyta and then our last meal in France! I can't believe it's over. See you very soon.

-S

too soon

It's our last day here in Tours, and it's here too soon. Without knowing it a bond has formed. The congregation has accepted us without thought. We've made life long friends. And Maryline and Agbesi are now like family. Though I'm looking to the future and what it might hold I am sad to leave. It is truly amazing to me the blessings we receive when we put ourselves out there.

What blessings? Well, besides the new friends, our french has indeed improved. Channing is just starting to put together her own sentences and her reading has improved one hundred percent. Shame it didn't happen till the last few days, c'est la vie. As for me...well my head doesn't hurt as much at the end of the day from trying to speak.

Oh, one more thing. Guess what we did last night with some of the young ones from the congregation?¿?¿?¿? We had an American night out...that's right MacDonalds (which they call Mag dO) and bowling and beer. Believe it or not yours truly, the gutter queen, didn't do too bad. It looked like I might actually win for a while, but I got third place. :)

I might not be able to post in Paris, so.....á bientôt!

Mannequins

Once a harmless department store display item, here in France they seem to be much more menacing creatures. We went to the Ussé castle last saturday. It's famous because apperently mr. Disney himself used it as basis for the movie sleeping beauty. It was a rainy day, but the clouds parted somewhat as we drove to the castle with Yahli (Gideons nephew) Sara and Maeva. From a distance the castle was lovely, evoking thoughts of damsels in distress, dragons and prince charming. But the interior was lacking. The original walls were plastered over instead of restored. And the rooms were sealed off, with a dirty smudged window letting us glance into the so called fairytale. What we really saw were CREEPY mannequins and cheap design. Needless to say I was disappointed.

drunken mannequins

prince charming??

The castles we saw on monday more than made up for the creepy mannequin experience.

Villandry had the most wonderful kitchen

And it's gardens are incredible. They are replanted twice a year.

Azay le Rideau was probably my favorite despite it's small size and lack of gardens like Villandry.
Anyways, or trip is coming to an end. Sunday we are going to Paris, and then back to frigid Iowa. I'm sad to leave but I think it's time. I need to get back into a routine, or I'll never make my time for the year! See you soon.
-S

A Chateau AHHH!

On Wednesday Oct 21st, 2009 we went to our first chateau, Amboise. I was really excited and didn't care how small it looked from the outside. The weather was really stinky. It was raining and cold, not the way you want it to be when your going to your first castle. We managed to take pictures and only have one umbrella. Yes just go ahead and laugh, you know we can't remember everything. Gosh. We were one of the first ones there, which was good because we could have more room to take pictures. We first went to the church, where we found Divinci's resting place. We didn't realize that he was buried there, so that was interesting. The inside of the castle was really neat, they even had a fire burning in the Council Chamber. Summer had her bottom practically in the fire, I thought she was gonna burn it. Kinda funny. Muahaha. The Stained glass was very pretty and all the details made everything stand out. There were Fleur De Li's everywhere, on pillars, walls, and chairs. It was like a scavenger hunt, instead they were easier to spot but not everytime. Stairs............oh boy you know where I am going with this. We would go up and up feeling like it was never ending. Wait for it........and then down never ending stairs. I hope i lose some thigh out of this. They had some very cool portraits of the very first to the latest residents. We will have some of the portraits in our pics, so check em out. The grounds were very pretty and you could see the whole town from up top. Oh yeah, forgot to mention a disappointment from summer and I. I really wanted to see a dungeon, don't ask why. Summer says too many movies but I don't think so..... Summer wanted to go up into the biggest tower but no we weren't allowed to do that either. We are hoping in the upcoming castles we will, so hope for us.
-Channing

Click here for more pics of the Chateau

give the people what they want

You asked for it so here it is:

toilets and knives

I'd like like to talk today about toilets and knives. "Toilets and knives, what does that have to do with france??" I understand your confusion. We'll take it step by step.

First "les toilettes"

What is different about bathrooms in France? Location, location, location. There are bathrooms in carved into the rocks, under the castles, and on street corners. Literally on street corners! They look, as Channing puts it, like space pods ready to take off. The other strange thing about them is the toilets themselves. They are shaped slightly differently, and most come with options when it comes time to flush. Depending on the 'job' you did you can do full flush or half (I'm assuming it's to save water). It's not worth the trip just to see the bathrooms but I thought you might find it interesting.

Second Opinel knives

While wandering the streets of Amboise today we went into a kitchen store to escape the rain. The owner was very nice. We were looking at the opinel knives he told us the history of them. They have been made in France since the 1890's and back in the day every man carried one just about all the time. Now days many older men still carry them and families have them in the car or take them for picnics. It was great getting a little history to go with our purchase and keep our minds off the rain. Originally they only came in plane wood...mine is purple.

Keep the comments coming! Miss you all.

-Summer

p.s. I uploaded new pics to my flicker. Click HERE.

Finally Uploaded My Pics!!

I was finally able to upload my pictures. Click HERE to look at them. And here is the pic of Jack, the son of the couple moving to Des Moines...and Yahli Gideon's nephew. :) Have a great day!!

-Summer

Pics

I did not authorize the pics!!!-Summer

Sweetness of Tour

Tour is totally Des Moines but french. It is so funny. We are technically in St. Pierre but in tour. Just a bridge away and poor little St. Pierre is only a place near Tour. Our Stay is continuing very well. Service has been very neat and different. They have a lot of apartment buildings so you speak mostly to the intercom. As like in the U.S many do not want to hear the message. Last week and this week we are searching for english people because the english talk and watchtower is this sunday. Everyone is looking foward to the talk except Agbesi because hes the one giving the talk. he wants us to help him and I believe we will. We are teaching Maryline and everyone funny sayings like....'oh no u didn't', 'we are goin to Micky Ds', they liked that one. It is so funny to hear them. Last thursday we went to KFC for dinner after the meeting and we were laughing and laughing. I think we were the loudest ones there because Maryline was doing the 'o no u didn't' and with her little accent and tune she put with it she was so hilarious! Oh my goodness. Saturday in service we were out in the ministry and at one point i was paired up with a sister who speaks hardly any english. We went up to the apartment building were there were supposedly english speaking people. They turned out to be chinese who could speak a bit of english. She would ask them if they spoke english and then back up and let me go up to the intercom and talk to them. It was very scary. One of them ended up coming down and I placed a watchtower with him and left him the invitation for the english meeting. It was very cool. The sister and i were trying to figure out what we were each saying to each other and we really couldn't. We were standing in the middle of the street laughing and laughing because we didn't know what each other were saying. It was AWESOME! In the world people would get frustrated and just say 'find someone else to ask', but not in Jehovah's organization. Speaking is hard for me but my understanding is getting better little by little. Sunday we had lunch with a family who were really sweet and of course the food was great! Then, after that we went to a dancing party which was really fun. They said we were the excuse to have another because they haven't had one in awhile. We danced to a lot of African music and it seems like they do a lot of line dancing.Funny being in France dancing to African music but it didn't matter cuz it was cool. It was a blast and my friend Lea is so sweet and is eighteen too. She lives in Lyon and goes to school here in tour. Well, thats about it for now. Missing everyone and THANK YOU THANK YOU for commenting. We really enjoying reading and laughing(MOM) to them. Au Revoir for now.

Tours

We've been back in Tours for five days now. The contrast between north and south is amazing, much like that of the states. It's colder here, you don't see people out in the streets and the people are more reserved. Tours can be easily compared with Des Moines. Not too big and not to small. There isn't an accent just like Des Moines and the people are very similar...just french. And there were parts of the countryside that reminded me of Iowa.

Our calendar has been full since we got here. Wednesday was Amboise. Thursday, Friday and Saturday we went in service. It was interesting seeing the different ways they do service. We did English service the way we do French in the states. At least there was something familiar. We also helped with the Chinese group on Saturday. I got to say my one sentence in Chinese!!! It was great but he started talking to me in Chinese really fast...ahhhhh. But he was very favorable and we got his info for someone to follow up.

This weekend we have three invites...well four but Friday didn't work out. Saturday we had an incredible meal with Floricien and Damian, it was so detailed and perfectly planned out! Then today we had a relaxed lunch at the Robineau families house. And a small dance party at Deborah's house. It was so funny to see how they dance. It seemed they had a line dance for everything.

And for all you in the french group...we met the son of the Togolese couple that are moving to Des Moines! His name is Jack, we'll add a pic soon. If you've read this far you're doing good! ttyl

-Summer

VIDEOS!!

When we went to Amboise Wednesday we rented bicycles. Of course we got lost but that was the best part because we went down some crazy big hills! Here are the videos.

Channing's Pics

There is a saying in Marseille, "There are two kinds of women, women from Marseille and women who wish they were.

"Out in Service"

"Didier and Gisele Lecointre"

Click HERE to see my other pics


-Channing

Bonjour Everyone!
We have just arrived back in Tour again. It was very sad to leave our friends. I made so many, i will miss them all. The family we lived with were the kindest and funniest. Marseille was so beautiful and the weather was great, we didn't want to leave. I believe summer has described the sea to u so i wont be as elaborate. The Porte was so nice and there was so much to see and eat. We were there most of the time walking and walking and walking. It seems that everyone lives on like the third or fourth floor. Now when they say that 'oh we only live on the third floor' that doesnt mean only three flights of stairs its means like six to get to there home. I think the best part of Marseille was the friends we made. We traveled to Aix which is like maybe 20 minutes from Marseille. Us young ones went to the french meeting there and made so many friends! I have pen pals now! Yeah! That night we went to dinner and were all squished at four tables. 16 of us and the loudest in the room! It was Awesome! The food is good and interesting. At the home we were staying with, we watched the Umbilical Brothers on you tube and they are so cool! You have got to watch them, ok? Oh yeah and in Marseille they have endless streets of stores and they just keep going and going. You just wanna buy everything! Ha Ha! No really. Everyone drives a moped and everyone drives crazy. Well the rules of driving are crazy, the mopeds go in and out of cars. Its kinda crazy but such a lifestyle to live with. Service on Saturday was so neat! We stood at the Porte in the market with a cart and we each took turns walking up and back offering literature. The best thing was when we met like three different families from the cruises that stop in Marseille. They were from all over. One was from Italy, Holland, Switzerland, and a older brother from Miami who has family there. Each group came up to us and we were hugging everyone and shaking hands and taking pictures. It was the coolest thing to see our worldwide brothers and sisters up close. Anyway, I will tell u more when we get back. Au Revoir

-Channing

Marseille

Bonjour from Marseille! I am typing on a french keyboard so I will make this short. We are staying with the Lecointre family. They are SO nice, and probably the funniest french people I have met so far! Our first day we spent in veux port (old port) and le panier (the basket). The streets are the same as they were years ago, shutters on the windows, clothes hung on lines above the streets and flowers growing underneath the windows. The port it self is beautiful. We first set eyes on it in the morning, the light reflecting off of the ripples in the water and a light breeze bringing the smell of the sea to us. Saturday evening we went to Aix en Provence for the french meeting. Afterward we went to dinner with the english group. And can you believe we are in Provence and we went to a burger joint???? I was sad. But the other restaurants were to small for all sixteen of us. After dinner we walked around more then had tea at a sisters house then a drink at another's house. We didn't get home till three, but it seems everything is later here in France. We've met so many wonderful people here, I'm excited to continue the experience! I will write more when we're in tour and I don't have to use a french keyboqrd!!!!

-S

Some Pics

Hello Des Moines tis i channing. The brothers and sisters say hello to everyone there. I like riding on planes but for seven hours om my gosh. The last four hours i was only thinking about jumpin. Not pysically but mentally. Our train ride was fun it was so clean and had purple seats and orange too. Wow is right. The ones we have met so far are the kindest and most loving sisters. So here's the thing if you like tea well u need to come and visit here because i had tea twice yesterday. Yep the whole cube and sugar thing and the just sitting and talking thing. It was nice because we went to a sisters house who is Portuguese speaks french and Spanish and is in a Portuguese group. She was the sweetest little thing. It's so cute cuz they get frustrated when they try to get out the english words they want. I say u are way farther than me in french. The houses are the coolest things and the buildings are so neat. Haven't ate out yet but the food at home has been great. We mostly had a lazy day today gettin ready for our marseille trip tomorrow. We travel by plane to there and are going to be picked up by a another family who we are going to stay with there. They have hooked us up with family in marseille and possibly paris. Its awesome cuz we won't have to pay. Something funny...hm..on the first day we were walkin around and a guy who had a shop at the market yelled out "c'est trop chaud". ¨I was like what?" and maryline said he said that "its too hot." They don't where sunglasses in the winter. Wat its not even winter yet. Thats crazy! ha ha All u highland parkers and brindi and madison yep i know crazy huh? I saw like one person but i will always be watching! Muahahha! For any young sisters out there, i have not been to a meeting yet but i will let u know. Oh yeah! I will write again later. Love and miss each and everyone of u.

-Channing

PS. FYI they have no dr pepper! wat! ha

Nous sommes arrivé!

I feel like it's been a week since my feet have been on american soil. Yesterday was ridichously long. We arrived without incident at the charle de gaule airport around six a.m. Paris time. But it took us two hours to figure out which train to take to get to tours. It was mostly that we couldn't figure out which platform to be on. The TVG is an amazing system. For less than the price of renting a car and gas money you can ride in a comfy seat and watch as the french country side flies by at speeds of up to 192 miles per hour. Maryline picked us up at the St Pierre des Corps exit (though that too was a bit confusing) and we ran around with her the rest of the day. It was great since we needed something to distract us. We met Mado a sister from Portugal that lives here and helps with the Portuguese group. I got to speak spanish with her which was a relief after trying to speak french on 3 hours of sleep! I think Channing was very tired and a bit overwhelmed, but she's a trooper.

Menu: Lunch- meat lasagna Dinner- Crudités with wine and a baguette

I will upload pics soon!

-Summer

visual aids

I thought this might help some of you. :)
Also, I updated the calendar with our basic itinerary.



View France! in a larger map

25 days

Less than a month till we go to france and we've got next to nothing planned! I know I know, I haven't changed a bit. We do actually know where we're going to be most days (which is surprising). The first week or so we will be in the south of france. Mostly Marseille and Aix-en-Provence I think. We'll be hanging out at the market on friday in marseille where I will eat my fill of seafood- and Channing will watch!! I hope the beach isn't too cold to walk barefoot. Channing is slightly delusional and wants to bring her swimsuit (maybe she can handle it, she is a born and bred iowan). Then it's off to Tours the land of Castles for the next two and a half weeks. I'm hoping Channing gets sick of castles after the first two.... :)
Paris is a whole other posting...I've got plans!

Planning

So me and Channing are going to France! I'm sure you've heard already. We're planning on going to Tours, Marseilles, Provence, and of course Paris. We will keep this blog for pictures and updating everyone on our trip. More to come!

-Summer