15 avril 2010 (Day 227)
Today was a lovely morning. The Garon’s dinner table faces their backyard in which there is a gorgeous blossoming cherry tree. I ate by myself this morning (possibly a good thing since my hot chocolate boiled over in the microwave) and had toasted baguette again. I went and checked the bus schedule and while I was gone Joel started the dishes. I eventually convinced him (after much lamenting and lip pouting) to let me do the dishes.
I then headed off to teach Andrea again. She is the cutest girl! Today we went over about two dozen of some of the most basic verbs and we also went over clothing articles. I got home in time to catch the end of lunch, potato and egg omelet and salad. We then had fromage blanc with chestnut spread for dessert. Hannah and I baked our oatmeal raisin and our chocolate chip cookies in our wonderful not-very-French-but-more-American totally awesome oven. The oatmeal cookies had a little too much flour, but the chocolate chip cookies turned out PERFECT. Elder Maxfield did a jaw drop when he saw them.
After we made cookies we went for a walk with Anne. They have this really nice large park/green area just down the street from them with lots of wildflowers and walking paths. We walked by a pond and heard the toads croaking and it was beautiful. Anne was telling us how in May they can hear the toads from their house because it is their mating season. How she said it in French made it sound more like people making love that you can hear and it was just very funny. We walked for a couple miles and then we headed back to the house because the missionaries were coming for dinner.
I went to meet them at the bus stop. Bless their hearts, they missed the stop. I walked to meet them by the next one and took them to the house. The new elder is named Elder Ford. He has red hair and a long crooked nose. He comes from California where his dad is the ward mission leader so he has been on splits before. Bless his heart he is so confused in France and doesn’t really speak any French. I admire his efforts though. Elder Bourgeois didn’t get to play his joke that he was French because when Elder Ford got to the apartment Elder Bourg’s nose was bleeding so he was speaking in English to be better understood. Elder Maxfield is going to be a good father to his son Elder Ford. It was fun watching them give the lesson. You could tell that Elder Maxfield had prepared Elder Ford and where he would participate. Elder Maxfield gave the lesson about trials in this life and how they help us to grow.
Papa Joel made a humongous stack of crepes for dinner. We showed Elder Ford how to eat crepes and that he should not put sugar on nutella crepes. He liked them and he definitely appreciated the speculoos (spelling) which the Elders have decided tastes like cinnamon teddy grahams. My personal favorite creation was speculoos with bananas and whipped topping.
Once the Elders left we had a little music fest as the girls. Anne brought out two jambays and a guitar. Hannah, Anne, and I played the guitar (as a guitar and as a drum). At first we would beat out rhythms and then we started singing as well. Anne taught us an African song and Hannah and I started singing Primary songs to the beat. It was kind of like beat poetry/singing improve, but with the lyrics already decided. We played until we were all exhausted.
I tried calling my dear family yet again, but they did not want to talk to me. I then called my best friend Amber! It was so good to hear her voice. I really think she is my sanity some days. Poor soul can’t run because her lungs are still yucky from her pneumonia. We talked for a little bit and I ate some of my amazing cookies!
Friday, April 16, 2010
Day 226: Goldilocks at the Garon's
14 avril 2010 (Day 226)
This morning was great. I had papa Garon teach me how he makes his hot chocolate in the morning (in a ginormous bowl!...it is like Goldilocks with Anne and her tiny bowl and Joel with this giant bowl the size of my head). I also had some toasted baguette with jam which was delicious. We listed to The Who while we waited for the chimney sweep to come (can we say exactly like Mary Poppins!) and then the Garon’s headed out to go visit some family friends leaving me and Hannah to not burn down the house. We watched Les Choristes, a great French film that I recommend and then had leftovers for lunch. Hannah had the leftover couscous and carrots and I had some cabbage/carrot/potato/sausage yummy leftoverness.
I then went to grab stuff from Fresche-Blanc (our university housing) while Hannah slept. I also took a shower and bought the ingredients to make cookies because Hannah and I decided that we want to make cookies for the Garons. While at my house I had one of my Magnum ice cream popsicles and it was incredible (Erik was right about Magnum ice cream). I got back to the Garon’s around 5pm and Hannah and I made chocolate chip cookie dough and oatmeal raisin cookie dough as well. I tried calling some of my family/friends but didn’t have much luck. I did eventually get a hold of Aunt Becky and I talked with her for several minutes.
The Garon’s came home and I helped make our dinner. It was simply steamed veggies with a soy bean (not like Chinese soy sauce) white sauce and cheese. We read our scriptures together afterwards and I called Grandpa Keeley and spoke with him for a little bit. He seemed to be doing well, but is wanting to go home when he is more mobile. I convinced/coerced/got Joel to play some games with Hannah and me. We first played this game where you try to visit different cities in France (it was mediocre) and then we played this awesome brain game called labyrinth in which you are always moving pieces and trying to get to certain objects in the labyrinth. I really liked it.
This morning was great. I had papa Garon teach me how he makes his hot chocolate in the morning (in a ginormous bowl!...it is like Goldilocks with Anne and her tiny bowl and Joel with this giant bowl the size of my head). I also had some toasted baguette with jam which was delicious. We listed to The Who while we waited for the chimney sweep to come (can we say exactly like Mary Poppins!) and then the Garon’s headed out to go visit some family friends leaving me and Hannah to not burn down the house. We watched Les Choristes, a great French film that I recommend and then had leftovers for lunch. Hannah had the leftover couscous and carrots and I had some cabbage/carrot/potato/sausage yummy leftoverness.
I then went to grab stuff from Fresche-Blanc (our university housing) while Hannah slept. I also took a shower and bought the ingredients to make cookies because Hannah and I decided that we want to make cookies for the Garons. While at my house I had one of my Magnum ice cream popsicles and it was incredible (Erik was right about Magnum ice cream). I got back to the Garon’s around 5pm and Hannah and I made chocolate chip cookie dough and oatmeal raisin cookie dough as well. I tried calling some of my family/friends but didn’t have much luck. I did eventually get a hold of Aunt Becky and I talked with her for several minutes.
The Garon’s came home and I helped make our dinner. It was simply steamed veggies with a soy bean (not like Chinese soy sauce) white sauce and cheese. We read our scriptures together afterwards and I called Grandpa Keeley and spoke with him for a little bit. He seemed to be doing well, but is wanting to go home when he is more mobile. I convinced/coerced/got Joel to play some games with Hannah and me. We first played this game where you try to visit different cities in France (it was mediocre) and then we played this awesome brain game called labyrinth in which you are always moving pieces and trying to get to certain objects in the labyrinth. I really liked it.
Day 225: What Time Is It?
13 avril 2010 (Day 225)
I love eating breakfast with French people! It is so much fun. I had museli and some bread with honey before Hannah and I left to catch the bus at 9:30. I had an English lesson that I was teaching at 11am and I had to figure out where it was. Poor Hannah was crying because it hurt so bad by the time we got off the tram at Commerce (we first took a 30 minute bus ride). It turns out she had forgotten to take her pain reliever, but we didn’t know that then.
I am so blessed that the family sent a little map of where there house was and that I downloaded it. I was able to turn my laptop upside down and figure out exactly where I needed to go. This also means that I was about 30 minutes early. It was far too cold and windy to stay outside for that much time, so I found the nearest brasserie and ordered some hot chocolate. It was pretty good hot chocolate and I enjoyed watching all the old men order beer and wine before 11 o’clock in the morning.
The English lesson with Andrea went really well. She is about 14 years old and super cute. She lives in a pretty big house for being in the center of Nantes and you can tell that her family is rich. She is very nice and I hope that I can help her get better grades in her English class. I am going to meet with her three times a week during vacation and then we are going to see after that.
I went home to my room and had lunch afterwards. I was pretty (extremely) tired so I took a nap for a while and then I went for a 25 minute run. The wind had stopped so it was a lot warmer and I can tell that I haven’t been running for a while. I was going to run on the horse track, but they were racing, so I went down into the forest-park.
Hannah and I took the bus to go teach English at the church. We were the first ones there so Jean-Luc let us in and I played the piano for a while. Today I ended up teaching Jean-Luc and Jean-Yves about how to tell time. I never knew it could be such a struggle with old men! I know that the quarter to, half past thing is hard, but when they think that American clocks are different (and that you count by 10 and not by 5) it becomes a struggle. Elder Knapp had to come tell them that I was telling them the correct time (they thought that it was an hour different) and it was just all really funny and half ridiculous. Afterwards the elders started playing baseball and I tried not to get hit. Elder Knapp, who was not playing baseball, was telling me about how the Joseph Smith movie in SLC makes him cry. I mentioned that I haven’t seen it yet (still, I know…it as on my to do list last summer and Amber and I tried to go one day) so we are now going when I get home because it is a must see.
Joel gave us a ride home and we ate couscous with carrots in a caramelized sauce. It was delicious! We then read scriptures and Quinton and I had a little tickle war. You can tell he is the third child; he was getting blamed for everything. I really didn’t mind though, as long as he wasn’t poking out my eye.
I love eating breakfast with French people! It is so much fun. I had museli and some bread with honey before Hannah and I left to catch the bus at 9:30. I had an English lesson that I was teaching at 11am and I had to figure out where it was. Poor Hannah was crying because it hurt so bad by the time we got off the tram at Commerce (we first took a 30 minute bus ride). It turns out she had forgotten to take her pain reliever, but we didn’t know that then.
I am so blessed that the family sent a little map of where there house was and that I downloaded it. I was able to turn my laptop upside down and figure out exactly where I needed to go. This also means that I was about 30 minutes early. It was far too cold and windy to stay outside for that much time, so I found the nearest brasserie and ordered some hot chocolate. It was pretty good hot chocolate and I enjoyed watching all the old men order beer and wine before 11 o’clock in the morning.
The English lesson with Andrea went really well. She is about 14 years old and super cute. She lives in a pretty big house for being in the center of Nantes and you can tell that her family is rich. She is very nice and I hope that I can help her get better grades in her English class. I am going to meet with her three times a week during vacation and then we are going to see after that.
I went home to my room and had lunch afterwards. I was pretty (extremely) tired so I took a nap for a while and then I went for a 25 minute run. The wind had stopped so it was a lot warmer and I can tell that I haven’t been running for a while. I was going to run on the horse track, but they were racing, so I went down into the forest-park.
Hannah and I took the bus to go teach English at the church. We were the first ones there so Jean-Luc let us in and I played the piano for a while. Today I ended up teaching Jean-Luc and Jean-Yves about how to tell time. I never knew it could be such a struggle with old men! I know that the quarter to, half past thing is hard, but when they think that American clocks are different (and that you count by 10 and not by 5) it becomes a struggle. Elder Knapp had to come tell them that I was telling them the correct time (they thought that it was an hour different) and it was just all really funny and half ridiculous. Afterwards the elders started playing baseball and I tried not to get hit. Elder Knapp, who was not playing baseball, was telling me about how the Joseph Smith movie in SLC makes him cry. I mentioned that I haven’t seen it yet (still, I know…it as on my to do list last summer and Amber and I tried to go one day) so we are now going when I get home because it is a must see.
Joel gave us a ride home and we ate couscous with carrots in a caramelized sauce. It was delicious! We then read scriptures and Quinton and I had a little tickle war. You can tell he is the third child; he was getting blamed for everything. I really didn’t mind though, as long as he wasn’t poking out my eye.
Day 224: Hannah Attack, x-rays
12 avril 2010 (Day 224)
Hannah’s dinner the other night of yogurt, oats, and strawberries inspired me so I went shopping for strawberries this morning. I had just gotten out of the store when I received a phone call. It was Hannah. She was on her floor, bawling, because she couldn’t move and was asking for a blessing. I naturally began to call people. Elders number 1. No answer. Elders number 2. No answer. Stephane. At work. Elders number 1. Still no answer. Frere Joel Garon…success! Bless his heart. He and Anne came speeding over and he gave her a blessing. They also eventually took her to their back doctor. And to their house.
During this time I went and figured out where the radiologist was…all by myself. Can I just say that I love Google. I got step by step directions of how to get there WITH street views which is perfect for us visual direction people. Surprisingly, I didn’t have to fill out any paperwork, questionnaires, or sign. Anything. It was quite weird. I was the youngest person there by at least 50 years, which is normal. Surprisingly I didn’t have to wait long. I saw the doctor within five minutes of when my appointment was. They did xray the crap out of me though. They didn’t even give me a core shield, which I found quite annoying; they just blasted dangerous xrays around my precious innards. So in the waiting room there were some great old ladies. This one was so mad that she was still waiting. She was yelling up a storm and was just like, “I can’t believe this. Why am I still waiting. This is ridiculous!” I really wanted to tell her that she should try going to a doctor in the US, but I resisted. I got my results within 5 minutes of the xrays and tra la la! No fracture. You couldn’t even see the healed spot of my old fracture (I guess that is a good thing) so to celebrate I went and got my sweet of the week. It was a sort of version of an apple pie. The pastry part was really thin and reminded me almost of won-ton or philo pastry. I warmed it up in the microwave and it wasn’t half bad.
Joel called me up once I got home and told me that Hannah was sleeping over and that I should come too. I said, “Sure, why not.” Thirty minutes later I was picked up and off to the Garons. They are such sweethearts. They are amazing and so nice and funny and cute. I want to be an awesome married couple like them when I am older. Joel is really big and tall with dark hair and a little patch of white hair and Anne is tiny and super skinny. I learned how to make a white sauce and a green onion tart (which is what we ate for dinner). We had bread and cheese after dinner (of course), and home-canned cherries and yogurt. It was delicious.
Afterwards we had family home evening. We decided to do it based off the talk by Elder Uchtdorf, “Happiness, Our Heritage.” It was really nice to have a family home evening together and then we all went to bed.
Hannah’s dinner the other night of yogurt, oats, and strawberries inspired me so I went shopping for strawberries this morning. I had just gotten out of the store when I received a phone call. It was Hannah. She was on her floor, bawling, because she couldn’t move and was asking for a blessing. I naturally began to call people. Elders number 1. No answer. Elders number 2. No answer. Stephane. At work. Elders number 1. Still no answer. Frere Joel Garon…success! Bless his heart. He and Anne came speeding over and he gave her a blessing. They also eventually took her to their back doctor. And to their house.
During this time I went and figured out where the radiologist was…all by myself. Can I just say that I love Google. I got step by step directions of how to get there WITH street views which is perfect for us visual direction people. Surprisingly, I didn’t have to fill out any paperwork, questionnaires, or sign. Anything. It was quite weird. I was the youngest person there by at least 50 years, which is normal. Surprisingly I didn’t have to wait long. I saw the doctor within five minutes of when my appointment was. They did xray the crap out of me though. They didn’t even give me a core shield, which I found quite annoying; they just blasted dangerous xrays around my precious innards. So in the waiting room there were some great old ladies. This one was so mad that she was still waiting. She was yelling up a storm and was just like, “I can’t believe this. Why am I still waiting. This is ridiculous!” I really wanted to tell her that she should try going to a doctor in the US, but I resisted. I got my results within 5 minutes of the xrays and tra la la! No fracture. You couldn’t even see the healed spot of my old fracture (I guess that is a good thing) so to celebrate I went and got my sweet of the week. It was a sort of version of an apple pie. The pastry part was really thin and reminded me almost of won-ton or philo pastry. I warmed it up in the microwave and it wasn’t half bad.
Joel called me up once I got home and told me that Hannah was sleeping over and that I should come too. I said, “Sure, why not.” Thirty minutes later I was picked up and off to the Garons. They are such sweethearts. They are amazing and so nice and funny and cute. I want to be an awesome married couple like them when I am older. Joel is really big and tall with dark hair and a little patch of white hair and Anne is tiny and super skinny. I learned how to make a white sauce and a green onion tart (which is what we ate for dinner). We had bread and cheese after dinner (of course), and home-canned cherries and yogurt. It was delicious.
Afterwards we had family home evening. We decided to do it based off the talk by Elder Uchtdorf, “Happiness, Our Heritage.” It was really nice to have a family home evening together and then we all went to bed.
Day 223: At The Parageau's
11 avril 2010 (Day 223) Sunday
The Lord was on Hannah’s side of the bed this morning. Armelle called me a couple minutes before I was going to leave to take the tram saying that she could take us to church at 8:15. I called Hannah to tell her this happy news and in doing so I woke her up. We went to choir practice and then had Relief Society. Cecilia and Katie (possibly Cathy), two Chinese investigators came. Katie doesn’t speak French very well so I translated a lot of the lesson on the Holy Ghost for her (in English). Sunday School was AWESOME! I think we had 9 investigators there and they were all Chinese. Elder Lazarev ended up translating some of the lesson into Chinese and it was just so cool. It was a really neat experience.
I translated a little bit more for Katie during testimony meeting and then went up to bear my own testimony. It was really short and sweet because the time was passing, but I gave it in French and then in English. I had some French members come up and say thank you for my testimony, especially my one in English because they could really feel the spirit and understood what I said. That was pretty cool. It is Elder Lazarev’s last Sunday before he goes back to Paris so we took pictures of him with all of his Chinese investigators. Choir practice was okay today, but Pili still wasn’t very happy. We didn’t have the Elders there today so I tried playing the piano for some of it and it was awful!
At 4pm Hannah and I walked up to where we were meeting Armelle and Stephane to go to their house to play games. The missionaries (Elder Lazarev and Elder Knapp respectively) and Cecilia met us there. Armelle and Stephane actually live really close to Hannah and me. They have the cutest house ever! It was seriously so adorable, I loved it. They had this awesome sun room where we had drinks (the organic apple juice that Stephane made) and some treats (some being an apple tart, chocolate fondue, and a prune dessert). Even Elder Knapp, who is allergic to raw apples tried the amazing apple juice. After we had our snack and were shown around the house (the upstairs had the most amazing window in the roof through which you can look at the stars while on the bed) we played some games. We played UNO which was a lot of fun. We also played this game that is like the equivalent for billiards put it is with chips and you have a square board. I was on a team with Stephane and Elder Knapp. We were pretty awesome even though we lost. We put talc on the board to make the pieces slide better and Elder Knapp wiped some on his cheeks like warrior paint so Stephane and I followed. I was terrible at the game! Stephane got a kick out of my awfulness and Elder Knapp was trying to be nice about it. We almost won, but then the other team caught up to us and beat us. We left around 8pm and walked to Hannah’s where I tried to pop back in her rib because Elder Knapp was sure that the pain that she was feeling was a rib out of place and he, being a missionary, could not pop it back in, but I could. I don’t really think I did anything except for cause Hannah pain though. It was that laughing/yelling kind of pain.
Day 222: Super Saturday Shopping and Such
10 avril 2010 (Day 222)
Today was not at all the day I was expecting, but it was awesome nonetheless. Hannah and I were either going to go shopping or to the beach so I decided to go drop off cookies for the elders and go to the Saturday market before then. I went shopping and the elders called to say that they couldn’t make it but that I could come teaching with them at 2pm at the church. I agreed and decided that I might as well stay in town since it wouldn’t be worth it to spend all my time going back home and into town again. Instead I went shopping and found several really cute shirts to wear as a sister missionary. I am really excited about them because they look really nice and I won’t be looking frumpy in Paris! I also went and got to macarons, went to the book store, and went to find the Greek restaurant in town to get a falafel. It took me a while to find the restaurant but I found it and got a delightful hummus falafel. The owner works there with his cute younger son and it was just a fun experience.
I ate my falafel on the way to the church and met up there with the missionaries and Lisa. She is a cute girl from China that speaks English and French very well. She studied in Ohio and there she became involved in the Protestant church. She said that lately she has been far away from God. Elder Lazarev offered a prayer in Chinese and then afterwards she started praying in English! Elder Lazarev’s face said it all. In the middle of the prayer she was like, “I don’t know what I’m doing! I don’t know how.” And then she would switch into Chinese. Her prayer was really sincere and you could tell that she wanted to come closer to God. She apologized that it wasn’t a “good” prayer and so then we started talking about how we need to be sincere and be like a child and that flowerly prayers aren’t necessarily better. We ended up not teaching the lesson but watching a church movie on Finding Faith which was nice. I haven’t seen the film in a while. Lisa won’t be at church tomorrow because she is going on vacation, but she should be coming next week. The elders said that I will be a big role in her progression because they feel that she is going to be tried by her friends and that it will be important for her to have friends who are “normal” members of the church.
I did a little bit more shopping…glancing mostly after the lesson but by then there were far too many people shopping. I showed Hannah my new shirts, which she loves and then we decided to have dinner together and make no bake cookies since she is off her sugar lent. We watched some of My Fair Lady with Spanish subtitles which was hilarious because we were trying to read them out loud while giving back rubs. Hopefully there weren’t any Spanish people around! We stayed up pretty late, especially since we had to wake up early to catch the tram.
Today was not at all the day I was expecting, but it was awesome nonetheless. Hannah and I were either going to go shopping or to the beach so I decided to go drop off cookies for the elders and go to the Saturday market before then. I went shopping and the elders called to say that they couldn’t make it but that I could come teaching with them at 2pm at the church. I agreed and decided that I might as well stay in town since it wouldn’t be worth it to spend all my time going back home and into town again. Instead I went shopping and found several really cute shirts to wear as a sister missionary. I am really excited about them because they look really nice and I won’t be looking frumpy in Paris! I also went and got to macarons, went to the book store, and went to find the Greek restaurant in town to get a falafel. It took me a while to find the restaurant but I found it and got a delightful hummus falafel. The owner works there with his cute younger son and it was just a fun experience.
I ate my falafel on the way to the church and met up there with the missionaries and Lisa. She is a cute girl from China that speaks English and French very well. She studied in Ohio and there she became involved in the Protestant church. She said that lately she has been far away from God. Elder Lazarev offered a prayer in Chinese and then afterwards she started praying in English! Elder Lazarev’s face said it all. In the middle of the prayer she was like, “I don’t know what I’m doing! I don’t know how.” And then she would switch into Chinese. Her prayer was really sincere and you could tell that she wanted to come closer to God. She apologized that it wasn’t a “good” prayer and so then we started talking about how we need to be sincere and be like a child and that flowerly prayers aren’t necessarily better. We ended up not teaching the lesson but watching a church movie on Finding Faith which was nice. I haven’t seen the film in a while. Lisa won’t be at church tomorrow because she is going on vacation, but she should be coming next week. The elders said that I will be a big role in her progression because they feel that she is going to be tried by her friends and that it will be important for her to have friends who are “normal” members of the church.
I did a little bit more shopping…glancing mostly after the lesson but by then there were far too many people shopping. I showed Hannah my new shirts, which she loves and then we decided to have dinner together and make no bake cookies since she is off her sugar lent. We watched some of My Fair Lady with Spanish subtitles which was hilarious because we were trying to read them out loud while giving back rubs. Hopefully there weren’t any Spanish people around! We stayed up pretty late, especially since we had to wake up early to catch the tram.
Day 221: Mini-Mission!
9 avril 2010 (Day 221) Friday
Today class went well. In the sociology of art are teaching was feeling off with his teaching (too many ideas and thoughts in his head) so we got let out of his class early and I went to the gym alone. I ate and tried to quickly study for our little in class essay in history.
Elder Maxfield called me today during class and left a message…I am going to get to go on a mini-mission! They had made an error and there will be an odd number of sisters so I can go on a mini-mission. A mini-mission is exactly like a real mission, without the call. I will be serving (most likely in Paris or thereabouts) from May 26-July 1. I will be living the missionary rules and with a companion sister missionary 24/7. It is going to be awesome. I was so excited I could hardly concentrate. The president called me to make sure that it was okay with me.
I am nervous and excited now and it was driving Hannah nuts on the way to institute! She said she could feel my nervous energy and that I needed to relax so we did some breathing exercises. We were late to institute because the bus and then the tram were late and the missionaries called and told me that they were waiting for me and where was I…weird! It ended up being that Elder Maxfield and Elder Bourgeois stayed for institute. Kevin gave the lesson today and was quite serious with it. It was a good lesson but it was odd having him teach. Maxfield was translating for Oly, who doesn’t speak French and he ended up giving him basically a totally different lesson.
I called up Jenn and I showed her how to make no-bake cookies. She was quite amazed at how easy it was. Sadly I put in too many oats so they were a little dry…oh well! We had a lot of fun. Oh, P.S. I cut my hair today…don’t worry it is fine. I attacked the back because I couldn’t stand that it was longer than the front.
Today class went well. In the sociology of art are teaching was feeling off with his teaching (too many ideas and thoughts in his head) so we got let out of his class early and I went to the gym alone. I ate and tried to quickly study for our little in class essay in history.
Elder Maxfield called me today during class and left a message…I am going to get to go on a mini-mission! They had made an error and there will be an odd number of sisters so I can go on a mini-mission. A mini-mission is exactly like a real mission, without the call. I will be serving (most likely in Paris or thereabouts) from May 26-July 1. I will be living the missionary rules and with a companion sister missionary 24/7. It is going to be awesome. I was so excited I could hardly concentrate. The president called me to make sure that it was okay with me.
I am nervous and excited now and it was driving Hannah nuts on the way to institute! She said she could feel my nervous energy and that I needed to relax so we did some breathing exercises. We were late to institute because the bus and then the tram were late and the missionaries called and told me that they were waiting for me and where was I…weird! It ended up being that Elder Maxfield and Elder Bourgeois stayed for institute. Kevin gave the lesson today and was quite serious with it. It was a good lesson but it was odd having him teach. Maxfield was translating for Oly, who doesn’t speak French and he ended up giving him basically a totally different lesson.
I called up Jenn and I showed her how to make no-bake cookies. She was quite amazed at how easy it was. Sadly I put in too many oats so they were a little dry…oh well! We had a lot of fun. Oh, P.S. I cut my hair today…don’t worry it is fine. I attacked the back because I couldn’t stand that it was longer than the front.
Day 220: Symphony Gratuit for Me
8 avril 2010 (Day 220)
Today class was good…normal, nothing to exciting. The highlight of the day was the symphony. I couldn’t find anyone to go with me so I went by myself. This nice gentleman had an extra ticket so he gave it to me. I had such a wonderful time. It was Dvorak and Ravel. It was incredible! There was a cellist who was amazing. We clapped for an encore which he gave. It was somewhat disappointing though because he just plucked the whole time and it was more the blues and just did not fit in a classical concert! Oh well, it was amazing anyway. Cheryl and Oly actually ended up coming late so I saw them at intermission. I walked most of the way home because it was a gorgeous night.
Today class was good…normal, nothing to exciting. The highlight of the day was the symphony. I couldn’t find anyone to go with me so I went by myself. This nice gentleman had an extra ticket so he gave it to me. I had such a wonderful time. It was Dvorak and Ravel. It was incredible! There was a cellist who was amazing. We clapped for an encore which he gave. It was somewhat disappointing though because he just plucked the whole time and it was more the blues and just did not fit in a classical concert! Oh well, it was amazing anyway. Cheryl and Oly actually ended up coming late so I saw them at intermission. I walked most of the way home because it was a gorgeous night.
Day 219: Cheryl's Birthday
7 avril 2010 (Day 219)
Today I tried out the French socialist health care! It wasn’t too bad. It was a little bit odd to see free condoms instead of suckers. There were no papers, no nothing. I just presented myself and then waited for about 5 or 10 minutes for the doctor. He was really nice though he definitely isn’t a sports med doctor. He barely tested out my range of motion and then wrote me a note to go see a radiologist. All I have to do is go to the yellow pages online and pick one and call…groovy!
Today we had a little party/hang out for Cheryl’s 21st birthday, which was yesterday. We met up at commerce and then went to the chateau. We took pictures there and saw the baby ducklings that were following their mother around. Everyone was hungry so we went to find Oly, Cheryl’s brother that was visiting along with Cheryl’s friend, Cupcake. Oly is a nice kid who has a higher quiet voice that doesn’t match his body at all. Oly is also a vegetarian. We found him a falafel and the others got smoothies. I wanted a gauffre (a waffle). I eventually found one once we headed back to the carnival that was going on. It was an amazing gauffre. It was definitely artisan and even had REAL whipped cream on top…miam miam! After I ate my gauffre I went on the swings with Cheryl and Oly. It was so much fun! It was kind of like the swings at Lagoon except it went up really high! It was so amazing to see the view of Nantes. I loved it!
Hannah and I had to leave the party early because a lot of our friends in IRFFLE were in a play. I got a hot chocolate chip cookie that was delicious and we met Ian and went to the TU. It was so fun to watch them. Sam was so nervous and Juan was just a stud in his business suit. It was a play that took place at a train station. Ian was so fun to sit by. He is such a cutie sweetheart. I even got to play Juan’s guitar a little bit. It was fun to see a lot of my friends from IRFFLE.
Day 218: Rodin and the end of Road Trips
6 avril 2010 (Day 218)
Oh the beautiful French mornings! We slept in a little bit today and then went in search for banana nutella crepes for breakfast. Sadly we didn’t find any because I didn’t want to go to the stand that I found yesterday because the people made me wait forever. Jenni proposed that we go to a boulangerie and find crepes later. They got their usual pain au chocolat and I decided to try a delightful brioche (bread) with chocolate chips. We walked around and went to the Musée Rodin. There were a lot of police nearby and we enjoyed making fun of them because they looked like robocops with their giant armor but no helmet! There were quite a few people waiting in line for the Rodin (but nothing compared to the other museums). We first went into the garden that holds a lot of his sculptures. It was beautiful. It was probably one of my most favorite things that I have seen. I love how raw the sculptures of Rodin are, they have that unfinished aspect and look like they are practically in motion. Rodin’s sculptures of the thinker, the walker, and the kiss especially made an impression on me. We went inside of the museum and saw more sculptures.
We then headed over to the D’Orsay museum. The line was enormous! I waited in line while Hyer and Coyle went searching for banana Nutella crepes. They delivered and so did I! I asked a worker there and he said we got to go in the short line because Jenni and Leann had bought a pass for the Rodin and d’Orsay. I got to go in the short line too! Having that cursed carte de séjour pays off because I got in to all the museums for free! We stayed and walked around and saw all the works in the d’Orsay until it was time for me to head to the train. We went back and got my stuff; I grabbed another crepe (beurre sucre) and went off with the most amazing baguette ever to the train station. Jenni and Hyer gave me directions and I didn’t get lost! I had to wait at the train station for a while because my train came late. I tried to read Proust all the way home. I didn’t get very far in the book, but I did enjoy the cute little boy that was like, “This is my country, this is our country, this is France!” I thought he was stellar; his mother didn’t think so.
When I got to Nantes I went to the church to catch the missionaries to find out about serving a mini-mission. They had forgotten. They did appreciate the Reese’s peanut butter cups that Hyer brought.
Oh the beautiful French mornings! We slept in a little bit today and then went in search for banana nutella crepes for breakfast. Sadly we didn’t find any because I didn’t want to go to the stand that I found yesterday because the people made me wait forever. Jenni proposed that we go to a boulangerie and find crepes later. They got their usual pain au chocolat and I decided to try a delightful brioche (bread) with chocolate chips. We walked around and went to the Musée Rodin. There were a lot of police nearby and we enjoyed making fun of them because they looked like robocops with their giant armor but no helmet! There were quite a few people waiting in line for the Rodin (but nothing compared to the other museums). We first went into the garden that holds a lot of his sculptures. It was beautiful. It was probably one of my most favorite things that I have seen. I love how raw the sculptures of Rodin are, they have that unfinished aspect and look like they are practically in motion. Rodin’s sculptures of the thinker, the walker, and the kiss especially made an impression on me. We went inside of the museum and saw more sculptures.
We then headed over to the D’Orsay museum. The line was enormous! I waited in line while Hyer and Coyle went searching for banana Nutella crepes. They delivered and so did I! I asked a worker there and he said we got to go in the short line because Jenni and Leann had bought a pass for the Rodin and d’Orsay. I got to go in the short line too! Having that cursed carte de séjour pays off because I got in to all the museums for free! We stayed and walked around and saw all the works in the d’Orsay until it was time for me to head to the train. We went back and got my stuff; I grabbed another crepe (beurre sucre) and went off with the most amazing baguette ever to the train station. Jenni and Hyer gave me directions and I didn’t get lost! I had to wait at the train station for a while because my train came late. I tried to read Proust all the way home. I didn’t get very far in the book, but I did enjoy the cute little boy that was like, “This is my country, this is our country, this is France!” I thought he was stellar; his mother didn’t think so.
When I got to Nantes I went to the church to catch the missionaries to find out about serving a mini-mission. They had forgotten. They did appreciate the Reese’s peanut butter cups that Hyer brought.
Day 217: Cafe Valentin, Oscar Wilde
5 avril 2010 (Day 217)
We went to a boulangerie and Jenni Coyle and LeeAnn Hyer bought pain au chocolats and I got a raisin roll. We munched on our venoisseries while we walked to the Eiffel Tower. We were going to get in line to go up, but after we saw the line we changed our minds and decided to go to Monmartre and Sacre Coeur. We took the metro and I momentarily got lost. You apparently should always remember to get off on the same side as the rest of your group otherwise you almost get stuck in the train that is leaving and have to run around the metro system trying to get to the other side. It is quite the adventure going through do not enter tunnels and such.
Sacre Coeur is so beautiful! The climb up seemed like nothing, especially compared to my giant climb in Marseille. The inside of the Sacre Coeur is quite beautiful. We also went into one of the oldest churches in Paris that is nearby the Sacre Coeur. We walked around and looked at the vendors and Hyer found this hilarious key chain that said, “When we kiss I feel it in my ear” or something ridiculous like that. Jenni and I made her buy it. We went into the Jewish quarter to get “the best falafels in the world” but forgot that it was Passover and they don’t sell like any food. ALL the food places were closed, it was tragic.
We walked around looking for a place to eat and finally decided on a pizza place called the Café Valentine. I ordered an amazing vegetarian pizza that had onions, pepper, artichokes, and the like. Our waiter was a sweetheart. He let me order in French and would talk to me in French and he would talk to the other two in English. It did get more interesting though at the end when he brought me out a heart shaped sucker and told me his name and that he was thirty and single. Well okay!
Today we also went to a famous cemetery and I ran into Marcel Proust while looking for Jim Morrison and Oscar Wilde. Oscar Wilde’s grave is especially neat because everyone has kissed it!
There was a group of musicians playing by the Pompidou Center (two guitars, a cello, and a violin) and there music was awesome! We sat for quite a while and listened to them play while we watched people. There were the cutest little children who were trying to dance to the music. I showed Jenni and LeeAnn the church, which is just across the street from the Pompidou and we went and got dessert at a nearby boulangerie. I got some chocolate flan that was incredible. Hyer ordered a lemon meringue and she got a lesson from the worker there on how to pronounce meringue. We walked by the shopping district and walked walked walked some more. We walked to the Toulleries Gardens which are right next to the Louvre and sat down and watched the adorable French children push boats in the water. We started making up names for all the people and decided that French fathers are quite handsome with their children. They bought a gauffre and we went and checked out the place de la Bastille and imagined Marie Antoinette getting her head chopped off there. Hyer did an excellent job reading us Rick Steve’s little history on the place.
We went by the Eiffel Tower again (it is 5 minutes from the hotel) to see if the lines were shorter. We didn’t go because the top level, the level on which Hyer wanted to go was closed. I asked the man why and he said it was because of the wind and that I spoke very good French. We sat in the park and did some more people watching and Jenni wrote some postcards and I got teased about my “French boyfriend” from the pizza place. Those two do a pretty good French accent.
We went supermarket shopping and they got some random stuff and then we found them a kebab frites for dinner and I got a ham crepe. We watched what would have been CSI in French and went to bed.
We went to a boulangerie and Jenni Coyle and LeeAnn Hyer bought pain au chocolats and I got a raisin roll. We munched on our venoisseries while we walked to the Eiffel Tower. We were going to get in line to go up, but after we saw the line we changed our minds and decided to go to Monmartre and Sacre Coeur. We took the metro and I momentarily got lost. You apparently should always remember to get off on the same side as the rest of your group otherwise you almost get stuck in the train that is leaving and have to run around the metro system trying to get to the other side. It is quite the adventure going through do not enter tunnels and such.
Sacre Coeur is so beautiful! The climb up seemed like nothing, especially compared to my giant climb in Marseille. The inside of the Sacre Coeur is quite beautiful. We also went into one of the oldest churches in Paris that is nearby the Sacre Coeur. We walked around and looked at the vendors and Hyer found this hilarious key chain that said, “When we kiss I feel it in my ear” or something ridiculous like that. Jenni and I made her buy it. We went into the Jewish quarter to get “the best falafels in the world” but forgot that it was Passover and they don’t sell like any food. ALL the food places were closed, it was tragic.
We walked around looking for a place to eat and finally decided on a pizza place called the Café Valentine. I ordered an amazing vegetarian pizza that had onions, pepper, artichokes, and the like. Our waiter was a sweetheart. He let me order in French and would talk to me in French and he would talk to the other two in English. It did get more interesting though at the end when he brought me out a heart shaped sucker and told me his name and that he was thirty and single. Well okay!
Today we also went to a famous cemetery and I ran into Marcel Proust while looking for Jim Morrison and Oscar Wilde. Oscar Wilde’s grave is especially neat because everyone has kissed it!
There was a group of musicians playing by the Pompidou Center (two guitars, a cello, and a violin) and there music was awesome! We sat for quite a while and listened to them play while we watched people. There were the cutest little children who were trying to dance to the music. I showed Jenni and LeeAnn the church, which is just across the street from the Pompidou and we went and got dessert at a nearby boulangerie. I got some chocolate flan that was incredible. Hyer ordered a lemon meringue and she got a lesson from the worker there on how to pronounce meringue. We walked by the shopping district and walked walked walked some more. We walked to the Toulleries Gardens which are right next to the Louvre and sat down and watched the adorable French children push boats in the water. We started making up names for all the people and decided that French fathers are quite handsome with their children. They bought a gauffre and we went and checked out the place de la Bastille and imagined Marie Antoinette getting her head chopped off there. Hyer did an excellent job reading us Rick Steve’s little history on the place.
We went by the Eiffel Tower again (it is 5 minutes from the hotel) to see if the lines were shorter. We didn’t go because the top level, the level on which Hyer wanted to go was closed. I asked the man why and he said it was because of the wind and that I spoke very good French. We sat in the park and did some more people watching and Jenni wrote some postcards and I got teased about my “French boyfriend” from the pizza place. Those two do a pretty good French accent.
We went supermarket shopping and they got some random stuff and then we found them a kebab frites for dinner and I got a ham crepe. We watched what would have been CSI in French and went to bed.
Day 216: Easter
4 avril 2010 (Day 216)
Happy Paques! That is Easter…in French. It is almost nine am and everyone is still in bed. Woot. Hyer and Coyle are now currently knocked out on the bed. It is almost seven pm. They have been pretty good troopers since nothing quite worked today. We’ve seen a total of four people fall in the past twenty four hours. Once we headed out the door around 9-10am we went to a boulangerie and got some disappointing almond croissants. We walked around a lot of France is the cold and sometimes rain. One of my favorite stops was probably Notre Dame de Paris. Notre Dame de Paris took over 200 years to build. We went inside and they were having a sermon going on. The little bit that I heard was actually really good and as we were leaving they started playing the organ and this man started singing. I can’t imagine how odd it was for the people who were actually worshipping there to have hundreds of us tourists taking pictures.
We also went into Sainte Chapelle. It is a lot smaller than I thought (10x30 meters). Boy was it gorgeous. It was practically all stained glass windows. Sainte Chapelle was built in 1248 for King Louis XI to house the crown of thorns. It took five years to complete, which is totally insane and the stained glass has over 1,100 scenes.
We went around searching for lunch/a boulangerie which took a really long time. While searching we saw a little (okay big) rollerblading parade. I have no idea what all these people were doing rollerblading, but there were a couple hundred of them. We bought some cheese and meat and found a table and sat down to people watch and have lunch. We actually sat outside of a Starbuck’s. Hyer bought a hot chocolate there (for 4 euros) so that we could sit there…ha! After our lunch we walked over to the Hotel des Invalides and found out that it is not a national museum and that we didn’t want to pay to get in. We went back to the hotel and they took a nap. Once it was late enough for French time we went out to dinner. We pretty much went to the first restaurant that we saw. I ordered a hamburger and fries but I ended up getting a steak hache…that is to say the hamburger without the bun and all the delicious fillings one finds in between those two slices of bread. I was not too happy that I spent 13 euros on a steak hache, but I suppose that is part of the French experience.
Happy Paques! That is Easter…in French. It is almost nine am and everyone is still in bed. Woot. Hyer and Coyle are now currently knocked out on the bed. It is almost seven pm. They have been pretty good troopers since nothing quite worked today. We’ve seen a total of four people fall in the past twenty four hours. Once we headed out the door around 9-10am we went to a boulangerie and got some disappointing almond croissants. We walked around a lot of France is the cold and sometimes rain. One of my favorite stops was probably Notre Dame de Paris. Notre Dame de Paris took over 200 years to build. We went inside and they were having a sermon going on. The little bit that I heard was actually really good and as we were leaving they started playing the organ and this man started singing. I can’t imagine how odd it was for the people who were actually worshipping there to have hundreds of us tourists taking pictures.
We also went into Sainte Chapelle. It is a lot smaller than I thought (10x30 meters). Boy was it gorgeous. It was practically all stained glass windows. Sainte Chapelle was built in 1248 for King Louis XI to house the crown of thorns. It took five years to complete, which is totally insane and the stained glass has over 1,100 scenes.
We went around searching for lunch/a boulangerie which took a really long time. While searching we saw a little (okay big) rollerblading parade. I have no idea what all these people were doing rollerblading, but there were a couple hundred of them. We bought some cheese and meat and found a table and sat down to people watch and have lunch. We actually sat outside of a Starbuck’s. Hyer bought a hot chocolate there (for 4 euros) so that we could sit there…ha! After our lunch we walked over to the Hotel des Invalides and found out that it is not a national museum and that we didn’t want to pay to get in. We went back to the hotel and they took a nap. Once it was late enough for French time we went out to dinner. We pretty much went to the first restaurant that we saw. I ordered a hamburger and fries but I ended up getting a steak hache…that is to say the hamburger without the bun and all the delicious fillings one finds in between those two slices of bread. I was not too happy that I spent 13 euros on a steak hache, but I suppose that is part of the French experience.
Sunday, April 4, 2010
Day 215: Getting to Paris
3 avril 2010 (Day 215)
So I am super confused, but I am apparently an hour early for my train. I could have sworn that I left at 13h00, but it is only 12h38 right now as I write this. This is okay, and I don’t mind that much, but I am still extremely confused as to how I left an hour early. Possibly it is a late, really weird April Fool’s Joke.
I got to Paris without any ado and found the hotel. I ended up being late because I tried to walk all the way there from the gare. I ended up getting on the metro for one stop and had a funny conversation with the bell hop because I couldn’t remember Hyer’s name. They are staying in a cute hotel and brought me candy! Wahoo. They were pretty jetlagged when I got there. After talking for a while we took the metro (Coyle and Hyer’s tickets weren’t working and I got stuck on the other side…luckily two cute older ladies helped them) and went to dinner at Flottes, a place recommended by Mr. Oram. The menu was in English and I didn’t see anything amazing, so I just bought some French onion soup that had the most humongous ball of half melted cheese that I had to use a knife to cut up. Hyer and Coyle got soup as well. We shared a cheese plate that was quite delicious (six cheeses) and Hyer was brave and tried some raw thinly sliced beef with cheese and mushrooms. I even tried a bite (go me!).
We took the metro back (and their tickets didn’t work again and I was stuck on the wrong side again) and they crashed. By the time I was done brushing my teeth Coyle was already snoring. Her snores seem like they must be really painful for her. I didn’t sleep so well, but I enjoyed my random text from Hannah at almost midnight telling me she saw on Facebook that Jean Luc used to be a model. I already knew this (he is an older single man who is always giving the elders rides and such. Knapp was actually telling me this week about it and how they missionaries put him on LDS singles one year and how Bourg gets him to say hilarious things in English).
So I am super confused, but I am apparently an hour early for my train. I could have sworn that I left at 13h00, but it is only 12h38 right now as I write this. This is okay, and I don’t mind that much, but I am still extremely confused as to how I left an hour early. Possibly it is a late, really weird April Fool’s Joke.
I got to Paris without any ado and found the hotel. I ended up being late because I tried to walk all the way there from the gare. I ended up getting on the metro for one stop and had a funny conversation with the bell hop because I couldn’t remember Hyer’s name. They are staying in a cute hotel and brought me candy! Wahoo. They were pretty jetlagged when I got there. After talking for a while we took the metro (Coyle and Hyer’s tickets weren’t working and I got stuck on the other side…luckily two cute older ladies helped them) and went to dinner at Flottes, a place recommended by Mr. Oram. The menu was in English and I didn’t see anything amazing, so I just bought some French onion soup that had the most humongous ball of half melted cheese that I had to use a knife to cut up. Hyer and Coyle got soup as well. We shared a cheese plate that was quite delicious (six cheeses) and Hyer was brave and tried some raw thinly sliced beef with cheese and mushrooms. I even tried a bite (go me!).
We took the metro back (and their tickets didn’t work again and I was stuck on the wrong side again) and they crashed. By the time I was done brushing my teeth Coyle was already snoring. Her snores seem like they must be really painful for her. I didn’t sleep so well, but I enjoyed my random text from Hannah at almost midnight telling me she saw on Facebook that Jean Luc used to be a model. I already knew this (he is an older single man who is always giving the elders rides and such. Knapp was actually telling me this week about it and how they missionaries put him on LDS singles one year and how Bourg gets him to say hilarious things in English).
Day 214: Picnic at Church
2 avril 2010 (Day 214)
It is Friday and I am definitely ready to be in Paris! This morning I went to the store and bought Hyer and Coyle all the essential French cookies that you need to try, as well as Buenos because they are like the most famous thing on the planet as well as some Lyon candy bars. Lyon candy bars have kit kat crunchy stuff, caramel, chocolate, possibly nougat, etc. Classes were great today even though my brain was a little distracted. We had a really interesting discussion about messages expressed in photos. Mr. Lehmann made a joke about things that don’t exist…blue oranges, Santa Claus, God… He was joking about the God one but the girl who always likes to argue if you push the right button started flipping out. He said if I say Santa Claus are you okay with my argument? Yes. Okay then. In history we talked about the de colonialization of French colonies. I never even thought about what happens to countries that are de-colonialized. France ended up fighting a lot of wars with the countries it colonized, specifically in Algeria and Vietnam. We watched some photos and it was pretty terrible. History is so fascinating. I always learn so much in history class.
Hannah and I took the bus right after class to go to church for our home teaching appointment. It was really cold outside so we were praying that the church would be open. The church wasn’t open, but the gate was! We went in to the back and decided to have a fun little picnic. It was nice because we were out of the wind. Kevin then found us. We don’t know why Kevin was there for institute over 90 minutes early, lol. He went back to his car and we finished our picnic and then went in the church for our home teaching. Laurent, a very small quiet man brought us chocolate for Easter and Frere Etourneau gave a really good lesson covering a couple of talks from the March Liahona.
Elder Lazarev and Elder Knapp were at the church when we came out (For those of you keeping track, I’ve seen them every day since Saturday, and most days not on purpose). They were talking to our teacher and the others, and we continued to talk with them a little bit so we started institute 30 minutes late. It was great. We actually had a really good lesson today as well talking about prayer and the sacrament. Kevin said some things that I didn’t agree with (and nor did Elder Knapp…apparently he grabbed a chair and sat by the door). During all of institute Elder Lazarev called the six Chinese contacts I got for him which took about 90 minutes! How insane is that. He ended up talking to them all and said that they are all really great and all have different life stories and seem really cool. Kevin gave Hannah, me, and the elders rides home. Elder Lazarev and Kevin were in the front so they were talking and those of us in the back talked about getting letters and grandparents, as well as the scale of fantastic.
I ended up staying up pretty late working on catching up on journals and talking to Josh Burch, a friend from high school that just got back from his mission in Quebec. It is fun to see the difference in vocabulary because lots of every day words for Frenchies are bad words for the Quebequois!
It is Friday and I am definitely ready to be in Paris! This morning I went to the store and bought Hyer and Coyle all the essential French cookies that you need to try, as well as Buenos because they are like the most famous thing on the planet as well as some Lyon candy bars. Lyon candy bars have kit kat crunchy stuff, caramel, chocolate, possibly nougat, etc. Classes were great today even though my brain was a little distracted. We had a really interesting discussion about messages expressed in photos. Mr. Lehmann made a joke about things that don’t exist…blue oranges, Santa Claus, God… He was joking about the God one but the girl who always likes to argue if you push the right button started flipping out. He said if I say Santa Claus are you okay with my argument? Yes. Okay then. In history we talked about the de colonialization of French colonies. I never even thought about what happens to countries that are de-colonialized. France ended up fighting a lot of wars with the countries it colonized, specifically in Algeria and Vietnam. We watched some photos and it was pretty terrible. History is so fascinating. I always learn so much in history class.
Hannah and I took the bus right after class to go to church for our home teaching appointment. It was really cold outside so we were praying that the church would be open. The church wasn’t open, but the gate was! We went in to the back and decided to have a fun little picnic. It was nice because we were out of the wind. Kevin then found us. We don’t know why Kevin was there for institute over 90 minutes early, lol. He went back to his car and we finished our picnic and then went in the church for our home teaching. Laurent, a very small quiet man brought us chocolate for Easter and Frere Etourneau gave a really good lesson covering a couple of talks from the March Liahona.
Elder Lazarev and Elder Knapp were at the church when we came out (For those of you keeping track, I’ve seen them every day since Saturday, and most days not on purpose). They were talking to our teacher and the others, and we continued to talk with them a little bit so we started institute 30 minutes late. It was great. We actually had a really good lesson today as well talking about prayer and the sacrament. Kevin said some things that I didn’t agree with (and nor did Elder Knapp…apparently he grabbed a chair and sat by the door). During all of institute Elder Lazarev called the six Chinese contacts I got for him which took about 90 minutes! How insane is that. He ended up talking to them all and said that they are all really great and all have different life stories and seem really cool. Kevin gave Hannah, me, and the elders rides home. Elder Lazarev and Kevin were in the front so they were talking and those of us in the back talked about getting letters and grandparents, as well as the scale of fantastic.
I ended up staying up pretty late working on catching up on journals and talking to Josh Burch, a friend from high school that just got back from his mission in Quebec. It is fun to see the difference in vocabulary because lots of every day words for Frenchies are bad words for the Quebequois!
Day 213: Ice Cream and Contacting
The happiest elder on earth
Elder Maxfield, Elder Quiet, Elder Bourg, Elder Laz
Mari, Elder Frenchie, Elder Knapp, Justin
1 avril 2010 (Day 213)
Hannah wasn’t feeling well today so she missed out on class. It is a bummer because our linguistics classes were pretty funny today. In morphology and syntax we did an exercise with English words so all the French kids were trying to pronounce the words and sounded very French. Our teacher would say it with a correct English accent and then would say it how the French kids say it. I laughed a lot. Phonetics was also funny, even though Ali dictated over 3 pages of notes to us. He was sick so he was a little loopy and then someone gave him this little beeper thing that plays this funny little song. He would randomly press it during his lecture.
I met up at Place Royale with the Elders to get ice cream. Elder Bourgeois picked a great day and time because it stopped raining for us to eat our ice cream. For the past week or so Mother Nature has been very temperamental with Nantes. Multiple times a day it changes from hot and cold, windy to not windy, cloudy to sunny, rainy to no rain to hail, and so on. I used to think it was bad in Utah, but this is even worse! Even the humidity will vary up to 50% in one day, it is crazy! It took a while for all the elders to get there because there were six in Nantes today. Elder Bourgeois and Maxfield were the first to arrive with an investigator, Justin, aka Little Dragon (his name translated from Chinese). We talked a little bit and then Elder Knapp and his companion for the day, Elder Frenchie (I don’t remember his name) arrived. They decided to talk to some girls from an organization called CARE, which was interesting. Knapp decided to go talk first, so we were laughing that he was trying to drague (or flirt) with this girl. Elder Frenchie then started having a steamy conversation with this other girl that Justin and I listened to. Elder Frenchie definitely doesn’t have the same approach that I would have. Ever. He also has a philosophy of never taking phone numbers, and that if the person is interested that they will call them. Yes that is true and great, but some people need a little shove.
Elder Lazarev and Elder Quiet (he didn’t say anything) came and we decided to leave the other 2 elders talking and go get ice cream. I bought everyone ice cream (happy birthday to me, a present from me!) from Amorino. The people there thought we didn’t speak French at first so it was just funny and a little awkward that they didn’t think that we spoke French. The elders were all really excited and loved their ice cream, especially since you can get as many flavors as you want! I got strawberry, vanilla, chocolate, nutella, chocolate chip, and this amazing caramel-y one. I really enjoyed it and apparently so did Elder Knapp. I was talking to Elder Maxfield and needed to write something down so that I remembered to do what he asked. Elder Knapp was the closest so I asked him to hold my ice cream while I dug into my bag. He agreed and I dug in my bag and wrote my little note. When I turned to get my ice cream back Elder Knapp was eating it! That swine! He definitely got a lecture about stealing my ice cream (I love ice cream, I’m protective, what can I say?) and he said I could steal mine. I told him I didn’t want it and that my father would cut off my right arm if I was eating a missionary’s ice cream and that he now had my germs in his mouth now but he didn’t care. Dirty boys. He told me I could steal some of his ice cream in July then because he won’t be a missionary anymore then. I then went on about how he stole my good Amorino ice cream and he commented that there is good ice cream in Utah, like Cold Stone. I do like Cold Stone and so I said so and that birthday cake remix was my favorite flavor because I’d always get it after surgery. Elder Knapp disagreed and said that some oatmeal cookie something or other (because he didn’t remember the name) was the best and told me that he wasn’t going to let me buy birthday cake remix next time. Well then. We all enjoyed our gelato (and for some of us, other people’s ice cream) and went our separate ways. Elder Knapp and Elder Frenchie ended up coming on tram 2 to Michelet-Sciences or thereabouts. I got off at Facultes so that I could go get money out of my account for my trip. I saw a group of four Chinese looking people so I stalked them instead lol. I followed them a little bit and then asked them if they were Chinese and ended up getting their phone numbers and emails for Elder Lazarev. I then went to my bank to withdraw money (I just pretended to at the Faculte ATM…I’m such a stalker) and saw another Chinese person. I was going to talk to her, but then she walked away. I turned around and saw another Chinese person, Hao, who was at the Chinese dinner last week! I asked him if he was at it (I wasn’t completely sure) and he said yes. He was going on the tram towards commerce (aka away from my house) but I got on anyway and talked with him and got his info as well. As soon as I did I got off at the next stop so that I could head back home. I walked out of the tram and the Elders were right in front of my face. It was quite remarkable. And funny. They were talking to a girl from Brazil and once they finished up I gave them my five references. Elder Frenchie thought that it was a joke and Elder Knapp just laughed and said, “No, no it’s not.” Elder Frenchie wanted to cry and decided that he needs to learn Chinese and have Chinese Elders in St. Nazaire.
I finally did make it back to my housing. Elder Knapp said I could come street contacting but then decided that I should probably do my homework. He is a firm believer in not letting missionary work be a higher priority than my homework. So I did dorm contacting instead. Going up the stairs I saw some girls who were Asian eating on the first floor (that being the second floor in America). I grabbed my cooking stuff and went down to start to cook and after listening to them realized they were Vietnamese. I ended up talking to them anyway and they were very nice. I gave one of them a card and the info about free English lessons. I am hoping that she will come sometime. It is a bummer that Han left, otherwise it would have been perfect! While eating my wonderful creation of steamed broccoli, rice, and crème fraishe (think sour cream) I got the great idea to go knock on the door of the room that has the Chinese flag in the window. I knocked with the excuse that I was writing a friend a note in Chinese (I will have to do that now) and saw the flag. His name is Ming Yao and he was super nice and taught me the four Chinese tones and we talked a little. Ming Yao has lived here for two years, but doesn’t really speak French because he is doing engineering and his classes are in English. He is protestant and actually invited me to his church on Sunday.
I called the Elders after this just so I could say that I got them six contacts in one day. Elder Knapp just started laughing and Elder Bourgeois started yelling and telling me that he wants French contacts and that I need to talk to French people and just say that I have American friends who want to speak French…ha ha. It was pretty funny. I’m tempted to give Elder Bourgeois Oscar’s info, a friend who grew up in SLC, loves the church, but isn’t a member, as a little joke.
So how is that for a missionary day?!
Day 212: What's CousCous?
Kev, Marie-Vaunn, and Cheryl
Lamb Tangine31 mars 2010 (Day 212)
Today I talked to my French lit teacher and found out that he just wants us to write 2 papers in 2 hours the last day of class…woot! And that it can count for the TD (work that gets presided over by a teacher) grade as well, wahoo! We read a really shocking article about New York City and the drug dealing that goes on there. I totally survived a double séance (two classes…aka 3 hours) of French Lit TD. The first half we spent talking about this crazy love theory triangle which implies that we have to have some sort of drama and mediator to be able to like a person/object. It was mind blowingly insane. The second half we spent reading and analyzing passages and it actually went pretty quickly.
Tonight we went out as an institute group to get dinner. I walked off the tram and saw Elder Knapp and Elder Lazarev…again! How insane is that. They were with Jo and Jan, two Chinese girls that they were going to teach. They both seemed really nice and I talked to Jo a little bit. Elder Knapp said he’d invite me to come help teach, but that it would all be in Chinese and that even he wouldn’t understand. When I got to the church I was the only one there besides my teacher. Kevin then showed up. I didn’t want to be on like this awkward sort of date thing with Kevin so I invited Fabienne to come. Fabienne has awesomely red dyed hair and is a man hater. She is older and single and likes expressing her opinion. She actually got into a steamy conversation with the others about FHE and church leaders right by the room where the Elders (by Elders I mean Lazarev…Knapp doesn’t speak Chinese) were teaching. Marie-Vaunn, our institute teacher said that we could invite the two Chinese girls and so I went in and asked. They had something after that but we thankful for the invite. Elder Knapp told me to get them away from the door as well. It took some work, but I did and the argument ended. Cheryl came late and we were discussing where we should go. We found out that Cheryl didn’t’ even know what couscous is so we decided that we needed to get Indian food and have her try cous cous. We packed up in cars (Kevin didn’t want to go alone so Cheryl and I had to go with him, even though he was parking his car back at his house so we’d have to take a bus to get where we were going after that). We met up and ended up going to the first Indian restaurant we saw.
It was an awesome restaurant! We got to sit on Pouffs! It was super cool. I got a deliciously incredibly soft lamb and vegetable tangine. Cheryl got chicken couscous and we shared our plates. They were both incredibly good. While we ate Cheryl and I were kind of awkwardly listening as the others discussed allergies, the middle ages, and their hatred (okay, Fabienne’s) of the British accent. I felt really bad for Cheryl. We got dessert. I was going to get vanilla ice cream with caramel but our nice and attractive waiter recommended this delicious sounding mandarin orange ice cream so I went for it. It was pretty good although I was disappointed that my seven euro dessert only came with one scoop of ice cream. On the plate were orange slices, some berries and kiwi sprinkled in cinnamon with the orange sherbert with some chocolate drizzled on top of it. It was good. Cheryl got some ice cream called Amaretto that was really good. It reminded me of a cherry rainbow float from Pace’s…mm.
Fabienne offered to take me home so I went with her. She parked about a twenty minute walk away from where we ate and so we had to walk there. We actually walked a tram stop past it. I did eventually get home, although it wasn’t until 11:30! Marie-Vaunn was a sweetheart and paid for all of our dinners! It was very nice of her because that would have been a 21 euro meal!
Day 211: Goodbye Han
30 mars 2010 (Day 211)
My paper for my French lit TD sucks. The subject is why the work of Proust is a “real novel.” And that is all the prompt we got. I woke up this morning and read what I had written yesterday and it sucked so I decided to start over. I went to the gym and biked until I got a good outline figured out and then went home to write. I didn’t write very much because I had to go to the church to make it to our last meeting with Han before she leaves for her internship in the south of France. Before Han got there this super duper cute and nice older couple came wanting to know about genealogy. Elder Knapp and I talked to them for some time while we waited for Elder Lazarev to finish calling and finding out about who should be there and could help them. I really liked both of them because they were so sweet and the husband told us some interesting stories.
Han was pretty sad in our meeting today. She really doesn’t want to have to go. We taught her about the temple today. Baptism for the dead has probably been by far the hardest concept to teach her. It took her 4 or 5 explanations before she got it. My personal favorite was Elder Knapp saying that he was going to knock me unconscious and baptize me against my will, lol. I’ll let you figure out how it went into the lesson. After the lesson about temple work and temples, with a sad Han who is now worried about finding someone she can marry in the temple, we all got on the tram. The Elders walked us to our next tram (they were actually meeting someone in that area) and Elder Knapp mentioned that I could serve a mini-mission instead of going farming in the south of France if I wanted. He told me a little bit about it but then our tram came. I said goodbye and that I’d see them in about two weeks and Elder Knapp just said, “Aren’t you coming to English class?” “If you need me to be.” “Wink.” I wasn’t planning on it because I have a four page paper that I think is due tomorrow! (You see, Hannah and I don’t know if we have to do it for part of our grade or not.)
Han and I rode home on the tram. She was so sad to have to go, she almost cried! It made me want to cry. Hannah convinced me into going to English class at church with her because she “can’t take mass transportation (aka the bus) by herself.” Jean Yves was there like normal and had brought his paddle with which to play against the Elders. He said that if he won I had to give him a kiss on the cheek. Luckily the Lord was on my side as Elder Bourgeois told Jean Yves that if Bourg won Jean Yves had to listen to them for 30 minutes. Needless to say, they played ping pong, Hannah played the piano, and I wrote my paper because no one else was really there. I talked to Elder Maxfield about mini-missions. I had more questions and we ended up calling the mission president, President Stahlei. He used to be President Hinckley’s secretary and is just a sweetheart. I felt like I was getting a hug over the phone. He was very nice and told me that I can if there are an odd number of sisters. The other set of Elders ended up coming late (40 minutes late for their meeting that starts after English class). We ended up going home on the tram with the elders. Elder Knapp was talking to us girls and the other three basically ran ahead to hide. Apparently earlier that week Elder Knapp hid from them or something like that. Hannah and Cheryl got REALLY hyper and were acting really weird and Elder Knapp and I couldn’t figure out what was wrong with them. The other elders didn’t want to be by us/talk to us on the tram so Elder Knapp decided to spite them (still within sight and sound and not go by them because they were being boys as he put it. Oh! I forgot the best part of the night, Paki came in to the church and Elder Bourgeois said, “Hi my lover.” I heard this. It was really awkward. I laughed and he realized what he said. He then said they have been calling each other that at the apartment. Right.
My paper for my French lit TD sucks. The subject is why the work of Proust is a “real novel.” And that is all the prompt we got. I woke up this morning and read what I had written yesterday and it sucked so I decided to start over. I went to the gym and biked until I got a good outline figured out and then went home to write. I didn’t write very much because I had to go to the church to make it to our last meeting with Han before she leaves for her internship in the south of France. Before Han got there this super duper cute and nice older couple came wanting to know about genealogy. Elder Knapp and I talked to them for some time while we waited for Elder Lazarev to finish calling and finding out about who should be there and could help them. I really liked both of them because they were so sweet and the husband told us some interesting stories.
Han was pretty sad in our meeting today. She really doesn’t want to have to go. We taught her about the temple today. Baptism for the dead has probably been by far the hardest concept to teach her. It took her 4 or 5 explanations before she got it. My personal favorite was Elder Knapp saying that he was going to knock me unconscious and baptize me against my will, lol. I’ll let you figure out how it went into the lesson. After the lesson about temple work and temples, with a sad Han who is now worried about finding someone she can marry in the temple, we all got on the tram. The Elders walked us to our next tram (they were actually meeting someone in that area) and Elder Knapp mentioned that I could serve a mini-mission instead of going farming in the south of France if I wanted. He told me a little bit about it but then our tram came. I said goodbye and that I’d see them in about two weeks and Elder Knapp just said, “Aren’t you coming to English class?” “If you need me to be.” “Wink.” I wasn’t planning on it because I have a four page paper that I think is due tomorrow! (You see, Hannah and I don’t know if we have to do it for part of our grade or not.)
Han and I rode home on the tram. She was so sad to have to go, she almost cried! It made me want to cry. Hannah convinced me into going to English class at church with her because she “can’t take mass transportation (aka the bus) by herself.” Jean Yves was there like normal and had brought his paddle with which to play against the Elders. He said that if he won I had to give him a kiss on the cheek. Luckily the Lord was on my side as Elder Bourgeois told Jean Yves that if Bourg won Jean Yves had to listen to them for 30 minutes. Needless to say, they played ping pong, Hannah played the piano, and I wrote my paper because no one else was really there. I talked to Elder Maxfield about mini-missions. I had more questions and we ended up calling the mission president, President Stahlei. He used to be President Hinckley’s secretary and is just a sweetheart. I felt like I was getting a hug over the phone. He was very nice and told me that I can if there are an odd number of sisters. The other set of Elders ended up coming late (40 minutes late for their meeting that starts after English class). We ended up going home on the tram with the elders. Elder Knapp was talking to us girls and the other three basically ran ahead to hide. Apparently earlier that week Elder Knapp hid from them or something like that. Hannah and Cheryl got REALLY hyper and were acting really weird and Elder Knapp and I couldn’t figure out what was wrong with them. The other elders didn’t want to be by us/talk to us on the tram so Elder Knapp decided to spite them (still within sight and sound and not go by them because they were being boys as he put it. Oh! I forgot the best part of the night, Paki came in to the church and Elder Bourgeois said, “Hi my lover.” I heard this. It was really awkward. I laughed and he realized what he said. He then said they have been calling each other that at the apartment. Right.
Day 210: Running, Paper = Epic Failure
29 mars 2010 (Day 210)
Today I attempted to go running. I made it a mile and then decided to stop being stupid. I then went to the gym instead. I finally (grudgingly) started to write my paper for French Lit, or at least I researched it. I found out that Zeng Chao, my Chinese friend from IRFFLE last semester who is seeing the missionaries is still bleeding. You see, he had a surgery on his nose on Thursday. It is Monday. I called the elders to see if they had visited him yet, which they hadn’t (and had forgotten to). Elder Knapp asked about my paper and then teased me about using the worse sources ever (I was Wikipedia-ing and looking at spark notes). He told me that I should try to use worse sources next time, to which I retorted, “I will, I’ll use you.” Snap! Point for me! While talking to the elders Zeng Chao got on Facebook so I was able to speak with him a little bit at the same time. I got to teach him about priesthood blessings and sent him a talk on adversity (in Chinese) by President Eyring. He really liked it and we talked a little bit about it afterwards.
Today at dinner I saw Cole and can I just say that he is the most hilarious person ever. Today he was making fun of this youtube video and he actually helped me a lot with ideas for my paper. He make act sassy and dumb, but he is wicked smart.
Today I attempted to go running. I made it a mile and then decided to stop being stupid. I then went to the gym instead. I finally (grudgingly) started to write my paper for French Lit, or at least I researched it. I found out that Zeng Chao, my Chinese friend from IRFFLE last semester who is seeing the missionaries is still bleeding. You see, he had a surgery on his nose on Thursday. It is Monday. I called the elders to see if they had visited him yet, which they hadn’t (and had forgotten to). Elder Knapp asked about my paper and then teased me about using the worse sources ever (I was Wikipedia-ing and looking at spark notes). He told me that I should try to use worse sources next time, to which I retorted, “I will, I’ll use you.” Snap! Point for me! While talking to the elders Zeng Chao got on Facebook so I was able to speak with him a little bit at the same time. I got to teach him about priesthood blessings and sent him a talk on adversity (in Chinese) by President Eyring. He really liked it and we talked a little bit about it afterwards.
Today at dinner I saw Cole and can I just say that he is the most hilarious person ever. Today he was making fun of this youtube video and he actually helped me a lot with ideas for my paper. He make act sassy and dumb, but he is wicked smart.
Day 209: Alsan and the Holy Ghost
28 mars 2010 (Day 209)
Today Hannah and I got to make the adventurous trek to church on the tram. We were both super tired because the time change last night and yesterday was just a really long, but really rewarding, day for both of us. I am happy (I think?) to report that Elder Knapp and I did not match today. We’ve matched about the past four Sundays so we both made special efforts to try not to match. Funny thing is, if I wore what I almost was going to wear, we would have matched. He found this awesome mini tie that is maroon and wore it with a gray sweater vest. I wore crème because no one wears crème colored ties with white shirts. Apparently Elder Knapp prayed for Godly intervention so that we wouldn’t match though…cheater. I was amused that he felt the need to pray for us to not match. I really should have called the other elders to ask what he was wearing to freak him out…maybe next week!
So many of the talks today were on the Holy Ghost, which was great since Han was confirmed a member of the church and received the gift of the Holy Ghost today. Church went really well and Justin (Little Dragon) and Tao were there as well. The biggest surprise of all is that creepy man from last night came! During sacrament Elder Maxfield tapped me on the shoulder and asked me if the fellow by Elder Knapp was the guy from last night. Indeed it was. Elder Knapp explained a little about the church and taught him during sacrament meeting. His name is Alsan and he didn’t even try to talk to me or stick around after church. Elder Knapp said that he is going to invite him to church again on Sunday before asking to teach him so that he doesn’t get too overwhelmed.
Today Armelle gave us Lindt chocolate bunnies as a gift (best bunny I have EVER eaten) and we got majorly chastised in choir. She was trying to go through each sections part in the EFY Medley and got upset that the others who weren’t singing (like when it was the alto’s turn) weren’t paying attention. She hasn’t been this mad in a while, Pili actually stopped choir practice early. I was kind of bummed because I love singing the EFY medley. Joel Garon was the man and gave an awesome prayer to finish it that made you want to say SNAP! Instead of amen at the end.
I came home from church with the greatest intention of catching up on my journals. I unplugged my laptop and sat on my bed so that I could have my feet elevated and ended up falling asleep and waking up at 9:30pm. I was still exhausted and not feeling well when I woke up so I just brushed my teeth, changed, and went to bed and slept for quite a while. I just felt really funny; I can’t find the words to describe it.
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