Day 206: Dress Shopping

25 mars 2010 (Day 206)

Um, today wasn’t very exciting. I woke up and was way sad that Elder Lazarev will be leaving Nantes (no more stalking Chinese people :[ ). After going to my linguistically oriented classes I went to the gym, like usual. Today I did something exciting though, I hung upside down.

Afterwards I made some fantastic pesto pasta with sweet corn and mushrooms. I can’t believe my parents never fed me mushrooms! They are so amazingly delicious sautéed.

Hannah and I went dress shopping today. We want to have dresses for Han’s baptism. Hannah bought two dresses and I didn’t find anything except for a headband. I had fun though. Hannah found a cute pink dress and this awesome blue dress that is straight out of the fifties!

Day 205: Chinese Ravioli

Dough, innards, and dipping sauce
The crew

24 mars 2010 (Day 205)
This morning, holding to Emily Walker birthday traditions, Hannah and I woke up and called Elder Ellsworth to sing him happy birthday as terribly as humanly conceivable. The elders didn’t answer so we left a message singing but then Elder E called back, still asleep and very confused. He thought we were calling from America, but he loved it a lot and said he was crying, lol.
I succeeded to almost follow the outline of my French lit teacher today! I did an awesome hour of cross training at the gym jumping back and forth between the rowing machine and the stationary bike. It was intense. I miss running outside though (I haven’t been since I rolled my ankle because my other ankle has gotten worse).
Tonight I cut Jen’s hair. She asked me to, so of course I did it since her ends were pretty trashed. She came out alive and with most of her hair, so I guess I succeeded! Tonight the Chinese people on our floor made a Chinese dinner for us as a goodbye party. We didn’t start eating until 9:30 pm! They made ravioli that was amazing. They had dough and they stuffed it with green onion and meat. They boiled the ravioli and then we dipped it in a sauce with garlic, soy sauce, and vinegar. I helped make some of the ravioli and unsuccessfully tried to dip them with chop sticks.

Day 204: Adventures at English Lessons

23 mars 2010 (Day 204)
Today was a pretty normal Tuesday. I woke up and did my laundry, went to the gym, and then went to English class. Elder Bourgeois and Maxfield were super late to get to the church and unlock the gate. We actually started having English class in a nice little park near the church. Jean-Yves (an middle-aged larger man who smokes and has been going to English class forever) was the only lower level student so I did some one on one stuff with him. We were going over fruit and he started telling me about how he used to take LSD and then walked for 12 km every day. Weird! To practice his accent he was reading a poem by Robert Frost. Elder Knapp and Elder Ellsworth (they had exchanges today) came just in time to hear Jean Yves fail at saying “first.” He kept on saying “thirst” and it took a very long time to get him to say “first.” It was definitely an entertaining/awkward night with Jean Yves. Early that evening he asked me if I had a boyfriend to which I replied no and then he felt really badly after that. He then told me he didn’t have a girlfriend either so that it was okay.
Going home was great tonight. Elder Ellsworth is such an angel! He is so sincere and has such an earnest young missionary spirit, I love it! He is from Rigby, Idaho and is a great kid who is turning twenty tomorrow! He definitely made up for the rudeness of Elder Knapp. Apparently I am speaking at Han’s baptism. Elder Knapp just didn’t tell me this. He told everyone at the weekly ward missionary meeting though. I learned about my talk from Joel Garon who told me I should talk to Elder Knapp about it. He just smiled at me and told me it should be 5-7 minutes on enduring to the end. This talk shall definitely be an adventure, for it is to be in French!

Day 203: Legal in America

22 mars 2010 (Day 203)
I’m legal now. Woot. This morning I went to Carrefour, the gym, sewed my umbrella back together, and threw out a spoiled boiled egg among other things. Apparently if your fridge freezes your hardboiled egg it makes it go bad. I was kind of sad; I was super excited for an egg salad sandwich. I took Hannah to Carrefour because she had never been. We ended up getting some very American looking granola and lots of fruits and veggies. Hannah loved looking at all the window displays in the mall…she is definitely a girl!
I went to the church to meet up with Han and the elders. When I got there they were talking to this Muslim man who had just left his church and is looking for a Christian church and wants to learn more…golden! We had another good lesson with Han. I was thinking I could persuade the elders to let me buy them ice cream (public place, it is allowed) but they had another appointment. It is there P-Day. They apparently had 5 lessons today. They did sing me the best ‘Happy Birthday’ rendition that I have ever heard. Elder Knapp and Lazarev informed me that they like girls who dress up and look nice all the time. Before this Elder Knapp told me he could tell that I wasn’t a very ‘girly girl’…ha. Thanks boys! Elder Knapp did give me a kiss (mother…it was a mint).
Hannah texted me to come over to her room so I did straight from the tram. Cheryl popped out of Hannah’s bathroom. I was very confused. They decided to surprise me for my birthday and got me brownies and a bracelet. I made Cheryl some pesto pasta…she has never had pesto and she loved it. I made myself some delicious chili with peppers, corn, tomatoes, black beans, and stuck it on rice. It was delicious! I did have a tummy ache at the end of the night though.

Day 202: Beautiful Savior

21 mars 2010 (Day 202)

Oh boy was it a crazy stressful morning. I am pretty sure I woke Wubin up when I called him at 8am to remind him that our ride was coming at 8:15. Armelle was a little bit grumpy today but she and Stephane were nice enough to Wubin. To remember his name they started to call him Wu-be-wan Kanobi (like Obi Wan Kanobi from Star Wars). It was awesome because Han, Tao, Wubin, and Little Dragon (aka Justin, but his Chinese name translated is just cooler) were all at church. Someone brought a cake for the choir that was delicious and I got to hold adorable baby Seth today for a little bit.

After church I started looking for a song that Hannah and I could sing with the elders at Han’s baptism. Hannah and I decided on Beautiful Savior. We ended up translating some of it and adding some extra verses. It is really cool, I am super excited. We spent most of the evening working on it. We called the missionaries to see how they thought it sounded/approve of the changes. They ended up putting us on speakerphone and our singing attracted a Muslim preacher who wants to talk with the missionaries now!

Day 201: Relief Society Luncheon

Hannah and Jessica
Han and Hannah

20 mars 2010 (Day 201)
Today was the Relief Society luncheon. I brought my giant sack filled with many plates full of cookies. We all met up at Recteur Schmitt. By ‘we’ I mean to precise Hannah, myself, Jessica (Hannah’s friend from Washington), Debora (a middle-aged woman from Brazil that was in my IRFFLE class), and Han (the vietnamien that we [by we I mean the missionaries here] are teaching. We all went together to the church and spent a very nice afternoon together.
Debora seemed interested in the church and asked lots of questions. Cheryl did really well at answering some of them. We first listened to a talk about visiting teaching, took a group picture, and then ate our feast. The room was decorated and looked really sharp. They fed us fried rice and egg rolls. For dessert everyone made a dessert for a different sister. I ended up getting what I think was flan, but I am not sure. We gave the missionaries their box of cookies and they loved their card. Elder Lazarev appreciated that he was drawn the tallest, lol. I took Debora to the tram stop and talked to her for a little bit about the gospel.
I helped clean up some and then I went with the missionaries to teach Han. We talked about the commandments. Elder Bourgeois taught with Elder Knapp because Elder Lazarev had to leave and talk to someone. Elder Bourgeois was explaining the Ten Commandments and how we don’t lie and told us a lie about how he didn’t like Elder Knapp’s tie and how he thought he was ugly. He later told us he wasn’t serious and then Han bit back and said that Elder Knapp was ugly. It was super funny. She was kidding, but she is so quiet, so you wouldn’t ever really think she would say hilarious things like that.
After our successful lesson teaching the commandments I went to the tram. I had a feeling to not take the tram that was coming and so I followed it and got on the next one. I ended up talking to Yusha, a young woman who the elders had contacted earlier. I talked to her during the tram ride and then gave her a plate of cookies (I knew I was supposed to bring an extra for some reason) and told her to come to church.
On my second tram (it takes two tram lines to get home from the church) I saw another Chinese person. I decided to talk to them as well (why not!). It ended up being a young man, Wubin, who actually lives in my building. He doesn’t really speak French (or English for that matter) very well and he said that he is lonely. I invited him to church and he said yes and to call him tomorrow morning to remind him…cool!

Day 200: Cartes and Cookies

19 mars 2010 (Day 200)
Oh la France. My carte de sejour expires at the end of this month so I had to have a meeting to hand in all the exact same papers to the exact same people again. And pay them more money. I definitely was not happy about this because it was scheduled for 10am, when my sociology of art class starts. So I print off the thirty-sixth copy of ever piece of identity that I own and head off past Commerce to get a new temporary carte de sejour. I get there exactly at 10am and Mme. Torres says, “You’re late.” Me, “No I’m not, it is 10 right now.” “I said 9:30, you are a half hour late.” “No you didn’t [in my head: you can check the email you sent me if you want because I know that it didn’t say 9:30 because I have to miss class because of you].” Needless to say, she had double booked herself so I got to sit patiently and wait, doing nothing while missing M. Lehmann be all funny and talk about human sandwiches on the tram and such. Her “meeting” with me lasted about three minutes. It consisted of her taking all my copies, including three more pictures of my beautiful face (I think I should start autographing them) and telling me that I owe the French government more money for a laminated piece of plastic. Sweet.
I made it to class about forty minutes late which means I jumped in the lecture at an odd spot and missed some funny rantings according to Hannah. I went to my other classes, the gym, and institute. At institute we went into the primary room and had institute there on the little chairs. Cheryl, Hannah, and I left early so that we could go make chocolates for the Relief Society Luncheon tomorrow. I made no bake cookies with coconut that were to die for. Cheryl decorated their tops with almonds and chocolate and they were truly works of art for the eyes and the mouth. Hannah melted chocolate and dipped almonds which were delicious as well. Cheryl left around 9-10pm so that she could go home. Afterwards Hannah and I waited around in the kitchen for everything to dry. While doing so we decided to make the elders a card. It was a really funny card. Hannah drew all over it and I wrote the captions. It is pretty much the best card ever because it was really late so everything was funny to us.
Around 11pm-12am we bribed the man who locks the kitchen with one of my cookies. He was really nice about letting us stay until the chocolate cooled. He told us to turn off the light and shut the door when we left and to not tell anyone. Success!