Super Days and Sick Days

Where to begin? Sorry I’ve been pretty unmotivated to write this, but here she goes.

I went and helped at this Food Bank type fundraiser thing on Saturday where we handed out grocery bags and asked people to fill them up with some food for homeless people. It was supposed to be with Rotary but I ended up doing it with a bunch of people from the Lions Club who were really nice so “tant mieux.” I think probably my most fluently spoken French phrase may be “vous souhaitez donner à la Banque Alimentaire?” as I said that probably over 500 times. I also got to see the not so nice side of some Parisians (well, I see that side a lot, but I guess this time it was just more face to face) as I tried to get them to spend maybe 2 or 3 Euros to help out hungry people. I could always tell the business-cash guys in their suits or the ladies with their fur coats were not going to take a bag, because you know, time is money, and who has time for poor people? There was also the one lady who was telling us how sick she is of seeing homeless people on the street. Somewhat ironically, the people that my mind told me were less fortunate by society’s standards were the ones most willing to give, like a lady with a cane who could barely grab the plastic bag we tried to give her because her hand was deformed. I guess it’s nothing to be surprised at, as Jesus didn’t have the greatest opinion of the arrogant rich either. “Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God."

That night there was a big-ol Thanksgiving dinner with Vintage (the church I’ve been getting involved with), so in fact I didn’t miss Thanksgiving this year after all! My night was filled with scrumptious food, fun conversation, and tasty (but strong) wine. As my family doesn’t drink, I’ve never experienced Thanksgiving with wine. Everyone knows how tired turkey makes you, so add a good amount of wine in there and you can imagine how tired I was. I met a girl who goes to the American University in Paris who was an exchange student to France a few years ago, so she was amazing to talk to. There’s kind of just this subtle connection between Rotary exchange students that makes conversation so easy, because you’ve both experienced the same things and can understand each other’s stories. I met a bunch of other people from a bunch of different places, so I’m very pleased to have found (with my mother’s help of course) this little pocket of sanity in this city some like to call Paris.

“Lazy Sunday, wake up in the late afternoon” This phrase has come to describe my Sundays, wake up, eat a good lunch with the host family, kick it, then go to the home group at 6. The home group was relaxing, and that’s exactly what I needed. We prayed for a long time and as I had just been worrying so much about my school and everything I brought my heart rate down a pretty good amount and calmed me down. We also made frozen pizzas and I burnt my mouth, which I guess was the only downer of the night.

The thing I have found that I love about Paris, even though I complain sometimes, is how close it is to everything. As in yesterday, after school, I was still really worried, so I went to Montmartre, got myself some Crêpe, and sat on a bench below Sacré Coeur overlooking Paris. Then I went inside and just had some alone time between me and the big man. If any of you need to clear your mind, go to Sacré Coeur and pray inside. Although that may be varying in cost depending on how far away you live from Paris, I assure you it’s worth it.

I had been kind of getting sick all throughout the weekend, so yesterday was kind of bad just with coughing/running nose etc. For those of you who know me I don’t exactly get sick often, so I’m blaming it on the stress. But, I did get to stay home from school today at the suggestion of my host parents, so that in itself is worth being sick as I most likely would have spent a lot of today at school worrying. I watched Crash, which I really liked, read, fell asleep, had a crazy dream, and have just been kind of hanging out all day. This is up there in the relaxation factor with Sacré Coeur.

Whatever happens on Friday happens Friday and I’m just going to deal with things as they come. This week has been a nice lesson in trust. Trust is one of those funny things that seems so easy to do in theory but is so very hard in practice. Logically, me tearing up my insides worrying about what’s going to happen makes no sense, as by doing that I accomplish nothing. But we all like to be in control (me especially), so it’s hard for us to accept that things are out of our hands, even if the hands in which they are in are much more qualified to handle our situation. Basically it comes down to accepting that God has our best interests in mind, even though it may not seem like it at the time or it’s not exactly what we had in mind, which is one of the hardest things there is to accept. I’ve been repeating a quote over and over in my head, which I am going to leave with you.

Calm thyself, O my soul, so that the divine can act in thee!
Calm thyself, O my soul, so that God is able to repose in thee so that His peace may cover thee!
Søren Kierkegaard

Brent 

Uh…I Pretty Much Have No Idea What To Even Say To Begin To Explain This Week

I guess I’ll give the semi-quick overview. So Monday was good, I didn’t go to Math because I talked to my guidance counselor type guy and thought that he found a French class for me in place of math, so I asked him if I needed to go and he said no. So then Tuesday I get called into the real princpal’s office (basically the Dean of the school that half the students have neither seen nor talked to) and he tells me he doesn’t like how things are going. So he was mad because I didn’t go to math (which turns out was just a big misunderstanding) and about other stuff like how I’m “arrogant” in class etc. Basically just the most ridiculous crap (yes mom, I said it, that’s the only way to explain it) ever, since after my host mom talked to me a month and a half ago I’ve taken notes in all my classes, I never talk during class, and I try to do my homework. So they said they were going to review me with the teachers at this “conseil de classe” majing thingy which is next Friday and decide whether or not I can come back in January. So basically all this week I spent worrying about that, at some points wanting very much to just get sent home to make it all go away (these times were usually in the morning), or really wanting to stay (usually later in the day, like tonight, which I will get to later). So basically I believe I know what it feels like to have a period, but I’m going to go ahead and say my mood swings have been much worse than any period could bring. But I’m not sure, I’ve never experienced that. Anyways…so ya, if you guys could pray that God will just work everything out with this, because I really do want to stay and finish what I started, it’s just things need to be worked out at my school so that there’s an understanding between me and the teachers of what they expect of me etc. This week has definitely been a lesson in patience (while trying to explain myself without yelling to people who didn’t really care what I had to say) and trust (trusting that God’s going to work through whatever happens and me worrying about it is pointless). But anyways that’s the overview. I'm not really as worried as I was earlier this week, as one of my best friends is the class delegate so he's going to stick up for me, my rotary counselor is writing a letter, and this kid at lunch told me he'd go on a hunger strike if i got removed from school. Basically the hunger strike thing relieved my worries.

I actually had a good week apart from all that. On Wednesday I went out to coffee with a girl who goes to the American University in Paris and who was on a Rotary exchange a few years ago. We had a great talk. It’s always good to talk to a former exchange student because they know exactly what you’re going through and are a big help. So if you’re reading this Nikki, thanks. But she went to Kruse, Boltz, and Fort Collins High so it was fun to talk about old teachers and how much better American high school is than French high school. After that I met some Rotary girls who live North of Paris, and we walked around for a while (they were buying food for Thanksgiving) and it was fun to talk to them and see how similarly/differently our exchanges are going.

Yesterday, as you all know, was Thanksgiving. I guess I thought it would be a lot harder and that I would be a lot more homesick, but as no one celebrates it here and everything is decorated for Christmas, it didn’t really feel like I was missing anything until I told Victor about how I should be at my brother’s house, eating monkey bread, playing video games, and being with family. So all you people out there with your families, don’t take it for granted. Like Tyler said in his blog, you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone, and I never realized how much my family meant to me until I came here.

This is getting long so I’ll cap her off with today’s events. After school was amazing. Victor, Guillaume, this girl Hélène and I went walking on the Champs Elysées, went and looked around Louis Vuitton and played with toy cars in the Disney Store. Then Victor and I went to visit one of his best friends from his former school, Eva, at her apartment. She was extremely nice and easy to talk to, so it was good to meet her because I’ll probably see her again as her and Victor are really good friends. If there’s one thing I am thankful for here (although there is not just one, but you know what I mean) it would be Victor. He is seriously one of the nicest people I’ve ever met. He is easy to talk to and puts up with my somewhat constant asking of how to say things in French. After Eva’s house we went and got Starbucks (oh man, the Christmas cups are out, and I got a Latte Praliné…uh-mazing) because I had been telling myself I was going to get a Holiday drink sometime as a treat, and I figured since I had an eventful week this was the time. So we got Starbucks (which reminded me of getting coffee with all my friends, and made me somewhat sad), and talked for probably 2 hours. I don’t know what it is, but there’s just people that are awkward to talk to and people that aren’t. Victor is in the “aren’t” section. We had a great discussion, then while getting on the Métro to go home, stopped and watched a performer play acoustic songs for probably about 45 minutes. There was a funny lady that kept dancing, and this guy who took the mic from him and freestyle rapped during “No Woman No Cry.” On the Métro Victor said that this was probably the best night he’s had in a couple months. I couldn’t agree more. So I’ll end with that.

Brent



(the pictures are from Thanksgiving 2 years ago, my my how time flies)

Thanksgiving for the Weekend Before A Thanksgiving I will be Missing

My weekend was super.

Friday: Hung out with Victor and Guillaume after school, which was actually the first Friday I’ve actually hung out with friends (Victor didn’t have Chinese and Guillaume wasn’t with his girlfriend), so it was nice. We went and saw Borat, which made me realize why I am an exchange student, to show French people that not all Americans are ignorant/stupid/narrowminded etc. It was fun to just hang out with them, it felt really comfortable to just be able to joke with them and talk about stuff. So…ya

Saturday: Woke up at 7:20, went to throw the shot put for 2 hours (I pretty much get worse every time I go), came home, ate lunch with my host brother’s girlfriend and parents. Then I took a nap, which is becoming one of my favorite pastimes here. Like some days after school I’ll just come home and read on my bed, then put the book down and pass out for a while. But Saturday’s nap was legitimate and felt really good. It is kind of like my Saturday reward for not being able to sleep in because of sport. But then later that night I went over to Paul’s house (Paul is in the bible study/home group thing, from New Zealand) to watch the All Blacks (no, not all black people, but the New Zealand national Rugby team) play France. He lives with 3 other French people, so it was funny to hear the English cheers for the All Blacks then the French cheers/sighs for the French team. I had never really watched a rugby game before so that was good, but I still think I prefer American football. Paul runs this bike tour company, and he offered to give me a key to one of the bikes they use so I can get it whenever I want and bike around. Score! I had always kind of had this urge to bike around Paris, because walking gets kind of annoying and you can’t get very far. So that makes me happy.

Sunday: Lazy Sunday…wake up in the late afternoon. Well actually my “sleeping in” lasted until 10:35 despite my best efforts, but I added to my overall sleep by taking another nap (this one semi-inadvertently) while reading Harry Potter. I forgot how good those books were. I’m reading the 6th one and am having to ration it so it lasts longer (although I’ll finish in the next day or so). Kind of just hung out all day, then went to the home group at around 5:30. I helped Paul (the kiwi) make fajitas, so we ate well, had some more good beer/orangina/ginger ale (not all together) and a great discussion. They are all the nicest people, and I met some new ones. A guy Garth is from Australia and is hilarious. He is a musician and he was looking for a drummer, and I told him I played but wasn’t exactly amazing, but we are going to jam sometime so that should be fun. And this other guy Gene (but his name isn’t spelt like that, it’s spelt weird like Nd…somethingsomething) who is French.

So in conclusion, the weekend was a success.

I’m going to miss you all this week at Thanksgiving, so make sure to send some love (or turkey/stuffing/cheesy potatoes/monkey bread)

Brent 

Cap, As in Re-Cap

So Sunday was basically amazing. Waking up at 11:35 is just something I feel God is calling me to do more, but I may be reading the signals wrong. Anyways, hung out, got invited by my host parents to go to some Napoleonic mansion outside Paris to look at old porcelain, which I declined. Hung out. Then I left at 5ish to what is probably going to be my beacon of light over these next 5.4ish weeks till Christmas Break (can you tell I’m counting down?).

And this thing is the table group (kind of home/discussion group) with people from the church I went to Friday. There was me and 5 other awesome people, and I was the youngest by probably 9 years as they are all in their late 20s, which is fine by me, balances out all the high schoolers I see daily. I guess when I got there on time Justin/Jen (the people whose house it was at) knew I wasn’t French because, welp, I was on time. I met this awesome guy named Paul who’s from New Zealand who did a Rotary Exchange almost 10 years ago to Switzerland, and now lives in Paris and started a bike tour company with another guy at the church. It was amazing to talk to him, share some stories, and get advice and encouragement. Thank you Rotary for sending so many freaking people every year on exchanges, so at least I’m not as alone as I feel sometimes. But anyways, we drank some wine, some pop, some beer, and talked while the food was being cooked. The three other guys there are so nice and easy to get along with, so I felt perfectly comfortable for one of the few times since I’ve been here. We then ate, and had bible study. It was amazing to just dig into the word again with other people and bounce ideas and thoughts off of each other and get extremely off topic. It reminded me of bible study with Adam, minus all my best friends. Overall it was a great night, and that will be every Sunday night so definitely something to look forward to during the week.

Today, went to school, read a crap load, and just watched the most intense Lost episode probably ever.

Brent 

The Week In Review

Monday and Tuesday sucked. Again, the exchange is a freaking roller coaster, and I knew it was going to be hard after leaving Tyler to go back to school, but I basically just sat through school wondering what I was doing in France.

But alas, you can’t stay homesick forever, so the rest of the week was better. Thanks to Tyler letting me borrow Lost Season 2 I have something to look forward to when I come home at night.

My visa fiasco ended Thursday, which was even better coupled by the fact that I missed a three hour session of Math to go to my medical visit. I also got a sweet X-ray of my lungs (I’ve always kind of wanted an X-ray, I guess I can die happy now)/

Last night was amazing, I went to the Vintage Church in Paris. All the people I met were obscenely friendly and funny, and it was great to have some fellowship again. They have worship once a month (which is what last night was), and then they have home groups every week. It was really just down to earth and nonchurchy in a way I really like, so I will definitely be going back. It was really funny because they meet in this church where they rent out a room, and across the hall the Young Protestants were meeting. It was very ironic from the standpoint of what an American thinks about when he hears Youth Group, but there was beer flowing, wine, people smoking, people dancing on a stage to YMCA (we got invited in to teach them the motions). This guy Justin and I agreed it took Young Life’s outreach to a whole new level, and that if a church in America rented out their church to a youth group and came back finding anything similar to that, they would freak out. Also, Justin made the astute observation that “a lot more of my high school friends would have come to youth group if they’d known there was free beer.”

After me and 3 other guys went and grabbed a beer at “L’academie de la Bière” where I managed to spend 6.80 Euro on a beer (that’s basically the price their beers start at). But I had a great time, and a great discussion with them, and was reassured that everything I’ve been feeling over the past 2.5 months has been normal. Thus, I had an amazing night of fellowship and fun, which I will definitely be taking part in again.

Brent 

Germany

Sorry for the lack of a blog update this week, I just thought I’d keep you all waiting and give you a big ol’ recap today.

This week was basically amazing. I now know that I took for granted what a good friend means and what a meaningful conversation is worth. After being basically alone for two months, and mostly just having friends that are mere acquaintances, a week of kicking it with someone I truly know was just what I needed. I started out the week kind of worrying about what we were going to do the whole week, but I realized that doing nothing with a best friend is a thousand times better than doing something alone. On Sunday we watched 10 episodes of the second season of 24 and a lot of our other leisure time was spent either trying to find something we could understand on TV or eating. But that was more than I could have asked for. Tyler had this practicum thing Monday through Thursday where he worked for this guy until four, so I just slept in and started and finished the 5th Harry Potter. Sometimes Tyler’s host brother Phillipp would come home early from work (who, by the way, is the funniest German ever) and we’d hang out. Phillipp is the coolest kid. He’s so easy to get along with and has basically the same sense of humor as Tyler and I, so it was really fun to have him there. We also went to a party with his friends and played poker with them twice, which was really fun because they are all so funny and very receptive to Tyler and I’s “Americanness.” On Wednesday I got to go a friend’s house who I honestly never thought I would see again. He was an exchange student in Fort Collins two years ago and hung out with us a lot. Turns out the world is small and he lives about 15 minutes from Tyler, so I ate some good food at his house and we had a good talk. Tyler and I also met him for Coffee in Göttingen (about 35 minutes away) and had a great time. It was so good to see him, and he gave me some good advice and observations about this great thing we call an exchange. I’m kind of too lazy to go into specific detail about what we did each day, and you probably don’t have enough patience to read all of it, so I thought I’d just write a little bit. Love you all, and, obviously, something went wrong on the train ride home, as one of my trains was an hour late…awesome, but it wasn’t that bad, I watched 4 episodes of LOST oh my gosh intensity at its finest.

Brent

*we are sad to part :(