I Stay in Frankreich

So just a quick little update on my situation.

First of all thank you so much for anyone who prayed for me, thought about me, offered me encouragement, or helped me bash on the French during this past week and a half. I am so thankful to have people that care about me. I hope you all know how much you mean to me. Now, on to business.

So all went well at the little “conseil de classe” thing with all the teachers. Actually a lot of my teachers actually defended me (including my Philo teacher who was like “why are we grading him, he’s here to learn French”) and one of the class delegates who was in the meeting told me that the professors really didn’t have a problem with me and that the bad talk stuff going on probably just stemmed from rumors and misunderstandings. I guess they actually never even brought up throwing me out during the meeting so that’s good. I figure that means I have at least another trimester guaranteed in France! So I’m just going to keep working at school like I have been and hope that my teachers continue to see that even though my grades in Chemistry probably won’t improve substantially. So all goes well here in the land of Frenchys, except for the fact that I just failed my math test that I actually studied for, so that may not be the best start to the 2nd trimester, but alas, c’est la vie.

3 weeks until Christmas break. Yessssssss. And then the day after Christmas (granted I don’t have a major falling out with my host parents or rotary before then) I will be going on the greatest vacation of my life for two weeks with Rick and his dad. So something exciting to look forward to for little old me.

I love you all. Thanks again for your support!

Brent 

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 :( 

A Joyous Adventure, Joyous Beyond Words

In case you were not aware, Murphy’s Law is universal and the Europeans have adopted it.

But first, the good news. The train ride was pretty uneventful and actually fun. There was a really pretty sunset and I was in a booth thingy with 4 other really cool people (well, I only actually talked to two of them, after the other two got off) but they both live in Paris and talking was a good way to pass the time. We kind of had this weird conversation in French and English, as I started talking to this girl in French, and then there was a Lebanese guy who spoke French, but they both spoke good English, so we’d kind of randomly switch languages and it felt pretty good to be able to use both. Anyways, on to the good stuff.

So my ticket said that I had a direct route to Karlsruhe with no connections, and as on the way back my ticket shows a connection through Strasbourg I didn’t worry about any connections. So we get to the end of the train ride, and although I arrived on time, I arrived in the wrong city. I guess I was supposed to switch in Strasbourg (thanks for the heads up guys) so I was on a train that just went south for an hour and a half to some dumb French city called Mulhouse. Then, I proceeded to wait about an hour for the next train (I just thank God there was a next train) to take me back to Strasbourg (that’s another hour and a half mind you) so I could take the next train to Karlsruhe. I got to Strasbourg at about 1 o’clock, and as 1 AM isn’t exactly the prime takeoff time for trains, I had to wait around till 6:54 for the next train.

As the train man not so kindly informed me, the train station was closing, so I took my backpack and messenger bag and proceeded to embark on an excursion of Strasbourg in the middle of the night. Luckily Turkish restaurants close obscenely late, because I hadn’t eaten really anything since lunch. But alas, the Turkish restaurant wasn’t going to stay open until 6:54, so I had to leave, but the nice man working there let me know there was a Café (aka Bar) that was open till 4 AM. So I went there, grabbed some German beer, and watched the rest of Gangs of New York that I had yet to finish after starting on the train. Again, 4 AM is not 6:54 so I had to figure out what to do after they closed. It was actually a beautiful night, and feeling somewhat supercharged by the presence of my backpacking backpack, I proceeded to sleep for about an hour on the street. Well I guess I laid there for an hour, and probably slept for about half of that. I don’t really understand why it suddenly felt a lot colder when I woke up, but I felt that since the train station was open I should go there (although you can’t lay down at train stations) and try to get some warm sleep. I fell asleep kind of awkwardly on a bench (I’m extremely thankful I can fall asleep pretty much anywhere) until before I had to leave, so that helped the extreme boredom that was beginning to set in.

On the next train (where I am writing this now), the attendant lady tried to tell me that I needed to pay an extra 60 Euros because my train ticket wasn’t valid for the right connection from Karlsruhe to Goettingen (where Tyler is picking me up). Thanks so much to debate and my love of a good argument, I gently informed her (well as gently as can be after the extreme agitation I’ve been feeling about this whole ordeal) of what happened and that I didn’t feel I should have to pay since the reason I missed the right train was because of a screw up on the part of her company. My persuasion (or maybe my exceedingly good looks) succeeded, and she wrote a little note on the back of my ticket so I won’t have to pay when I switch. SCORE! Seriously, if I would have had to pay 60 extra Euros I would have freaked out. But as of right now, I’m watching the sunrise over the German country side and it is beautiful. So I’m content because of that, and also because I’ll be able to make a connection to Goettingen right after I get off this train, so that in total I’ll only be 3 hours late.


It’s Midnight and I’m here, in Hann. Meunden. I didn’t just get here, just haven’t had time yet to post this bad boy. Being reunited with one of my best friends is basically the best thing that could happen at this moment of time. I spent the last 5 minutes of the train ride barely able to control my joy and thus smiling uncontrollably without control. Today was amazing, although slightly uneventful. We walked around Hann. Meunden, which is beautiful and despite all joking, is the European garden of Eden. It’s fall so all the leaves are turning and it was actually really hot today. So Tyler showed me around and we took some pictures (those will come later, as I haven’t loaded them yet). I then took a nap which was supposed to last an hour, but ended up lasting 2 and a half, as either my alarm didn’t go off or I don’t know what. But after 19 hours of travel and maybe 3 hours of sleep, I think a little sleep was warranted. We ate some dinner and had an amazing conversation, then Phillipp (tyler’s host brother) got home from Volleyball and yet another great conversation ensued. I am loving life. More updates later.


Tchuss,

Brent


p.s sorry i tried to post this last night but blogger was down

2 Months + 1 day

Yesterday was 2 months.

Tomorrow I go to Germany.

Welp, that’s basically all that needs to be said.

Brent




















P.S That picture is not recent, my host family did not recently insert a pool in their apartment. Although that would be amazing 

“Whatever I have, wherever I am, I can make it through anything in the
One who makes me who I am”

That verse in Philippians somewhat sums up a lot of what I’ve been thinking about and struggling with. Before that Paul says “I’ve learned the secret of being content in any and every situation,” and my biggest struggle here is trying to find that secret of just being content with where I am. I will expand on this with a few examples.

I’ve realized that not many people are content with where they are. This is represented by a lot of conversations I have with people here that go somewhat like this.
Frenchy-“So have you been to New York?”
Me- “I’ve never been to New York City, but I’ve been to New York state”
Frenchy-“There’s a New York State?”
Me-“Uh..ya, it’s pretty big actually”
Frenchy-“Oh well New York is probably the best place in America, I definitely want to move there someday”
My thoughts-“And everyone in New York thinks Paris is the greatest place on earth and probably wants to move there too, but then when you switched you would both realize that you were happier where you started, and living in a city so draped in legend isn’t so great after all”

I guess that just goes along with what I said in an earlier post, about this exchange being a Christmas present. I spent so much time over the past year thinking about and wishing I was in France, all the while neglecting the fact that I was in the present moment living a perfectly happy life in (what I think is) the greatest place in America, and could die at any moment, so me wasting my time on the future was just that, wasting time. We spend so much time looking for that next stage in life, the next best thing, that we forget that nothing in life is guaranteed, not tomorrow, and definitely not next year. I think in order to really end the habit of always living in the future is to practice living in the present in the smaller things in life. Eating a meal and cherishing it as maybe the last meal you’ll ever eat, savoring every bite and being thankful, instead of simply pounding it down to satiate hunger and simply moving on to the day’s next activity. Or, while reading, simply taking in each page, each sentence, without worrying about when the chapter ends or what page you’re on. Only when we’re content with the little aspects of our life can we move on to be content with the overall. I think Gandalf says it best in the Lord of the Rings, "…All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us." Or Dumbledore in Harry Potter says it pretty well too, “It does not do to dwell on dreams, Harry, and forget to live.”

I said in my last post that I was a little homesick, which was true. Something random that my host mom said really made me think about that though. She was talking about how it gets annoying to always be cleaning, but then added a disclaimer that she wasn’t complaining, as so many people would give so much to have a nice apartment. Sometimes there are those things that people say that stick out in your mind, that they’ll probably never remember saying, but for some reason stick in your mind. I just started thinking that, although it is normal to miss home, I have absolutely nothing to complain about. At least I have a home to miss, a lot of people I see every day on the streets of Paris don’t even have that.

Last night I went to a big party that everyone in my class (the 30ish kids I spend most of the day with) and it was extremely fun. Being around them outside a school setting was relieving, as they are all so nice and fun to be around. There honestly isn’t one I dislike. There was a lot of dancing, which was really fun, as any song with English (in other words every song) I was expected to sing along to (although I knew less words than they did) because, well, I’m the American kid. But I was sitting there, and it suddenly popped into my head that I wouldn’t have rather been anywhere else. Just being with all these people that are so fun to be around, laughing, dancing, speaking French, being in France, and being in Paris on a beautiful night. I felt a little of what it was to be completely content in my circumstances, although I will admit it’s a lot easier to be content having fun than it is to be content going to high school. But you have to start somewhere!

So sorry if this is a little deeper than you may have expected, it’s just something I’ve been thinking about a lot and wanted to share it with you (plural).

Thanks for listening friends


Brent

P.S I am visiting Tyler in 3 days, although for these next three days I’m going to have to work on being content where I am, and not spend all my time thinking about vacation! 

I Seriously and Honestly Hate Titling These Things

So this week was okay I guess. Paying attention in school is tiring, as evidenced by the fact that I come home and basically fall asleep on my bed while reading most afternoons.

I went to the Sainte-Chapelle on Wednesday which was beautiful. It is the smallish church on Ile de la Cité (the same island as Notre Dame) with the room full of stained glass. It was used in the Middle Ages to hold a ridiculous amount of relics purchased by King Louis IX. I went on a tour with a really funny tour guide so I think that made really interesting, as she explained a lot of the architecture and the hidden meanings behind things. Highly recommended stop for those traveling to Paris, another recommended stop is…

202 Boulevard Malesherbes
Paris, France 75017

…where you can send me some goodies if you feel so led.

The rest of the week was just normal, didn’t do that much. I’m visiting Tyler in 5ish days, can’t wait, as I’m getting a wee bit homesick right about now. This weekend there is this big party that everyone in my class is going to on Saturday night, so that should be fun. I think I’m just gonna make up for all the parties I didn’t go to in high school and see how high I can get my BAC…or actually probably not. But that should be fun to hang out with everyone that I spend all day with outside of class. But tomorrow I have Sport in the morning, so I’ll be signing off right about now, as I’m going to go watch some Arrested Development (aka the greatest show on earth) that some heaven-sent person put on the internet. Thank you putter-of-arrested-development-on-the-internet man/woman, you shall be blessed in the after life.

Brent


 

This is the day, this is the day that the Lord did do…

These last two days have been a lot better than the last weekend. Yesterday I talked to my principal, told him I was sorry I was lazy, and told him that I was going to work harder. He was nice in talking to me, so that was a relief. That’s basically what I needed to get all that I was worrying off my chest so I was happy to have that over with.

Oh, also yesterday I only had 3 hours of school, so that was also a bonus.

I realized paying attention for an entire day in a foreign language is tiring, as I found out today after school when I fell asleep reading.

Today I scored some points (hopefully) with my head teacher, the one who talked to my host mom. I decided to bring my book to class (actually it was the wrong book I think), and she needed a book, and with my new strategy of not sitting in the back of class, I was able to let her use my book. Score number 1. Second, we started talking about the nucleus of an atom, and right after we started talking about it I looked up the word (it’s noyau in French), and directly after that she was like “let’s see…Brent…what’s in a nucleus.” I felt maybe a little spite in her voice, maybe a little “ha, let’s see if this stupid American knows anything.” My first response would have made the response “no” if that had been here thinking, as I said electron (I was thinking of an atom, I mean how long’s it been since I’ve thought about that stuff) but then I quickly corrected my thinking and answered the question. Therefore, I felt as if I proved a little something to my teacher about my new work ethic (although I honestly understand very little in that class). Score number 2. I think I just need to score a little every day to dig myself out of the hole I started with her.

I also had a quite funny (well, actually it wasn’t that funny) conversation with this kid who asks me constant questions about America, but is actually really nice. He started of (in French, bien sûr) saying “do you have a lot of blacks in your high school” and then in English said “a lot of n******.” I told him he shouldn’t say that, and he said “why, all the rappers say it.” So I was then forced to explain to him the finer aspects of the N-bomb and how being black, you are able to say it, but if you want to keep living, then as a white person you probably shouldn’t say that in the presence of black people.

The other day I met a really nice American on the bus. I was basically on top of him as there were a lot of people, and I heard him speaking English to his friend. Now, I usually don’t do this, but I got up a little courage and said “hey, I couldn’t help but hear you, are you American?” His response was “yeah, are you?” I responded “yes,” and his very genial response was “good for you.” (I think he thought I was just a dumb tourist…but I was still very glad to have become acquainted with him!)

Brent

Blog-ness

Sorry this has been a few days in coming; it may get a little long and bogged down. Feel free to skim through, read a sentence or two, and then comment as if you read the whole thing. I won’t feel bad, I might not even know.

So Thursday was probably one of the funnest (Microsoft Word tells me funnest is not a word…ha, I’ll show them) days I’ve had since I’ve been here. I didn’t have my first two classes so I slept in till 9:25, then got to school at ten and we all found out our Biology teacher was gone. That meant I had four hours till my next class. So my friends and I went to my friend Guillaume’s house, listened to music, played some foosball, and watched some MTV (which was quite entertaining for me). It was extremely fun to just hang out with them. My 3 hours of math after that were not as fun, but I made it through, and then that night I went and had dinner with Rene’s sister Callie, who was in Paris on business, and who I had never met before. She was extremely nice, and I loved the conversation we had. It was great to have someone I actually had some connection with (Camp Elim etc) and that I could have a legitimate conversation with. It also helped that this conversation was over an amazing dinner at an amazing restaurant amazingly paid for by Callie’s company. Thank you expense accounts. This means we both got entrées (we still don’t know what I got), a bottle of wine, some good meat, crème brulée, and coffee. Basically amazing.

Friday, I walked around the Latin Quarter (which, unlike Rick Steve, I enjoy thoroughly), took some mediocre pictures, and had a pint (hey, it was happy hour, can’t pass that up) while reading the Message. Pretty successful night…until I find out that my host mom had talked to my head teacher and I guess she was somewhat unhappy with my performance at school. A large difference between the French and Americans (besides the French being extremely more rigid) is that a French person that you don’t really know (aka a teacher) will never talk to you directly and tell you what you are doing wrong or what you need to change. So, I really would have liked to have simply known from my teacher what her expectations of me were, as I was confused because I am not taking their large test at the end of the year etc. Regardless, I was lazy, so that is going to change on Monday.

Saturday. I had Sport this morning at 8, shot putted around for about 2 hours, came home, napped, ate, and then went and hung out with Victor, my friend Guillaume, and his girlfriend Marine. Guillaume is one of my best French friends and is extremely funny, and his girlfriend is very nice (I believe I say extremely a lot) so it was fun to hang out with them. This weekend is the big “Fête de la Science” (Science Festival) in Paris, so there are a lot of expositions at schools and all the science museums are free, so we went to one at the Palais de la Decouverte. We couldn’t really find it at first, which turned into a fun game of Victor and I asking random people where it was. It was a game because sometimes Victor and I would speak English to French people and pretend like we didn’t understand (you have to remember Victor speaks fluent English), or I would speak English very poorly to English speaking people (as if I didn’t speak any English) and Victor would pretend he knew a little more English than I, or I would speak French to English speaking people and pretend I didn’t speak any English. Sorry if that was kind of confusing, but it was really funny to go up to random people and jack around with them. The museum was interesting, but my friends all kind of went home pretty early so that kind of sucked. It was my host dad’s birthday today (of which I had no knowledge) and I had told my host mom I wouldn’t be home for dinner (as I didn’t know it was his birthday), so I just ended up having dessert and wine with them and their guests, which was good. I had some 1978 wine…I’m telling myself I could taste a difference but I may just be lying.

Oh, one more thing, last night I basically saw the funniest thing ever on the metro. I walk on to the train and hear this ridiculous techno music, see these speakers with a walkman hooked up, and then look around to see this ridiculous (I really don’t know how else to describe it) kid with bleached, short hair with the little shaved designs in it, getting his groove on really close to all the people on the metro while holding out a cup for money. He actually seemingly made a lot, so maybe as a celebration he decided as his grand finale to stand right in front of me (not facing me, but directly in front) and unbutton most of his shirt and dance. I couldn’t help but laugh. It also made me decide that that is one of my goals before I leave, to try to garner some cash on the metro by doing something ridiculous. This will most likely come in June, right before I leave.

I tried to post this yesterday but I guess it didn’t work. Well, I guess I’ll update you on today. Slept 12 hours, ate, walked through the Luxembourg Gardens, came home.

You are all beautiful people

Brent

Some things I’ve noticed…

I’m still really bad at introducing myself, turns out I haven’t heard anyone besides me say “je m’appelle” so unless someone introduces me it can get semi awkward.

I still can’t drink wine without leaving residue on the glass, on my lips, or on my teeth.

Sudoku is an amazing way to pass time in class.

I don’t have to go to Spanish anymore, WOOT WOOT.

Unless I take everyday as it comes and stop worrying about tomorrow (or stop getting uber excited for my vacations) then this year is going to go by way too quickly.

There’s just something about drinking a glass of wine at a Parisian café…

This exchange is kind of like a Christmas present. I wished and hoped for it for so long, and now that I got it I want to move on to something else.

I need to not want to move on to something else.

I am truly blessed with a few good friends (I just wish they had more time to hang out, or spent less time with their girlfriends).

I hate seeing something that I find very funny, and that my friends would also find very funny, but not being able to share that with them and thus being forced to laugh awkwardly by myself.

I still hate shaving.

If I didn’t have my MP3 player I would be in an awful mood every morning.

Normandy is beautiful (just not every weekend).

I <3 Wine, Cheese, and Bread.

There are ignorant people everywhere, not just in America.

Responding to the questions “So do you like George Bush?” and “What do you think about Iraq?” gets pretty annoying.

It’s probably not a good idea to try to read a book that, when every French student who sees it says, “oooh, I couldn’t even understand half of that book”

The greatest thing about being an exchange student is the universally applicable excuse of “oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t understand.”

I have awful table manners.

My awful table manners are often corrected by my host mom.

It is difficult to explain what a Cornucopia is in French...very difficult. What makes it even more difficult is the fact that as I tried to draw it the kid I was explaining it to thought I was drawing a picture of Cartman from South Park, obviously my drawing prowess hasn't improved despite all my doodling during class. Well, Practice makes Perfect.

I am done writing this, because I emptied my brain of imaginative thinking.

Bisous,

Brent

This Little Weekend of Mine, I’m Gonna Let It Shine

So basically my weekend consisted of this. I got up to go to Sport at an unholy hour on Saturday morning, showed my shot put who was boss and launched her 9.5 meters (I hope you’re all proud of me, it was the longest in the class, and for any of you who thought I had totally atrophied after I stopped playing hockey, I leave that fact as proof against your assumption). Anyways, on to my weekend. So turns out (as I have no prior knowledge of anything that happens in this apartment) my host brother’s girlfriend was over for the weekend (she lives in Brussels), and we were having lunch with her and her parents. So, champagne and wine ensued (as always), as well as semi awkward conversation (well I guess it wasn’t really an awkward conversation, more like as always I sit and don’t say much, because whenever I realize I can say something and figure out how to say it, then they are really far past that subject and it would be ridiculous for me to bring it up). I then proceeded to nap for about an hour, then my host parents and I headed off to Normandy…again. I don’t really get why we left, as the parents were staying in a hotel (and I figured if they got along at least half way decently they would hang out together over the weekend), and the host brother/host girlfriend were staying in the same room in the apartment…kinda awkward.

The weekend in Normandy, although beautiful weather wise, was nothing to write home about (although I guess that’s what I’m doing now). Although there was a pretty funny conversation that took place as we were driving there. Keep in mind this is at about 6:40 at night, and roughly translated from French.
Host Dad: “So we’re going to go to mass at 7, would you like to come”
Me: (Thinking he means in the morning) “ya, sure, I’d love to”
…Silence…
Me: (rethinking) “umm, maybe not, I think I want to sleep, you know, I only get one day out of the week to sleep in”
Host Mom: “So you want us to leave you in the car?”
Me: “uhhh?? Oh, it’s tonight, like in 20 minutes, alright, ya sure.”
Okay maybe that’s not as funny as I thought it was, but my favorite part is when my host mom asked me if I wanted them to leave me in the car.

Anyways we went to mass (extremely boring, but in a really pretty church), I ate, I slept for 12 hours, I read a ton, and then we drove home.

I was supposed to meet Rene’s sister for dinner last night, as she is in Paris on business, but her phone didn’t work so it didn’t work out. I, not wanting to sit around with my host family any more, decided to go search for her at her hotel. No luck. Then I went to Notre Dame, because Rene said she might have gone there, so I decided there was an off chance I’d see her, and it was also a beautifully perfect night. Notre Dame is beautiful at night, and I walked around the Latin Quarter and ate some probably not fully cooked Greek, but overall it was a success, except of course, for finding Rene’s sister.

Basically every Sunday night I want to kill myself thinking about waking up for school in the morning, but today wasn’t that bad. I only had 4 hours of classes, because my Spanish teacher was gone and it turns out it’s pointless for me to go to English (who knew?), so I no longer have to attend that awful, awful class, but I will probably have another, hopefully more useful class like French, during those hours.

Today I I officially became European. I walked through Montmartre, took artsy pictures, went to a Café, drank a beer, smoked a cigar, and read Victor Hugo. I believe I have fulfilled my duty of becoming fully immersed in a culture, and I am coming home tomorrow.

Brent

Actually, I am not coming home, sorry to falsely excite you all.


Translation of Picture:

Sign—The Portrait of my Master
Below, still on sign—Author/Anonymous Work

 

This Little Weekend of Mine, I’m Gonna Let It Shine

So basically my weekend consisted of this. I got up to go to Sport at an unholy hour on Saturday morning, showed my shot put who was boss and launched her 9.5 meters (I hope you’re all proud of me, it was the longest in the class, and for any of you who thought I had totally atrophied after I stopped playing hockey, I leave that fact as proof against your assumption). Anyways, on to my weekend. So turns out (as I have no prior knowledge of anything that happens in this apartment) my host brother’s girlfriend was over for the weekend (she lives in Brussels), and we were having lunch with her and her parents. So, champagne and wine ensued (as always), as well as semi awkward conversation (well I guess it wasn’t really an awkward conversation, more like as always I sit and don’t say much, because whenever I realize I can say something and figure out how to say it, then they are really far past that subject and it would be ridiculous for me to bring it up). I then proceeded to nap for about an hour, then my host parents and I headed off to Normandy…again. I don’t really get why we left, as the parents were staying in a hotel (and I figured if they got along at least half way decently they would hang out together over the weekend), and the host brother/host girlfriend were staying in the same room in the apartment…kinda awkward.

The weekend in Normandy, although beautiful weather wise, was nothing to write home about (although I guess that’s what I’m doing now). Although there was a pretty funny conversation that took place as we were driving there. Keep in mind this is at about 6:40 at night, and roughly translated from French.
Host Dad: “So we’re going to go to mass at 7, would you like to come”
Me: (Thinking he means in the morning) “ya, sure, I’d love to”
…Silence…
Me: (rethinking) “umm, maybe not, I think I want to sleep, you know, I only get one day out of the week to sleep in”
Host Mom: “So you want us to leave you in the car?”
Me: “uhhh?? Oh, it’s tonight, like in 20 minutes, alright, ya sure.”
Okay maybe that’s not as funny as I thought it was, but my favorite part is when my host mom asked me if I wanted them to leave me in the car.

Anyways we went to mass (extremely boring, but in a really pretty church), I ate, I slept for 12 hours, I read a ton, and then we drove home.

I was supposed to meet Rene’s sister for dinner last night, as she is in Paris on business, but her phone didn’t work so it didn’t work out. I, not wanting to sit around with my host family any more, decided to go search for her at her hotel. No luck. Then I went to Notre Dame, because Rene said she might have gone there, so I decided there was an off chance I’d see her, and it was also a beautifully perfect night. Notre Dame is beautiful at night, and I walked around the Latin Quarter and ate some probably not fully cooked Greek, but overall it was a success, except of course, for finding Rene’s sister.

Basically every Sunday night I want to kill myself thinking about waking up for school in the morning, but today wasn’t that bad. I only had 4 hours of classes, because my Spanish teacher was gone and it turns out it’s pointless for me to go to English (who knew?), so I no longer have to attend that awful, awful class, but I will probably have another, hopefully more useful class like French, during those hours.

Today I I officially became European. I walked through Montmartre, took artsy pictures, went to a Café, drank a beer, smoked a cigar, and read Victor Hugo. I believe I have fulfilled my duty of becoming fully immersed in a culture, and I am coming home tomorrow.

Brent

Actually, I am not coming home, sorry to falsely excite you all.


Translation of Picture:

Sign—The Portrait of my Master
Below, still on sign—Author/Anonymous Work

 

I Hate Making Titles for These

Let’s see. Yesterday we had dinner with the really funny speaking people from Quebec that we met randomly in a café in Bayeux and saw again randomly and had lunch with at Mont St. Michel. They came over and I had fun listening to their RIDICULOUS accent, drinking champagne and wine, and eating some good food/cheese/bread. Probably one of my highlights every night is eating my host mother’s amazing cooking, as well as eating amazing French cheese on amazing French bread. Other than that, I didn’t do very much yesterday. Actually, I did go to a Café for two hours, had a glass of wine (which I wouldn’t have had if I knew we were having company, but I’m pretty out of the loop here, as in they don’t tell me anything that’s going on, so it’s not my fault), listened to a Rob Bell sermon, read, and worked on my little report for the French Rotary people I have to write.

Today…today. Friday’s are usually pretty good because I just have labs in Bio and Physics then one or two hours of Math. But today my teeth were really hurting me for some reason, so I came home, took a nap, and have pretty much just been rocking out in my room since 1. We are going to the country home again this weekend (kind of over going there every weekend, especially when my host brother stays at home), but what can you do? I also have Sport tomorrow at 10 (AWESOME, YES, AMAZING!). This was probably extremely boring to read, but I really don’t have any funny anecdotes or stories to put in. I’m going to go watch a movie my host parents gave me to watch, Amadeus, about Mozart. Hopefully it’s good. Well, I’ll let you know Sunday how the weekend/my movie was.

A Bientôt

Brent

“Why count the days, when one is enough for a man to know all of
happiness?

-Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Brother’s Karamazov

That quote pretty much explains today.

-I only had 4 hours of school
-I ate an amazing 60 Euro lunch at Rotary (don’t worry, it was on Rotary)
-Rotary gave me 80 Euros
-I FINALLY got everything worked out for my Visa, hooray! (my medical visit is Nov 9th)
-I now have no need to worry about my Visa situation
-It was unexpectedly sunny and nice
-It was very sunny and nice
-I went on a walk in this beautiful park, Parc Montsouris (guided by my friend Rene’s amazing present of 50 City Walks: Paris, which is my new favorite pastime)
-I got to take pictures that I now share with you (although I did edit them a tad)
-I fell asleep in the grass, in the sunlight
-I read, in the grass, in the sunlight
-I had a legitimate conversation with my host parents at dinner, that did not simply consist of me preemptively nodding my head to what they were saying, and then getting caught having no idea what they said
-I don’t have school till 9 tomorrow
-Oh ya, and I live in Paris

Brent!

 

The Confession Of An Ardent Heart, In Verse

The Yom Kippur Party I did not attend.
T’was a party of a friend’s friend
And if friend One can go not
Joyful, it can be not

So to Montmartre I traveled
At Sacré Coeur I marveled
As I sat on the Terrace
A Café, and Victor Hugo, took away the coldness

The clouds let out their rain
Sitting in Sacré Coeur, I felt sane
In the quiet, in the still
My joy, fulfilled

Today,
Was Today,
Nothing significant,
To say 

The Weekend I Live for the Weekend

In my humble opinion, I’d say this weekend was a success. Had P.E Saturday morning. I’m throwing shot put which is kind of funny. Then me, Victor, and Gabriel (the one’s in the pictures from a little while ago) went to Gabriel’s apartment (close to the Eiffel Tower) and made lunch. Gabriel got sick, so then Victor and I headed out into the Latin Quarter to hang out. We visited the Pantheon, where all the old, famous Frenchmen are buried. It was beautiful, but kind of a letdown inside. I mean, you can only look at Voltaire’s grave for so long before it becomes a little boring. Good thing I got in for free because I’m “under 18.” Then we walked through the Luxembourg Gardens, which are beautiful, and even more so with the falling leaves. Basically we walked a lot. We looked in a bunch of stores (books, cds, clothes) and I actually bought some clothes! I found a store where not everything in the display was over 100 Euros, so I went in and bought a 2 track jackets (1 for 7 euros…ridiculous! And the other for 20) so I’m pretty content with my first clothing purchases in Paris. Basically we walked a lot, but it was really fun. It was great to talk to him, as he is extremely nice, and I can feel my French improving daily.

I figured since this was my first Sunday since I arrived that I was in Paris, I would try to go to church, so I went to the American Church of Paris. It was in a really pretty building, and there were lots of people there. It felt weird having so many people speak English around me. The Pastor-ess kind of annoyed me. She pretty much spoke to us like we were a group of 4 year olds at story time, so it was a little hard for me to get into the message, as in I can’t even really recall what it was about, except I do remember her talking about some Anime movie she watched with her daughter. But we had communion so that was good. Not sure if I’ll be going back, wasn’t exactly the greatest experience I’ve had at a church, but it was still good to go. I went back home for lunch (wasn’t planning on it as I was pretty far away but then my host dad called), then went back out again to visit the Picasso Museum. Most of the museums are free on the first Sunday of the month, so that’s why I went. I was lucky and missed the line, and walked around there for a while. Some things I noticed: Picasso really liked guitars, like really liked them. All his naked pictures look the same (not naked pictures of him, like the one’s he drew, you get the point). His cubism is really cool (although sometimes I’d stand in front of a picture, read the title, and spend the next 5 minutes trying to figure out what the crap was happening without success). And Museums aren’t my favorite thing ever (I’d much rather walk around the streets and take pictures). Then I went to this awesome Café that’s set up like a living room, had myself a glass of really good wine, and read and worked on my SPU essay for 2 hours. It was amazing. I then walked around some more, and was basically pretty content with life. I still am basically content with life because I don’t have school till 2 tomorrow (because it’s Yom Kippur and I have 2 Jewish teachers) and because I got invited to a Yom Kippur party tomorrow night (lots of food). So I’ll be getting back to you about that. Thanks for reading friends.

Brent

P.S. The pictures are from today (Sunday) because I used Victor’s camera yesterday and don’t have the pictures yet