Salut!

We did our last concert of the year yesterday.  The class will start again on 5th Sept and I won’t be joining them.    I’ve handed over my costumes to another girl and sold my shoes.  Time’s up.

I enjoyed the classes and the time spent with the girls.  But I can’t say I particularly like Irish Dancing in itself.  So I’ve decided to get out my rollerbaldes as soon as I get to Tours!  I would like to learn Arabic too…

I’m really getting stuck into the packing now.  I’ve taken down my bathroom fittings and filled the holes, just got to paint over them now.  I had a bit of a disaster with my insurace…I wasn’t able to insure my storage facility if I left the country.  I went to a different compagny and they didn’t ask me, so I didn’t volonteer the information - so all is good!  Although they refused to insure me against theft, which seems rather stupid.  I’ll just have to spend 6 months praying someone doesn’t nick off with my sofa.

ho hum!

This might have been out for ages in the UK…but I just saw it today on French TV and it made me laugh lots.  Sooooo true!!  And if you can understand the french it’s because his accent is AWFUL!!!

http://www.strategies.fr/creations/119306/fred-farid-pour-mcvitie-s.html    (French version)

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kefrafx0YZI     (English version)

With a week to go before the big move I’m pottering about and trying to tie up all the loose ends.  I’m not feeling that stressed yet becuase in my head I will really start to pack on Monday!  I have a weekend before me with 2 dance shows coming up.  Oh what fun!

I’m filling in the application form for France Mission.  They ask lots of difficult questions about what I believe about creation and gifts of the spirit etc.  It’s a bit draining having to think of good answers in French!

The best part of each day at the moment is the morning.  YES - you heard me right!!!  I think everyone should grow strawberries then there would be no morning un-happiness ever again.  Each morning when it’s nice and cool, I go down to the garden and see how many lovely, juicy strawberries are ready to be eaten with my muesli.  There’s only usually about 2, but that’s just perfect chopped up in my cereal.  Simple pleasures!

I was in Aberystwyth this weekend for the wedding of my friends Rebecca and Paul.  It was the most picture perfect wedding ever!  I kept expecting Hugh Grant would walk round the corner…

I was at Uni with Rebecca.  We were on the same corridoor in halls for our first year and we lived together during our 2nd.  All 5 of the girls in the house were there for the big event.  It was soooo lovely to be back together again.  I miss them!

The happy couple and assorted uni friends with husbands, babies and bumps.

The 5 of us

The French like to go on stirke at the drop of a hat and march through the streets of Paris in a party like atmosphere.  Apart from messing up the bus routes a bit, it doesn’t bother anyone that much.

But at the moment French farmers are protesting about the price of milk.  (I think they have a fair point!)  But they have blocked the distribution points of major supermarket chains.  So can I get hold of milk or other fresh produce?  No!!  The supermarket shelves are getting emptier and emptier.  Thankfully I’m off to Wales tomorrow for a wedding.  Lets hope by Monday something is sorted out!

After a short night of sleep I hit the road early to make it to Orleans in time for the Sunday service.  It was my good friend Hilary’s 40th birthday. 

We went straight to the Loire after the service and canoed for about 2 hours, stopping for a champagne break on a sand bank! 

After that we munched a big BBQ until well into the evening.  It was a great day. 

We just did our first Irish Dancing concert!!  It was very scary, far too hot, but good fun nevertheless!

Check out our classy costumes and the concentration on my face!

Up early tomorrow to get to Orleans in time for the service and then kayaking on the Loire…I’ll explain more later!

Yesterday it was my last day giving French lessons.  It was a fun day but very exhausting!  The classes run 9am - 12noon.  At 12 ladies from the church arrived and set about putting on a meal for the students.  It was a fun way to say goodbye.  I was hoping that it would be a ministry the church would be able to continue with, but recently the ’school’ was inspected and was told it couldn’t use a place of worship to give secular lessons.  So unfortunatly the school has to find new premises next year.

A girl called Regina, from Romania asked me to explain what her horoscope meant.  I said I would, but that God didn’t like that and tells us in the Bible that only He knows our future.  She looked at me horrified and threw the paper in the bin!

  This is Sonia. She is one of my favourite students.  She is from Ethiopia and arrived at the school the same week as me.  At the beginning she cried a lot but she seems to be settling in well and making progress.

  These 3 boys are all from Afganistan.  They can only speak their own language, Farsi, and they can only just read it.  Learning to speak and write a new language with a new alphabet is REALLY difficult for them.  All of them paid a lot of money to get to France and at least one of them is now sleeping rough.  They are lost, homesick and lonely.

Please pray for these kids.  That they would be able to live happy and peaceful lives and that they would one day come to know their father God.

Cream crackered!  Phew!

My last day giving literacy classes, a meal for over 30 students and a big dress rehersal for our Irish Dancing concert tomorrow night. 

A BIG lie in tomorrow…and then I’ll show you some photos.  Promise.

Today is the 65th anniversary of D Day.  And of slightly less importance it is my 3rd anniversary of my arrival in France. 

2 years of learning and growing in Orleans.  Getting to know wonderful people and learning to live in this great country.  1 difficult year here in Paris, supported by ‘old’ friends from Orleans and new ones from here.

I rolled up in Orleans with all my worldly goods packing into a transit and driven by 2 good friends from Preston.  We arrived 2.5hrs late and the church had organised a surprize bbq for us.  By the time we arrived they were all starving!  I remember being totally overwhelmed with all the people saying hello.  And by the time we ‘escaped’ to a bar in the evening, the only 2 young people there told us that it was the first time they’d been out for a beer in years.  My heart sunk!  Those 2 young people became 2 of my best friends here in France - and I can’t remember going back to a bar again with them!!

What do the next 3 years hold?