Noël

Reading through Isaiah chapter 8 is a journey into depression. Isreal and Aram have turned against Judah. The king of Judah, rather than trusting God, is planning to pay Assyria to attack Isreal and Aram. God, by way of the prophet Isaiah, warns the king against this plan and even offers to give him a sign to prove His power. However, the king of Judah rejects God and decides to instead rely on Assyria and their idols.

Therefore God tells the king what the consequences of his choice are going to be. Assyria will indeed demolish Isreal and Aram- and then it will proceed to destroy Judah as well. Because Judah has feared foreign peoples and their idols more than they feared their own God, refusing even to acknowledge Him, YHWH will hide His face from them. We know because of history that this "hiding" lasted 300 years, long after the eventual deportation of both Isreal and Judah.
But in all this they will refuse to repent. As they wander the land, thirsty and hungry, they will curse their God and their king. They will look around them and see "distress and darkness, gloom and anguish."

Then, suddenly and unexpectedly, a light will burst into this cloud of darkness in the most unlikely place: Galilee, a part of Israel that has been corrupted by intermarriage with gentiles. This light will cause the struggling nation to multiply and give them joy. They will break free from hundreds of years of bondage against all odds, just as Gidean and his poorly-armed rag-tag crew defeated thousands of Midianites.

How is all this possible? A new king will rise, a new descendant of the great king David. He will restore the government of honor and wisdom that has been lacking for hundreds, even thousands of years in Israel. He will be a wise counselor and a prince of peace, the ultimate ruler of the tribe of Judah. Even more amazing, his reign will be eternal and he will be called "Mighty God." His kingdom will be established in righteousness and justice and it will be upheld with the same. "The zeal of YHWH of hosts will accomplish this."

Wow! Talk about deliverance! Though Isreal didn't deserve Him, God sent a Messiah. Then God opened His kingdom to those who weren't even looking for it. Simply incredible.

Home! All the details!

Here is the account of one international adventure. We start our tale in the air above London on December 18th, 2010. Two United Airlines flights had spent 8 hours in the air and crossed nearly the entire Atlantic ocean when they were informed that they would not be able to land in London. Snow clouds had moved in and the airport was completely shut down. They pointed their noses south and, much to the consternation of their passengers, touched down at Charles de Gaule airport in Paris.

Meanwhile, I was packing the final items into my suitcase. I looked out the window. So far so good. Snow was in the forecast but it wasn't falling yet. The storm the weekend before had shut down the Paris airports because of only a couple of inches of snow. If the snow started falling, my flight might not be leaving. I jumped in bed for some quick sleep.

4 hours later my alarm went off. I dragged my luggage downstairs where my wonderful friends C and B were waiting for me. As I carried the bags to the car, snow was falling from the sky at a steady rate and already starting to accumulate on the ground. It continued falling during the whole drive to the airport. We saw an accident that bottled up traffic for 5 or 10 minutes, emphasizing the fact that Paris isn't really used to snow.

I went through airport check-in without any problems and was one of the first people into the waiting area. The sun had finally come up but it was a pale light hidden behind several layers of clouds. The snow was falling heavily now. We could see tractors and salt trucks driving all over the place, trying to clear off the major paths and runways. One of the other passengers, who had wireless on his cell phone, told us that according the United Airlines website our flight was to be delayed an hour and 15 minutes- we would leave at 1:00. Looking out the window, we wondered if we would leave at all. He also told us that the airport had been closed to all incoming flights. The only reason we could leave at all was because of those 2 flights that had not been able to land in London the night before. They were now refueled and ready to return to the US.

As 1:00 approached it was obvious that we would not be leaving on time. The tractors finally plowed out the path for our airplane at about 12:45, and they announced that the flight would be leaving at 1:40. Then they said that boarding would begin at 1:20. We all snickered. Never in the history of humankind has an international airplane boarded in 20 minutes, much less boarded and then taken off. Our plane actually showed up at about 1:45. Boarding started at 2:00 and continued until about 2:45. Then we sat in the airplane for 45 minutes. The cockpit channel on the radio provided the details- the snow plows, in their zeal for clearing the main road, had created a wall of snow behind our airplane and we couldn't back out. Finally they came back through and cleared our way. Then we sat in line for de-icing for 45 minutes. Finally, at 4:00, we lifted off from Paris.

We arrived in Washington DC a good 4 hours late. I was exhausted and I had a headache. In Paris it was already midnight. I had been awake for 20 hours, and I had only had 4 hours of sleep the night before. They told us to go get our bags and check in at the counter, but they didn't specify in which order we should do those things. I took a guess and waited for my bags first. That ended up being a very good choice, even though my bags were nearly the last ones off the plane.

When I got to the counter they told me that I would be flying to Chicago at 6:00 the next morning. Then they said maybe it would be better if I flew to Chicago that night and slept in the terminal there, then took the flight to my destination the next morning. Either way, I would be sleeping in a terminal. I said I would rather fly to Chicago. I knew that major snowstorms were supposed to hit Washington, Chicago, and my destination the next day and I figured the closer I was to home the less likely I was to get stuck in the storm or miss transfers due to weather delays.

Then the guy said maybe he could find a flight for me on another airline. Sure enough, he found one. He asked me if I already had my bags. I said yes. He slapped some stickers on them and told me that my plane was supposed to leave in 20 minutes. Boarding had already started and I had better get through customs quickly.

I rushed down the hallway. To my relief the customs lady looked tired and bored. She accepted my brief and somewhat non-descriptive description of Speculoos and waved me through. I tossed my suitcases on the belt and then got in line for security. My bag was labled as highly suspicious and they had to dig through it to find the dangerous device that nobody in Paris had bothered to notice- a half empty tube of toothpaste. That disaster averted, they allowed me to sprint down the hallway and into the concourse. I screeched to a halt at the correct gate and saw, to my relief, that the flight was running 45 minutes late.

That flight was nice and empty. We even arrived in Chicago ahead of time! Then I got to explore the labyrinth that is O'Hare. I had to switch airlines, so I went from one end of the airport to the other. It felt like more than a quarter mile. When I got there another girl was asking about her bags. She apparently hadn't gotten the nifty stickers like I had gotten back in Washington. The guy at the desk said that she would have to go back and get her bags, then go through security- except that security was already closed for the night. So he called a buddy of his in the baggage area and asked him to do a personal favor- look out for the girls bags and if he saw them, have somebody take them over to the correct airplane. Oh my. I hope she got her bags!

We got on the plane and landed at my final destination just before midnight. I had been traveling for more than 24 hours. My bags weren't there, but they did show up the next day. And sure enough, the airports got covered with snow. My family drove back home on very icy roads and fairly heavy snowfall. What a trip!

C1

Yay! I got my results back and I am C1 in all 4 of the French competencies. Praise God for His amazing faithfulness!
In other news, I'm flying home in two days. Hopefully I'll see you there!

Dragging Sin Like a Plow.

Isaiah 5:18-20

"Woe to those who drag iniquity with the cords of falsehood, and sin as if with cart ropes."

What an image. I can identify. We think that we are enjoying our sin but we soon realize that it is dragging behind us like a plow. We become chained to our sin by the lies that we use in our attempts to hide it from God and from others and, even worse, to hide it from ourselves. We drag that burden around like a workhorse.

We think nobody sees what we are doing. With our mouths we talk about how we want to see a move of God, how we want revival, how we hope that He will return soon to straighten out the earth. The whole time we are dragging our own sin behind us and we aren’t willing to admit that it is there. How can we ask God to draw near while at the same time we are trying to hide our sin from Him? How can we ask Him to move when we won’t let Him move in us?

In verse 20 we see men who serve God with their mouths but lie to hide their sin. Eventually they either deceive themselves or become so invested in hiding their sin that they begin to call sinful things acceptable or even good. Sinful things can not be good in a person’s sight for very long before the scale shifts entirely and good also becomes evil. You can not be on both sides of the table at once. In this complex, multi-layered deception, they exchange light for dark and darkness for light. Bitter becomes sweet, and sweet bitter. When you have no real reference it is frightening how dramatically you can change your understanding.

Often, if not always, it starts with one person wanting to hide a sin from themselves, from others, and from God. Rather than deal with it, they justify it. Others pick up this justification, which is itself a form of justification (the more people embrace it, the more it is “normal”) and soon massive numbers of people have invested in this cover for their sin. There are a lot of vested interests to keep the lie in place, many of them viewing their role as a service to their neighbor and to God because of the “peace” or “grace” it provides. It takes a major shaking to rip such an important investment out of the hands of so many shareholders.

Concert de Noël

Once again this year we did a concert for the folks in a local nursing home. Fortunately one of my classmates was recording this year, so you can hear how it went. The first song is "Les Anges dans nos campagnes." I honestly don't remember what this is called in English. Somebody help me out.

The second is "Voici Noël," which in English is Silent Night.

It was neat to sing for the elderly folks. When we were singing in the main dining room a little lady stood up and started conducting us. In the second song you can hear one of the ladies appreciating our singing :-) Oh là là! We performed each of our three songs three times (at least) because the building had several floors. During the final stop in the dining room one of our professors shared his thoughts about "Noël." It was special.

Oh! Champs Elysees

Last Saturday night a group of us went into Paris to witness the decorations on the Champs Elysees. I was thinking that perhaps it would be my last trip into Paris, but I think I'll make one more trip this upcoming weekend. There are some things I want to see one last time and I discovered a train ticket that I didn't know I had.
Here are some pictures from the festivities:

This picture is from the east end of the Champs Elysees, not far from Place de Concorde.

This ice sculpture of the Eiffel Tower was just ahead of where I took the last picture.

This booth was really cool. A German guy and his family make a wide variety of sculptures out of scrap metal and nuts and bolts. I think this moose was my favorite.

Here are some of the other creations.

We crossed the street and headed back towards the Arche de Triomphe. As we crossed through an intersection we saw the Eiffel Tower glittering in the distance.

Soon we were amongst the crowds on the world's second most expensive real estate. Some of them were actually buying trinkets but most, like us, were gawking. 

Here are a couple of the trinkets for sale. The one on the top and the right are Peugot, a French brand. They do make normal cars too, but I guess the rich people don't like normal cars. The one on the left is a Toyota. Rich people are too cool for a windshield! I suppose the shape of the car might deflect air and debris over their heads. Maybe.

Eventually we got near the Arche de Triomphe. So did some guy in a limo.

Here is the view in the opposite direction. The car on the left is a "normal" Peugot.

And one last weird sight: This um... interesting window display was advertising coffee. It was so masculine that I just had to take a picture.

Catchup

Here is a brief rundown of everything I haven't blogged about for the past week:

1. Thanksgiving- You will be happy to know that I did get to celebrate it. It was a little crazy pulling it together when we all had class Thursday but we managed. Thank you, D, for once again heading that up. Hooray for living with lots of Americans! Hooray also for leftovers, which have reduced my time in the kitchen this week. This has been handy because

2. I spent the middle of last week frantically pulling together a massive exposé. I am doing it on dream interpretation. I found lots and lots of material in the Bible, and since I have never heard a sermon about it (as far as I can remember), I had to do connect a lot of new dots. At 1:30 Thursday morning I decided that I had done enough research for this particular project and started translating that portion of my paper into French. I think it was almost 4 when I got to bed. I turned the rough draft in the next day and got it back Friday. However, I didn't look at it until today because...

3. We had a major written assignment due today. I spent all of Friday night, most of Saturday, and a couple of hours Sunday night working on it. I am SO glad to have that done. It is the written part of our final exam, so it was really important.

3. As soon as I got that handed in, I started thinking about the dreams exposé, which I will be presenting tomorrow afternoon. I spent all this afternoon revising the rough draft and adding some more details.

4. On another topic, I have once again gotten myself roped into our little Christmas choir for the nursing home. We have been practicing Tuesday and Thursday afternoons for a couple of weeks and we will be "performing" on Wednesday. I am more optimistic about my performance this year, particularly since we have more other guys to cover up my voice.

5. The guitar adventures continue when I need a break from my various projects. I figured out the chords to another French worship song, the one that the kids demanded over and over and over again at camp this summer. I am really excited that I can play it now.

6. I told you I would give you a review of the two CDs I got from Seasons. I like them! They seem to be a neat, devout, and very talented family with some very talented friends. If you like celtic-sounding music, look them up.

7. We finally got some snow Sunday. Woohoo! We are supposed to get more Wednesday. More woohoo!

8. French "hot" Ketchup is not spicy. I literally can not taste the difference.

Weekend of Discovery

After much effort I figured out yesterday all of the major guitar chords in the song "Queen of Skye." I consider it a major milestone in my learning of the guitar and music theory in general. The biggest challenge was figuring out one note. I tried guessing at first and should have been able to identify the opening D that way, but it must not have sounded right because I didn't figure it out.

I moved to plan B. I played the song over the speakers and used an online guitar tuner to pick out frequencies at different points in the song. After that I found a chart listing the frequencies of all the notes and compared it to the frequencies I had heard in the song. I learned that there were a LOT of As and something close to B. I also found some Ds and an E or two. I studied yet another chart that I use frequently for transposing songs in hopes of figuring out, based on that information, what key the song was in. That didn't get me real far.

The easiest note to hear in the song was the first one, so I strummed A, B, and then D and realized that the note was definitely a D. I figured then that the song was probably in the key of D and used that as the basis for figuring out all of the other notes. Within a half hour I had figured out most of the song... until the last verse.

Suddenly, nothing sounded right anymore. Key change! Who makes a random key change like that?  I had to try 4 different keys before I found the right one. After that it was pretty simple to finish the song. Now I just have to get good at playing it. The key of D is okay. The key of E is much more challenging for me.

That evening I had planned to watch a French movie but my friend had forgotten to loan it to me. I decided to go back and re-watch "The Hunt for Gollum," a fantastic fan film based on the writings of Tolkein. However, when I got to the website I saw a news item about another fan film that had been created called "Born of Hope."

I watched it, and I would have to say it was an enjoyable use of my evening. The story takes us back to just before the birth of Aragorn (the king in "Return of the King"). It tells the story of how his parents met and fell in love. The birth of their child, the next king in the royal line, was a ray of hope for the Dunedain, a race that struggling to survive the constant threat of Sauron and his orc hordes.

It is perhaps not quite as impressive to me as The Hunt for Gollum, but it is still a well-done film. It does not feel quite as authentic to me, particularly because of the love rectangle that is introduced to the story, but for the same reason it will probably appeal to more than just the hard-core Tolkein purist. The lines (and plot lines) feel a little forced sometimes but they are still better than much of the junk that normally makes television.

The movie makes the debatable move of having a woman warrior as one of its primary characters. It does a much better job of explain and positioning this bizarre phenomenon than Disney will ever attempt to do in their quest to remake the female image. Even so, I don't think Tolkein would have bought it and his fans might choke on it also.

As for spirituality... it is set in middle earth, and like the Lord of the Rings there is an entirely different universe behind the story, including different types of beings and a very different God figure. Some lines about the origin of the Dunedain and the elves will not make sense at all unless you have read the Silmarillion, and some elements (such as the funeral bonfire) may have been inspired by Tolkein but are also similar to ancient pagan rituals.

And a final disclaimer, these movies involve battle similar to that in Lord of the Rings, so there is a good deal of violence and some blood.

If you wish to check out a new film or extend an insane day-long Lord of the Rings marathon by another hour and 45 minutes, you can check out The Hunt for Gollum and Born of Hope at the links below:

The Hunt for Gollum

Born of Hope

Finally, just tonight somebody left two CDs on the freebie table from a not-known family band called "Seasons." It is a band made of four homeschooled siblings who are immensely talented, have played all around the world, and prefer to play songs that reflect their Christian faith. They look promising. I'll listen to them tomorrow and give you a report.

Great Court Cases of the Bible

Episode #158 "Come let us Reason" (Isaiah 1:18-20 NASB)

The judge, YHWH, finds the defendant, Israel (specifically Judah), guilty of murder, treason, and numerous other crimes. He then makes the following offer:
IF the defendant will consent and obey, all crimes will be forgiven and the defendent will also be given considerable financial rewards.
IF, however, the defendant refuses the terms and rebels against the court, the death penalty will be executed in accordance with the due punishment for the crimes.

Our audience would like to know exactly what "consent and obey" might mean. Normally when a defendant agrees to conditions like that, he ends up risking his life as an assassin or spy against his former colleagues, an expendable pawn whose existence can be denied if necessary. He was a dead man anyway...

For Israel, the deal is very different. Since His primary crime is treason, He must obviously swear allegiance once more to the true King. After that he will be appointed personal administrator to the King and ambassador to foreign entities. Instead of anonymous servitude, he will be given the position of highest honor. In fact, he will be adopted as prince.

Does Israel accept this deal? Read Isaiah and prepare to beat your head against the wall...

Hosea 11

Tonight I read Hosea 11. In order to understand this post you really must read the whole chapter. In the beginning God talks about how he raised Israel as a child and taught him how to walk. However, Israel turned away from Him like a rebellious youth, deliberately doing the opposite of what God commanded. Furthermore, Israel lied to God and about God, pretending to love Him while really killing his prophets and worshiping the ridiculous idols that they borrowed from the neighbors. They persisted in slandering God, causing Him profound pain and dishonor.

God knows that they must be punished, that great judgement is due. But in verse 8 He says "My heart is turned over within Me, all of my compassions are kindled." It is not that God is weak. On the contrary, He is so angry that if He were subject to his emotions like a man He would act out in His rage and destroy Israel completely (v9). But God is also grieved.

Human parents often say, when they discipline a child, "this hurts me more than it hurts you." And it is true, though the child doesn't believe it. Imagine if you had to discipline all of your children at the same time. Imagine that you had a million children, each of whom you loved as if he or she were your only child, and you had to discipline all of them. Each one. Can you imagine the misery? And what if, in addition to being their father, you also had to be the judge, and they had just stolen? Committed adultery? Murdered someone? What then? We have no way of imagining the sorrow of God when His people sin.

A God-sized wrath combined with a God-sized sorrow produces a God-sized mercy made possible by a God-sized sacrifice that satisfies divine justice.

Gettin' Old

Here are some thoughts from folks nearing the end of their life. They were originally in French and I have taken the liberty of translating into English.

"I do not think that my life is useless, meaningless. I can no longer do anything but go from my bed to my armchair. As long as God leaves me on earth, it is because He thinks that my place is still here. For me, I have no other occupation but to pray and to love."

"Being aged is marvelous because each day draws me closer to God."

"The third age (elderliness) is the age of rest, not of inertia. Everything becomes more simple, we ligthen our load and taste peace."

"At 95 years of age I have finally understood why the Lord is leaving me on earth for so long; it is because I still have lessons to learn here, especially serenity."

"I thank the Lord that he is not like the employers of this world who send on retirement their old servants whose productivity has reduced with age. He wants to use me well until my last breath."

"La Bonne Semence" 7 novembre 2009

Much to Say, But..

As you probably were not aware, I have recently completed a week and a half of vacation. France has long school breaks. I spent most of this vacation sorting through information, especially pictures, that has buried itself in the memory of computer for the past 4 years. I also sorted through actual papers and "junk" that has been not-so-subtly accumulating in my little room for the past year and a half. In the end I have a mild sense of having escaped from unwanted baggage- and in the process also "escaped from" week and a half of my life.

I did almost nothing memorable that whole time, except for one good adventure where I got myself lost in the neighboring town. That was a good afternoon of biking. The sun was setting so I headed back home- or so I thought. Then I arrived at a train station that was a long distance in the opposite direction from my school. How did that get there? I still got home before dark, though, so it wasn't too exciting.

Last night as I was walking out of our local mega grocery store I saw a poster for a 7K happening in our very own park on the 14th. That reminded me of how I haven't even run in the past week, so hermit-like have I been in my room. It ticked me off. So, in spite of the dark, I went for a run. I don't know if I will run that 7K or not. I still need to buy new running shoes (now more than ever!) but I just can't make myself spend that kind of money.

Okay... I wasn't planning to write anything that I just wrote. In the middle of this muddled week I have nevertheless been doing some really good reading. First in the Bible, where I have been working through Hosea. I have seen some really interesting things there but I am a little hesitant to post them here because, well, I am fallible and I might be wrong.

Second, I have been reading "Pilote de guerre" (War Pilot) by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. It is well written and I therefore do not mind having to look up an average of 4 words per page. I would highly recommend reading it (in English if you can't do the French). It is not the typical "Yay, isn't it heroic being a pilote?" story. Rather, it is all of the internal thoughts and feelings of an eloquent French pilot as he embarks on a seemingly useless mission in the already-lost war against the technologically and strategically superior Nazis. Yet it isn't as depressing as that summary makes it sound. It is just realistic and very human. Most of his thoughts are not related to the war, but rather what it means to be human.

Chevreuse, at last!

Here are the much- awaited images from the Château de la Madeline on the hill above Chevreuse, France. That is to say, they have waited a long time to see you, even if you haven't been waiting to see them!

I rushed out after class on a Friday afternoon, grabbed a bike, and hopped on the RER. From the end of the train line I biked fast and managed to reach the castle a good hour and a half before it closed. Here I am standing on the outer wall of the castle, looking in. You can see the well in the middle of the picture and the stronghold to the left.

The old cellar of the castle has been turned into a museum. There they had a number of models of the castle. They think that it possibly started out as a single wooden tower used by a Feudal Lord to protect the farmers in the village below, then the first stone structures were built in the late 11th century. In 1108 King Louis the 6th attacked the castle, which at that time consisted of little more than the stronghold, as he tried to take control of all of France from the local lords. The stronghold resisted his attack.


Later in the century walls and towers were built around it. In 1356, during the hundred years war, the lord of Chevreuse was captured by the English and had to pay a steep ransom for his liberty, so he sold the castle to a man who was friends with kings Charles the 5th and Charles the 6th. With their aid and money he made further modifications and improvements to the castle. Nevertheless the city of Chevreuse, and the castle, were captured in 1414 by the Duke of Bourgogne.

There were other tidbits of history also but I can't quite piece them together. There used to be an abbey connected to the castle, which may have even predated the castle. It's foundations are on private property so they have not been able to do any excavating. Because it is in a cellar, the museum has a couple of different levels. Here is the stairway going down to the lowest level, along with a knight that I added digitally. :-)

I also tried on this very fashionable helmet and expressed my feudal self. After I had seen my fill of the castle I explored the country roads and bike paths in the countryside and then wound my way back into Chevreuse. I wanted to see the waterway with all of the little bridges that I had visited the last time I was there. It was every bit as pretty as I remembered.


I was going to take a very mediocre picture of a street lamp and a bench when I saw the sun shining through the trees onto this archway along the canal.

I continued along the canal, taking occasional pictures. When I got near the end I turned around, and this is what I saw. Wow! Have I ever mentioned that I love this town?

Oh When the Nerds Go Marching In

I and three families from my school got up by the dawn's early light and blundered to the metro station so we could beat the crowds surging toward our goal- the Paris museum of science and industry.

It was free this weekend, and we took good advantage of it! We had a number of children along (10, if I remember correctly) so the first thing we visited was the kid section. It was cool! They had a section about the television industry where kids could run cameras, give the forcast, or star in a music video.

The next area was about bugs and insects. They had a butterfly garden and an ant colony. Then we learned about the human body. When you placed your hands on two electrodes, a bass drum kept the rhythm of your heartbeat. There was even a little track for measuring how fast you could run.

Next came a section about water. There were lots of water games like balancing balls on jets of water or using water to push balls through a course. You could try 4 different pumps to see which one worked best for moving the water into a big bucket. There was a water clock that I and the dads studied for a long time without ever really figuring it out. It was like a toilet but ten times more complicated. The pendulum pumped a small amount of liquid into a reservoir each second. When that reached a certain height the water siphoned into another reservoir, which after one minute emptied into the reservoir that counted minutes. At the end of the hour all of the minutes drained back down into the flask below the pendulum and the next hour ball became filled. You can see that it was 10:54 when I took the picture.

There was a whole section on energy and another on robotics in manufacturing. It was kind of like a simplified mini-version of the whole rest of the museum. After that we visited the planetarium. The highlight  for me was flying through a 3D-rendered version of the Hubble deep field. Later in the day we saw a 3D film about the Sun that was also very interesting. For me it was not much new information, but it was fun to see it in 3D. Flying through a solar flare? Why not!

We also visited the Argonaut, a retired French submarine. Talk about claustrophobic! I can't imagine having to live there for any length of time. The one toilet for the crew was smaller than an airplane toilet and to get to it half the crew had to squeeze through a passage that could reach 175 degrees when they were at the surface. The bunks were crammed together and the guys used them in shifts. You had to hope you didn't get stuck with one of the bunks were you were hugging a torpedo.

We also visited an exhibit about the intersection of science and fiction. It was like a Star Wars party mixed with a Star Trek Party mixed with much stranger stuff, mixed with a healthy splattering of Jules Verne, mixed with a little bit of reality. In addition to the obligatory R2D2 and C3PO, there were models from I, Robot and costumes from Planet of the Apes and tons of movies I had never heard of. You get 3 nerd points if you can name the Star Wars character in the picture. There were two real robots also, one of which spoke several languages. There was also a film on four different screens that gave an immersive overview of the possibilities and dilemmas of time travel.

At the end of the day we visited a light and shadows exhibit for kids. There were lots of games and experiments using light.
 

Well, I hadn't seen enough, so I went back the next day also! The first thing I did was stand in line for more than an hour so I could do what you see in the picture. They strapped me in under the balloon and off I went, using the big wings to maneuver above the crowds. It was kind of like swimming but more clumsy. I think with practice it would be a lot easier. It was really neat! I lifted off from the second floor balcony and floated up until I was above the level of the third floor and looking down at the first floor lobby.

From there I visited a very interesting section about rockets and satellites. I used satellite data to predict the flow of icebergs below South America and decide if the palace in Venice is going to sink into the ocean any time soon. Then I spent several minutes trying to dock a spacecraft to the International Space Station. I tried to hurry for the sake of the people watching, with the predictable result. I ended up above the station (higher orbit due to higher relative velocity) and had to use my jets to reposition, then rotate, then reposition again, then rotate some more... and then I got my controls mixed up and I nearly blasted a hole in the space station. At that point I decided to continue my adventures elsewhere. There was a collection of films you could choose from so I watched short documentaries about Yuri Gagarin and MIR, a publicity piece about the French Diamond project, and footage of the Challenger explosion.

I saw an expo about new technologies showing a car that was more like a big scooter than a small car (it made a Smart look beefy) and an SUV that Nissan hopes to release by 2015 that runs on hydrogen.
After that I visited an expo about counterfeiting. It was very sobering. They had several examples of counterfeit items right next to the real one and it was hard to spot the differences. I was amazed at the types of items copied. I knew about counterfeit money, but I didn't realize that name-brand merchandise is also highly susceptible. They had a ton of Nike shoes that were fake.  For the most part you couldn't tell by looking at them. The counterfeits were using cheaper rubber and cheaper materials, but you wouldn't be able to tell until they were worn out 2 months after you bought them or you started to develop back problems.

Other counterfeited objects included an iron, an ink cartridge, brand name kids toys, A Microsoft Windows 2007 CD and packaging complete with holograms, a perfume, and a DVD. I had never realized just how good a job counterfeiters can do. The inc cartridge was almost exactly like the original, including the packaging. It even had the holographic verification sticker, and you had to use the official hologram verifier tool from the company to see that the color was a tiny bit off.

Even more sobering, one sign said that 50% of medicine sold online in Europe is counterfeit. Maybe it works, most likely it doesn't, and maybe it is toxic. Who knows. DON'T BUY MEDICINE ONLINE! After going to this expo I am also really hesitant to buy anything else online either, at least brand name stuff. Counterfeiters won't bother copying an off-brand because they don't make as much money off of the name. Street vendors are also very, very sketchy. Think twice and study carefully before making a purchase.

After that I visited math land and studied chaos theory and statistics. I started an interactive display about chess, quickly landed myself in a stalemate, and left when the computer offered to let me see if I could do better than Kasparov. Nope, not likely. I played with fractals for a little bit and then headed over to a section dedicated to sound. I used software to make a computerized mouth say different vowels by moving the lips, jaw, tongue, etc. Two other programs required you to come up with ways to reduce unwanted noise. I did both of those in French to pick up some vocabulary.

They had a room outfitted with the ultimate in surround sound -24 speakers- which carried me, with my eyes closed, into exotic locations like the beach and a tropical rainforest. I also heard a rabbit sighing in his sleep, snails eating, and a volcano venting just before an eruption. Outside they had an little exhibit where the music played at the tempo you kept with the conductor's wand. Unfortunately for everyone in hearing range, they were letting the children try it.

From there I went to two related exhibits. The first dealt with perspective and how our eyes and brain use it to make sense out of our surroundings. The second dealt with light and how our eyes and our mind process it. There were lots of optical illusions in both displays and plenty of things that made you shake your head and say, "Did I just see what I think I just saw?" There was one room split into many bizarre pieces that only made sense when you saw them from one particular spot. Then someone would step into the room and it looked like they were cut in two by a wall. Another room was built in two different perspectives so that if two people walked in at opposites sides one would like a hobbit or the other like a giant. In another room there was a miniature movie set with lights all around it and a camera projecting the view onto a big screen. You had to turn the lights on and off to get the right effect for a particular situation or time of day.

I had to leave the perspective exhibit without spending much time in the virtual reality area (though I did see the creepy artificial intelligence girl who follows you around the room with her eyes) because they were in the process of kicking us out for closing. I succeeded in seeing all of the exhibits but I am a little sad that I didn't get to watch any of the demonstrations and mini-seminars that were going on all weekend. It was such a huge place with so much to see, it would probably take a week to do a "proper" job of seeing it. But I praise God for giving me two free days in this museum, one of the best in Paris.

Look what hatched!

Music for the Soul

I'm sorry I haven't written in so long. It isn't that I have forgotten, rather that our internet has been crummy with a capital C for about a week. Monday was the first time I could get on in several days, and ever since then access has been slow and unpredictable. There is no chance of getting pictures up.

Anyway, I went to a really neat service Sunday night by a group of very talented Christian musicians. They did a church service in Paris that consisted of classical music and a brief reflection on who we are in relation to God and where we fit into creation. It was also a call to live our lives as if we would die tomorrow, because that is certainly a possibility. The music was phenomenal! Check out the Crescendo page at http://www.crescendo.org

I also found out about another cool group named Slemish. If you like Irish music, check out http://www.reverbnation.com/slemish

Friday night I "babysat" the neighbor boys. They aren't babies, though. We hung out, ate pizza, and then watched Ice Age 2 while their parents went out to eat. Saturday night I rode my bike to church for youth group but I got their late and nobody was there. So I rode back. That was almost a 2 hour round trip. Sunday night was the concert with crescendo. Last night was cheesy buttery deliciousness that is my own take on a French favorite, followed by a vigorous cram session. Today was our midterm exam, which I probably did so-so on. And tonight is getting late. I was going to watch Cyrano de Bergerac, but I might not get to it.

Bonsoirée!

Chevreuse

Yesterday after class I through some change in pocket, strapped on my bike helmet, and flew out the door. Half an hour on the RER, 20 minutes on bike, and I was once again at the chateau above Chevreuse- but this time I got there before it closed! I don't have time right now to give you the grand tour, so I will just put up a couple of pictures and post the rest later.

The first image is from the bike path between the RER station and Chevreuse. I had to do some VTT (mountain biking) to get up the hill to the castle. There is a path that brings you right underneath the ramparts and then up to the road that runs to the castle. You can see it over the wall. The panoramic shot is, of course, from the wall inside the castle.

And this picture has nothing to do with the castle. I actually took it in Anthony during the Cheese and Wine festival and then edited it to make it more dreamy-looking. I couldn't find any way to work it into that post, so I will simply tack it on here. We call this thorough planning.

Cheese & Wine Festival

The primary purpose of this post is to disgust my mom. So I'll jump right to it. Voilà the "Blue Cheese."

My mom can not stand mold, and this cheese is injected with it in order to ensure that it will have the characteristic, incredibly strong taste. I have tried moldy cheeses three or four times here and, unlike other French cheeses, they have not grown on me. In me perhaps...

This festival is a major party, perhaps one of the most popular in the Paris area. I took two random crowd shots that don't do justice at all to the crowd that was milling in the "centre ville" of Antony.


The name suggests a fantastic selection of wines and cheeses. That there were.


But it was really a festival of all things culinary. I even watched a cooking demonstration. There were many products, nearly all of which could be sampled. I tried jellies, different flavors of honey, cooking oils, fois gras, sausages, and pastries.


And of course they were selling French bread.


There were even the famous French snails, although they weren't offering samples :-( These were the leftover shells.


One of the icons of the event is the "mountain chalet" of Swiss food. They have three gigantic vats of cheesy potatoes and other goodness. I didn't witness it myself, but my friends said that when they add cheese to the mix they toss in a whole wheel at a time.


All of the free samples are geared towards getting you to buy expensive products. Some examples:

Good cheese from Switzerland, 30 Euros per kilo. With the current euro to dollar exchange rate, that is about $1.16/oz or $18.64/lb


Excellent sausages, also from Switzerland: $1.51/oz or $24.28/lb


The French are less squeamish about being reminded where their food comes from. The sign on the table says that it is all natural and costs 120 Euros per kilo. That is $4.66/oz or $74.72/lb.

But fear not, I didn't buy the deer leg, nor any of the other stuff either. I did enjoy the festivities, though.

Nuit Blanche

I went into Paris on Saturday with a bunch of friends from school for "Nuite Blanche," a big contemporary arts festival and general party in Paris. We started at the Hotel de Ville because that is where they were handing out maps. If I had been flying solo I probably would have missed this minor detail and blundered around in ignorance all night, but there were females along so that hazard was avoided.

The neon squiggles on the Hotel de Ville (City Hall) are the words "Love Differences" in a bunch of different languages. When I was on that bridge in the picture I turned back towards where I was standing as I took that picture, and got this picture:

Okay, so not exactly that picture. I took two pictures, mushed them together, and edited them to death for 15 minutes. It was already dark at that point so my camera was having a hard time. The picture is slightly brighter than what I saw in real life and also less pretty. And it is more blue because I forgot to change the white balance before I took the picture. Rats.

Anyway, we got our maps and boldly went were lots and lots of people had been before and many more would be after us. The first exhibit scared me at first because it there were guards at the door and the people going in looked like the seriously artsy type. I, on the other hand, was in jeans and an EP 700 Club shirt.

We entered the room and, sure enough, there were serious-looking people milling around and pondering some black silhouettes on the wall. Then I saw that the silhouettes were moving! This greatly increased my interest in the spectacle, whatever it might be. When I finally got into good gawking position, I realized that there was a camera hidden somewhere in the front of the room that was filming the people in the room. But not constantly. It would film for a couple of seconds in color, then freeze one second of movement in place and turn that one second of film into black and white while it continued to film the action going on. The result was multiple layers of action frozen in time. And if you moved around a little, you would soon see four or five versions of yourself on the wall.

The people were slowly milling and observing their artsy selves on the screen when this bozo started doing crazy antics.

My friends joined in too, and the artsy people even managed to crack a smile.

That was definitely the coolest thing we saw all night. After that we saw some decapitated metal dinosaurs that got salvaged from an abandoned amusement park and several hundred alarm clocks stacked on shelves, all set for 7 A.M. We also saw a series of short videos of people who have immigrated either to France or Germany. Each one was asked to share one thing they brought with them from their homeland. It was really interesting, especially the guy who demonstrated how to make his amazing anti-hemorrhoid medicine. He showed us the water bottle of the stuff that he keeps on hand and promised us that if we drank it too we would never have hemorrhoid problems again! In all seriousness, it was very interesting to see the things that people found important. As a foreigner myself, I can identify.

We got home at about 11:30, which is much more reasonable than average. Nuit Blanche gets done at 7 A.M. The problem is that the RER doesn't run between midnight and 5 A.M. and we had no interesting in being out that late! All in all, a very memorable evening.

Gone to Space, Be Back Tomorrow

A couple of weeks ago I took advantage of the "Journées de Patrimoine" (European Heritage Days) to visit the Paris Museum of Air and Space (it was free!!) I spent a majority of my time in the Space section.


At the beginning was a clip from a silent film that came out at the start of the century. Several men in top hats climb into a bullet, get themselves blasted out of a giant canon, land in the mouth of the man in the moon, tumble through several layers of moon rock (interrupting the festivals of several lunar tribes on their descent) and finally come to rest at the bottom layer of the moon.
After that, I walked past a series of rockets that constituted France's part in the nuclear race. They were the third country to have a long range nuclear missile; they call it the diamond.


Moving on, I came to a section where they had the actual capsule in which the first French space man returned to Earth. It was Russian, of course. And I touched it, so I can say that I touched something that has been in space. Here is a picture of the interior. Believe it or not, they cram three people into that space.


Here is the backside of the capsule. They should have gotten my friend E to help them with their English.


On the same level was a Vostok capsule identical to the one Yuri Gagarin rode into space, becoming the first human to ever visit.


And a model of a Salyut space station (a 3rd generation version, I would guess). They didn't have any models of MIR or the International Space Station.


Then they had a section dedicated to the moon landings, where I found the item that for me was the most fascinating- the actual suit worn be Eugene Cernan, the last man on the moon. I could almost touch it.


Look at the brown edges of the patch. I have seen moon dust! As a side note, the letter hidden by the switch is an A. I don't know who "MAN" and "MOM" are, but they can't talk at the same time!



Hanging from all parts of the ceiling were full-sized satellites.


And outside were two full-scale models of European Space Agency rockets.


___________________________________
Moving on to the aviation section, they had a very fun collection of flying contraptions that predate the airplane. Believe it or not, this flew several times:


This dangerous device was launched many times from a hill in the town where I go to church:


And here is our friend Otto Lilienthal, who made over 2,000 good flights and one bad one:


From here, aviation made leaps and bounds. But some people are stark raving mad and still use gliders that are little more than a wing and a seat. Lots of them identical to this were still being used in the 60s.


The museum also had some very bizarre airplanes that came out of France's early experiments on the other side of the sound barrier:


And possibly the coolest thing France ever made, the Mirage. It is a supersonic VTOL (it can take off and land like a helicopter).


They also had an interesting collection of WWII planes.


Throughout the museum there were lots and lots of films. Old news footage, documentaries, etc. There were some really amazing films in the space section with computer-generated models and reproductions. It was easy to spend the whole day there. As I was walking home from the train station I looked up and saw the moon, so I got out my camera. As I was snapping photos, this airplane flew into the frame.


It was a perfect ending to the day. The only way it could have been better is if I had actually gone flying.