Multi-somethin'

I have now been here long enough that I am starting to forget the English lyrics to a lot of worship songs. I have to back-translate from the French to remember how they go. It's kind of funny. If the song hasn't been translated into French I can usually remember it just fine. But most of the common ones have been translated. I am guessing that a solid 90% of French worship music is French translations of English songs. So unless I have the words in front of me, I keep slipping into French when I try to sing English. Ce n'est pas grave...
Tonight I was eating with a bunch of Americans and we discussed how a lot of little expressions, like "ce n'est pas grave" (It's not serious, it's not bad) slip into our everyday conversation even when we use English. When people come to visit from the states they think we are brilliant, when in fact all we are using is French fillers. Hey, I'll take presumed brilliance any way I can get it ;-)

Tulips in Holland...

Well, I didn't go to Holland but I did go to Paris (imagine that!). And lo and behold, the garden of Luxembourg looks a whole lot prettier now than it was in the winter. It is truly amazing all of the things that God does in the spring. Here are some photos.






One day I was in the park and I was admiring all that simple little white flowers in the grass. I leaned over to pick one and then stopped. What right did I have to molest nature like that for no reason, even if it was just one little flower out of thousands? I stopped and thought about it. I realized that yes, I do actually have the right to do that. Why? Because God made the world for two reasons. One was His own pleasure and the other was for the pleasure of His final creation, humans. Therefore, we have a right do with nature that which is pleasing to us. However, we are also entrusted with the task of being the stewards of nature. Therefore, we are to be responsible in our usage of nature. In the simplest sense, this means not destroying nature for no particular reason. And since in my case I had no particular need to see the flower any closer than I could see it sitting there on the ground, I decided not to pull it up.

*photos 2,5,6 used pseudoHDR and/or enhancement

I rode my bike to church and back today. I got off track, accidentally found a shortcut, and made the trip in 45 minutes. Afterwards two of my friends invited me to hang out with them. And where do you think French people go after church? Um... McDonalds. Some French people don't even realize that McDonalds is American, despite the fact that half the menu is in English. Anyway, we had a nice little chat. Most of it was in French, though my one friend kept diverging into English. He speaks too many languages and he likes to "channel surf" through them.

This evening I watched "Indigènes", a French film about the Africans who fought in WWII. It seemed to be very well done, though I don't know enough of the history to guess how accurate it is. It was also very, very hard to watch. It dealt partially with the cruelty of war but mostly with the way Africans were treated as second-class citizens in the army. Also, because it is French, the producers felt no need to have a happy, or even semi-hopeful, ending. Everybody dies except one character. Nobody ever sees their loved ones again. And as far as we know, all the credit goes to the French who showed up too late to fight but just in time to get their pictures taken. Not a fun movie, but a good one for understanding some aspects of the French/African relations that I will encounter là-bas. On that note, I'm off to bed!

Further Up and Further In

No, this is not an announcement that Walden will be making C.S. Lewis's "The Last Battle" into a movie. I hope they do, but that's another story...
That reminds me, though, "The Voyage of the Dawn Treader" is coming out in December and it has a lot of things going for it. #1- they got rid of Disney. #2-they got rid of the director who botched up the second movie #3-Christians who have previewed it have said that it is quite faithful to the book #4-The teenage girls are already complaining that they let Caspian grow up enough that he isn't a post-teen heartthrob any more. Good. He's supposed to be a king. #5-Some versions of it are going to be released in 3D.
So there you are, go and see it in December.

But that wasn't the point of this post. The point of this post is that I got permission yesterday to move up a class. This is very exciting for me because it means that I will theoretically speak better French when I leave. It is also really scary because I have one week to catch up on 5 chapters. I have to take a test before Saturday (one week from now) to determine if I have caught up enough to make the switch. So please pray that I have good study sessions!

Chevreuse

Welcome to Chevreuse! The first things I saw were cows in front of a cute barn. This made me very happy. I haven't seen cows in forever. The cows were thrilled to see me, as cows always are. This farm also has rabbits, goats, chickens, ducks- and children are allowed to go pet them. I would highly recommend it as a family outing.


Chevreuse also boasts a large number of neat old churches


This is the first legitimate castle I have seen in France.


It was easy to see but it took quite a while to actually get to it. I reached the end of a small alley and it turned into a dirt path. I followed that up the front of the hill, carrying my bicycle, and at last emerged at the foot of the castle. Very cool.


Unfortunately I got there too late to go inside, but I enjoyed it a lot anyway. I snooped around outside, got the pano picture, and eventually headed back home. Here is a parting shot.


On the way back I found a very pretty little foot path.

couple-a-quotes

"La prière donne de la force et ouvre les portes. Si elle n'ouvre pas les portes des cellules de prison, elle ouvre les coures de ceux qui s'y trouvent."
"Prayer gives strength and opens the doors. If it doesn't open the doors of the prison cells, it opens the hearts of those who are found within."
-a Russian evangelist who was imprisoned in Siberia

"Seigneur, délivre-nous de cette légèreté d'esprit qui consiste à ne pas prendre le temps et la peine de considérer en toutes choses ta volonté!"
Lord, deliver us from that lightness of spirit that consists of not taking the time and effort to consider in all things your will.
(tiré de : "Enracinés et édifiés en Lui", éditions BPC)

______

Ever feel like you are only half alive? I've had a day like that. Kinda strange. It's like I'm bored, but I'm not actually bored, just listless. I've got plenty of things to do. I think I'm just frustrated with a lot of things.
I'm not a fan of this feeling.
On the up side, I've spent plenty of time today praying. Not hearing much for responses, which is the majority of my frustration, but I have been praying.

Okay, as a reward for reading my post that makes almost no sense, here is a photo of a chateau that is about a half hour bike ride from my school, surrounding by a fantastic large park. (HDR, edited)

Park

Today I wandered once more to the park nearby. It was a prayer trip, but I also brought my camera.

I found a good spot. For most of the time, the insects were my only companions. Well, until a couple guys showed up with airsoft guns. But that's another story. Here is what the place looked like. (with editing)


On the way back I took a couple pictures of a dandelion.


And another, in a different phase of life, but equally beautiful!


And a parting panoramic shot

Quick Update

Well, according to the tests I am now officially B1. That means I can speak French. Sorta. I've known for quite a while that I was B1, but now I have evidence.

In other news, I found a crazy mountain bike area in the forest about 2 1/2 miles away. It's not suicidal, but its enough that if I go back I'm wearing more protective equipment. I did some research today to figure out how to ride a mountain bike. I found out that most of the methods I had developed instinctively were actually right, I just need to fine tune it. Here's the basics of off-road bike riding:

1. Pick a line and stick to it. This means planning your route 5 seconds ahead and then going with the plan, even if it isn't as nice as it looked at first.

2. The only time you are in the seat is when you ride flat or uphill (opposite of instinct). For down hill you need to be able to move your body weight around and you will often want it behind the seat.

3. You speed up to go over obstacles rather than slowing down.

4. Most turning is done by leaning, not with the handlebars.

5. Pump brakes on long hills to prevent them from over-heating. Use both brakes evenly in most situations.

6. Do all of your shifting before it is necessary. Get down to a low gear while going downhill, shift to an easy gear before you start going uphill.

7. Hit obstacles at a 90 degree angle, or as close to that as you can get.

8. Know how to bunny hop before you actually have to use it on the trail. I... um... haven't mastered this yet. Land on either the front or back tire first, not both at the same time. I think it's generally easier to control if you land on the back tire first.

9. Know your trail. Go slow the first time so you don't discover downed trees the hard way.

10. Beware of leaves. They can be incredibly slippery and they sometimes hide nasty obstacles.

Museum of the Army

You may or may not recall that about a month ago a friend and I visited the museum of the army. True story. Here are the photos:

A model of Les Invalides, present home of the Museum of the Army and the tomb of Napoleon, as well as a reduced-in-size version of the original retirement home for old soldiers.


There was lots and lots of armor. In fact, they had so much armor and weaponry that aside from the special stuff (worn by somebody important) they had an entire room set aside to recreate an old armory. I didn't realize it was open at the time, so I didn't go in.


They had a whole hall full of mounted soldiers, but this was in a different room.


They also had some really unique and bizarre guns.


I think the sign said that this is the largest bronze cannon ever made. You can see one of the granite balls on the right edge of the photo. And yup, that's my friend.


Here is a poster from WWII. The title is "Leave Us Alone/Peaceful." The yellow background is the outline of France. The young French couple (under German occupation, of course) is being attacked by, in order:
The French Maisons
The Jews
Charles De Gaulle (leader of the French Resistance Army)
The Lie (I would guess the 3 headed "lie" would be the allies- Great Britain, the US, and Russia)
How incredibly deluded. The Jews were horrendously slaughtered by the Nazis and this poster is portraying them as the attackers. People actually believed this.


There is another museum within the museum that is full of models and replicas. Here is a model of Mount St. Michel, circa I-don't-remember-when. The model stood about 3 feet tall.


Ever read/seen the Count of Monte Cristo?


The parting shot is of Napoleon. His tomb was such lavish worship that it nauseated me, especially since it used to be a church. I therefore refuse to post any pictures of it except for this one, which proves that at some point in his illustrious military and political career he took the time to become a baseball umpire. The woman on the right is apparently a fan of the losing team.

la soirée

Last night my friend J and I had dinner with a couple of friends from church. We talked about life in general and also church life. It was interesting to compare notes, considering we had 4 different countries represented- France, the US, the UK, and the Ivory Coast. We had a good French salad followed by English scones that J and I had made. Yum, yum!

Oh yeah, and the exams- I had my final exam of the semester yesterday. I think it went okay. The only part that was really difficult was a story where we had to fill in the verbs, deciding as we went if they should be in the imparfait, passé composé, or plus-que-parfait form. These are all past tenses with slightly different utilization. I can generally use them correctly when I write my own stories, but when I have to guess what somebody else is trying to say it is a lot harder.

Exam tomorrow

Tomorrow is the end-of-semester exam. What fun! It is now 10:00 at night and I am about to start studying. Don't worry, I've been reviewing a little throughout the week. Not enough, but...

I justify this because I just spent 2 hours in the kitchen with 3 native French speakers. I have to take advantage of those opportunities when they come to me, even if it is when I am supposed to be studying.

Gimp Tutorial

We had to do a presentation in class, so I did mine on the Gimp. I also recorded a video about the Gimp. Here you go!

What a run

I hadn't run in forever. Yesterday I was feeling cooped up after class and I headed out into the highways and bi-ways of the Parisian suburbs. It might be hard to believe, but in the middle of the city I managed to get bit by a horse. Then I kept running until I found a forest. It was on the side of a large hill, and when I got to the top I could see half a dozen suburbs of Paris and also the top of the Eifel tower in the distance. It was beautiful. I ran through the forest for quite a while, using the sun as a rough judge of my direction, and eventually got to the edge. Unfortunately, the land all around the forest is owned and much of it is fenced. I also found a hut that looked rickety and abandoned. I'm not entirely sure that it was. I hope it was. I snuck around it as quickly and quietly as I could, which was neither quick nor quiet, all the while keeping my ears pealed for gunshots. I ran along a fenceline for a while, scared up a deer (she was very scrawny) and eventually found a field without a fence. I had to stumble through 3 feet of thorns, but I eventually emerged back into civilization. From there I traced a rather unexciting course back to the school. All told, including numerous periods of walking around to see the scenery or get my bearings, I was gone for at least 2 hours.

...and meaning

As stated in my previous post, 60% of French is also found in English. I mentioned that it is, however, not spelled or pronounced the same way. But it gets worse. Much of it doesn't mean the same thing, either. The French call these words "faux amis," which means false friends. Here are a few of them:

Demander- "to ask." It takes a long while for English speakers to adjust to "demanding" questions. A word for demand is "reclamer." They have no "clamer," so I'm guessing they stole it from English and failed to realize that the "re" is a predicate that is supposed to indicate a repeated action.

Accuser- According to my dictionary, this means to accuse. But in formal French it is appropriate to write "I accuse you of the good reception of your letter." In other words, "I got your letter."

Rentabilité- actually means "profitability." To rent something is "loyer." And a lawyer is an "avocate," which happens to be the exact same way they spell the name of the green fruit (vegetable?) that you use to make guacamole. You would think this would lead to many French lawyer jokes, but my teacher says they don't have any.

Fioul- pronounced identical to "fuel," is the gas that use in your house (LP). The gas for your car is "essence."

Location- is the act or process of renting. "Endroit", "piece", "part," and "lieu" are all French words that help express the idea of our english "location." My dictionary lists "emplacement" as the exact French equivalent.

Place- is your seat at the table, theatre, etc. It can't be used in the general sense. That would be the word "part" (quelque part= someplace)

Partie- is the French word for "part." The word for party is "fête."

Parti- pronounced the same way, is the past participle of the verb "to leave."

fier- pronounced more like fear than fire, it actually means "proud."

articulation- means articulation when you are speaking, but it also means "joint." As in, what you have where two bones come together.

occasion- is an opportunity or, where I see it most often, a sale. As in, "Occasions Chevy!!!!" except that they don't have any GM vehicles here. Some Fords, but no Chevy's.

chance- is luck. It's what you have when you win the "loto."

hazard- is chance. It's what evolution relies on.

And last but not least:

Célibataire means "not married." The French are at a literal loss for words to when they encounter someone who wants to be that way.

ah, prononciation

(pro-nohn-seeah-seeohn)

I think our teacher often wonders why we consistently pronounce the same words incorrectly again and again. The reason is that we are actually pronouncing them correctly, or at least half correctly, in English. I have been told that 60% of the French language is also in English. However, none of those words are actually pronounced the same way and they are rarely spelled the same way either. If you see more and more errors popping up here on my blog, it's probably because I accidentally pulled the spelling out of the French part of my brain rather than the English part.

On Sunday my professor had a friend and her son visiting so they went to church with us. When they found out that I am from the US, the mother said that her son had been reading a book about a boy in the US. I asked her where in the US. Based on her incomprehensible response, I assumed that she either had misunderstood my question or the book had placed the boy in some remote village in the hills of Arkansas. But then my professor said something about "la grande ville des voitures" (The big auto city) and I suddenly realized what her friend had said- Detroit! But she had of course pronounced it the French way because the French are incapable of pronouncing it the English way. It is truly a nightmare for them. Here is why:

D-so far, so good. They've got the same D as us.
e- uh oh. The first e is never pronounced "ee" unless it is an accent (é). It is always pronounced somewhere between "e" and "uh"
t- the same
r- major uh oh. The French can not pronounce an American r to save their life. Especially after a t, it sounds much more like our w. But not really even that.
oi- this combination is always pronounced "wah"
t- the same.

So what she said was more or less "dutwat." And that was a word I supposedly know!
This, ladies and gentlemen, is my everyday life.

Romans 6

Is it because of cultural sensitivity that we only use verse 23 out of all of Romans chapter 6, and out of context at that? Or is it because we are wavering ninnies who are squeamish about commitment?

Jesus is Lord

In a technical sense, this will always be true. Jesus is God. He lived a sinless life, died as if He had sinned, and then rose from the dead to prove His supremacy over everything. EVERYTHING. Including temptation, and including death, the two things that no other man has ever conquered, no matter how great he was.

But in another sense, Jesus is only Lord for me if I allow Him to be. He will not force me into submission. Yet. One day, every knee will bow to Him. Every man, woman, and child who has ever been born will bow before Him. But until that day, I am allowed to chose my Lord.

I choose Jesus, and I choose Him today. If I want to spend eternity with Him, I want to know Him well before eternity starts, just as I wish to know my wife before I marry her. How can I truly call him Lord if I do not know Him well enough to know what He wants? It is for that reason that I seek Him daily. I want to be a man. There is no greater model of manhood than my Lord. But most of all, He made me so that I could love Him. It is my pleasure to fulfill His divine desire.

More provision

Yesterday I really craved some fruit for lunch but I didn't really have time to run to the grocery store just for fruit. I went down to the kitchen, heated up some stuff, and sat down to eat with the professors. As I was sitting there, one of my classmates invited me to come over and eat with he and his wife. I accepted. They got done before me, and they had an orange and an apple left over. I have no idea why. They offered it to me. I gratefully accepted the apple. A little later, as my classmate was leaving, he said, "why don't you eat the orange too." So I did. It was wonderful.

Whip myself into shape

As some of you know, I have been feeling sort of lethargic for the past couple of months. I started running again about a month ago and initially was doing pretty well. But then the last couple of weeks I have been really hit-and-miss about running. I hate it! And I've found that the best way to be active is to just do it. So, with that mindset, I decided to today that I am going to run an ultramarathon this Saturday. It's called "Le Chemin Ultime de Fous." It is 50 miles but they are relatively flat (fortunately this region of France doesn't have a lot of hills) so I think I will be all right. I just hope it doesn't rain because the entire course is off-road (most ultramarathons are) and I left my racing spikes in the US. I am running in regular running shoes and if the path gets muddy I could be in trouble.

Anyway, it should be fun!

Oh, and happy first of April! It's one of the best days of the year.