One thing I love about this place is the conversation. Last night Kristin and I watched the ''rain'' nooma video which led to a 4 hour discussion keeping us up till about 2 AM!!!! Then this evening as Junior was eating dinner in the salle d' equipier he asked me how I ended up in France at this camp and I asked him about how he got here. I would like to share his story with you.
Three years ago Junior was working at a company that manufactured cars in Brazil. He was making good money and very good at his job. He was basically one of the masterminds behind some of the cars we drive on a daily basis. He began learning french and to increase his conversational french he decided to meet some french students online. One of the people he met was a girl named Gabrielle She lived in France and they began to talk regularly. Soon they began to pray together about the connection they had made as they both felt it was very special and could become something more than an online conversation relationship. After a year and a half of prayer Junior quit his job and moved to France! He began working at Champfleuri and using the money he had saved began university here studying buisness and such. He also began to get to know Gabrielle on a regular daily level. They had tons in common and within a few weeks began dating. Throughout this whole process they just kept praying about what God had in store for them. He explained to me how difficult it was to leave behind his family and friends to come to France to meet a girl! Imagine moving an entire country because you met a girl online and God told you to leave and go now, completly incredible. After two years of dating Junior proposed to Gabrielle this past week and she said yes. After about three and a half or four years they are finally going to be married February 12th of this year. How incredible and exciting is that? It's one of those stories that just makes you believe in true love, even despite distance and completly different lives. It's also such a statment to their faith. It has been so exciting seeing him get more and more excited about the upcoming marriage and engagment. It's been a long process for them both, but finally in God's timing they are going to be together. It's obviously not going to be the end of their story, but I think it's definitly a great beginning.
There's tons more from the past couple days, but it's time for a night movie with the girls! A bientôt.
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Sunday, September 23, 2007
Another Weekend at Champfleuri...
Well once again we have finished a rather hectic weekend here at camp. As I type the 160 people who where here for lunch and gouter are slowly beginning to leave. This weekend Sam's church came to camp. This means that since we have visited his church and youth group we knew most if not all of the people invading champfleuri. It was sooo nice to see them all again. One of the funniest parts of the weekend was when everyone arrived we greated each other by kissing both cheeks (bisoux) if you know the person. So turns out Kristin and I now "know" the whole church so we spent a good portion of yesterday kissing random french people on the cheeks! A bit different for us, but yet when we don't do bisoux it's actually beginning to feel strange. When some of the DEFI students got here and were not french I knew immediatly as they didnt do it!
The most exciting part of the weekend was seeing Laura from camp STEVE who recently moved to Grenoble for university and who also attends this church. Basically everyone we know goes here...once again that small christian community that is france! We got to spend all afternoon catching up and just talking. It felt pretty strange to talk to her again not at steve and yet to be at camp, but it was stranger for her as she was actually going to sleep in the same room and same bed as camp! I love this church so much because more than half of the church are teenagers Kristin and my age and most of them are girls that I already know or guys that I met through Sam. We got to play a bunch of games, attend a wonderful church service (where they served communion in glasses that we all drank from and it was real wine...oops haha), sing, and hang out with everyone again. I love this church and all the amazing people. It's funny but I feel so at home with them, maybe more at home than In New England sometimes. They just greet you and then try so hard to communicate with you...its really nice.
Of course the whole weekend was filled with practical jokes, some dancing, and never ending singing! I love working with the groups on the weekend. There's tons of work, but Sam makes me smile so it's all good. I love hanging out with Sam and Jonathon. It's funny but in just a couple weeks I feel so comftorble with them. Sam now takes us to his church and is still trying to get us to his youth group again. He is taking us shopping and is amazing! Basically the best petite frere in the entire world. Right now he is going to dance for us...yes!
The most exciting part of the weekend was seeing Laura from camp STEVE who recently moved to Grenoble for university and who also attends this church. Basically everyone we know goes here...once again that small christian community that is france! We got to spend all afternoon catching up and just talking. It felt pretty strange to talk to her again not at steve and yet to be at camp, but it was stranger for her as she was actually going to sleep in the same room and same bed as camp! I love this church so much because more than half of the church are teenagers Kristin and my age and most of them are girls that I already know or guys that I met through Sam. We got to play a bunch of games, attend a wonderful church service (where they served communion in glasses that we all drank from and it was real wine...oops haha), sing, and hang out with everyone again. I love this church and all the amazing people. It's funny but I feel so at home with them, maybe more at home than In New England sometimes. They just greet you and then try so hard to communicate with you...its really nice.
Of course the whole weekend was filled with practical jokes, some dancing, and never ending singing! I love working with the groups on the weekend. There's tons of work, but Sam makes me smile so it's all good. I love hanging out with Sam and Jonathon. It's funny but in just a couple weeks I feel so comftorble with them. Sam now takes us to his church and is still trying to get us to his youth group again. He is taking us shopping and is amazing! Basically the best petite frere in the entire world. Right now he is going to dance for us...yes!
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
Finally a day off!
Today was my first day off since last week. It's strange to be working at a Christian camp and not have Sunday's off, but on the weekends we have huge college groups in the hundreds there is no way we can have anyone take off the day. Therefore we each get two days off per week except for last week as we had a longer weekend. So here I am finally at my day off. It feels so good to sleep in. I actually slept through breakfast...and lunch! I have been suffering from a seasonal cold or allergies or both. I was reminded today by Hannah that last year around this time was when I get my famous death plauge during XC. So perhaps this is the same sort of illness, sure feels like it. It is of course magnified by the lack of sleep and constant working, which I'm sure is making me feel sooo much better!
I went to the doctors yesterday and he gave me a prescription for two antibiotics which I am now taking. Hopefully one of these will work some minor miracle and I will be able to breath a bit more normally. The doctors was quite an experience for me. First of all I hate doctors, always have and probably always will. They are the people incharge of the needles, its really that simple. Who likes the person who's stabbing them in the arm with a little sharp medal thing? Not me that's for sure! Needless to say add the fact that in France going to the doctors means setting a personal appointment and I was a little bit freaked. Luckily Lorraine went with me as she speaks pretty decent french. It was good I brought someone to translate for me because he spoke pretty good english, but not enough that I was able to explain to him how I felt. I think the constant sniffling and lack of breathing probably gave most of my symptoms away. Either way the long story shortened is he gave me drugs and although I don't feel any better yet they should start working soon...I hope!
As for around camp. DEFI kids have a project that they must do for this coming week. They have to read all of Romans and than have been assigned a short project on a certain portion for which they must give a brief presentation. Gosh I miss school. This project actually makes me want to do school work, how messed up is that one! You can tell you went to LCA when...
Either way today Kristin and Doris cleaned all of the dorms and cooked three meals. Pretty impressive from my point of view. Work is getting a lot tougher around here. We now begin at 7 AM for breakfast prep, eat breakfast with the group as we serve, clean up breakfast, clean around camp, make lunch, serve and eat lunch with group, clean around camp, prepare dinner, serve and eat dinner with students, clean up dinner, wash kitchen, wash floors. When all is said and done it's about 10 PM, and you've gotten not a single break since 7 AM!!! It's kind of crazy lately, thus why I appreciated sleeping and having time to do my full devotion today. I actually got to sit in the field down the hill with some of the students in the afternoon which was neat.
Also a cool "God moment" of the day: Lorraine is tudoring a village woman in english and in return is being tudored in french. This woman told Lorraine that she would come for the meeting to the camp, but she is worried because to her this place is a cult and she thinks that we are all members. Basically she was trusting Lorraine and hoping that she would get out of here alive today! So she shows up and is having gouter on the patio with Lorraine, and the students (who don't know her or anything about her) come out to join them and ended up talking about their classes and the camp and such with her the rest of the afternoon. They made her feel sooo welcome and she left completly relieved and actually liked Champfleuri. You can bet she's going to tell everyone she knows that we're actually a nice group of people and not at all the crazy freaks she thought we where :)
I just got back from dinner with the students. I like dinner on my day's off because I am free to listen as they speak french while not having to worry about serving. It's nice to listen to them speaking because as they are mostly non native speakers who have just begun to study more french they speak nice and slowly and with different, but recognizable accents making it much much easier for me to understand. Tonight's conversation ranged from the different styles of money in each of our different countries to a broken shower head that the girls room broke by accident and the story of them explaining to Blain en francais how exactly this happened!!! It was very funny to listen.
Although I love the conversations at dinner with the students I missing those days when meals were our breaks as now even meals are a time when we are working! Basically all we do right now is work, from the moment we get up at 6 to 10 PM when we finally get a moment off to write emails home, watch a quick numa or one tree hill as a a group, quickly take showers and maybe (depending on the time) have a tea party in the chalet before we fall asleep. I like the days here and the students, but it's easy to understand that this type of day clocking this many hours can get old real fast. If this day looks bad add for Kristin the fact that she is creating meals for a bunch of people. All I have to do is aid the kitchen, not make the menu and come up with ways to make the food! Basically life is kinda crazy here right now and every moment off is valuable time. HAHA I just heard a huge crash from downstairs and now it's completly silent in the kitchen. Probably a good time to go and make sure everything is going okay down there. To leave off check out 2 Corinthians 4:16-18, really great passage!
I went to the doctors yesterday and he gave me a prescription for two antibiotics which I am now taking. Hopefully one of these will work some minor miracle and I will be able to breath a bit more normally. The doctors was quite an experience for me. First of all I hate doctors, always have and probably always will. They are the people incharge of the needles, its really that simple. Who likes the person who's stabbing them in the arm with a little sharp medal thing? Not me that's for sure! Needless to say add the fact that in France going to the doctors means setting a personal appointment and I was a little bit freaked. Luckily Lorraine went with me as she speaks pretty decent french. It was good I brought someone to translate for me because he spoke pretty good english, but not enough that I was able to explain to him how I felt. I think the constant sniffling and lack of breathing probably gave most of my symptoms away. Either way the long story shortened is he gave me drugs and although I don't feel any better yet they should start working soon...I hope!
As for around camp. DEFI kids have a project that they must do for this coming week. They have to read all of Romans and than have been assigned a short project on a certain portion for which they must give a brief presentation. Gosh I miss school. This project actually makes me want to do school work, how messed up is that one! You can tell you went to LCA when...
Either way today Kristin and Doris cleaned all of the dorms and cooked three meals. Pretty impressive from my point of view. Work is getting a lot tougher around here. We now begin at 7 AM for breakfast prep, eat breakfast with the group as we serve, clean up breakfast, clean around camp, make lunch, serve and eat lunch with group, clean around camp, prepare dinner, serve and eat dinner with students, clean up dinner, wash kitchen, wash floors. When all is said and done it's about 10 PM, and you've gotten not a single break since 7 AM!!! It's kind of crazy lately, thus why I appreciated sleeping and having time to do my full devotion today. I actually got to sit in the field down the hill with some of the students in the afternoon which was neat.
Also a cool "God moment" of the day: Lorraine is tudoring a village woman in english and in return is being tudored in french. This woman told Lorraine that she would come for the meeting to the camp, but she is worried because to her this place is a cult and she thinks that we are all members. Basically she was trusting Lorraine and hoping that she would get out of here alive today! So she shows up and is having gouter on the patio with Lorraine, and the students (who don't know her or anything about her) come out to join them and ended up talking about their classes and the camp and such with her the rest of the afternoon. They made her feel sooo welcome and she left completly relieved and actually liked Champfleuri. You can bet she's going to tell everyone she knows that we're actually a nice group of people and not at all the crazy freaks she thought we where :)
I just got back from dinner with the students. I like dinner on my day's off because I am free to listen as they speak french while not having to worry about serving. It's nice to listen to them speaking because as they are mostly non native speakers who have just begun to study more french they speak nice and slowly and with different, but recognizable accents making it much much easier for me to understand. Tonight's conversation ranged from the different styles of money in each of our different countries to a broken shower head that the girls room broke by accident and the story of them explaining to Blain en francais how exactly this happened!!! It was very funny to listen.
Although I love the conversations at dinner with the students I missing those days when meals were our breaks as now even meals are a time when we are working! Basically all we do right now is work, from the moment we get up at 6 to 10 PM when we finally get a moment off to write emails home, watch a quick numa or one tree hill as a a group, quickly take showers and maybe (depending on the time) have a tea party in the chalet before we fall asleep. I like the days here and the students, but it's easy to understand that this type of day clocking this many hours can get old real fast. If this day looks bad add for Kristin the fact that she is creating meals for a bunch of people. All I have to do is aid the kitchen, not make the menu and come up with ways to make the food! Basically life is kinda crazy here right now and every moment off is valuable time. HAHA I just heard a huge crash from downstairs and now it's completly silent in the kitchen. Probably a good time to go and make sure everything is going okay down there. To leave off check out 2 Corinthians 4:16-18, really great passage!
Sunday, September 16, 2007
Our weekend
Well Saturday was great, between seeing Jeremy, Sam, Claire, Thierry, and Emmy again and getting back into the swing of having poeple around. We have 110 people here right now and so it's always a little caotic at meals, but we're moving really fast because everyone has worked here before at some point so everyone knows what they are doing. I love this group of equipiers because many of them have been here working with me at some other point of this summer. I feel like they are almost my family in a way. Last night after work we had such a long dinner together and told tons of funny stories from our lives. It was nice to actually understand the french that was spoken. It still seems strange to me when someone is telling a story in french and I actually find myself understanding most of what they are saying! I guess I should add a finally to that sentence, I finally understand some of what they are saying. After dinner we watched a french movie with english subtitles. This is one of the best ways to learn and improve your french they say because then you are hearing more of the language and also reading it in your own. Luckily despite the extreme fatigue I found that about halfway through I had actually stopped reading and was beginning to follow the dialogue! Yes for progess!
Last night was long. We went to sleep about 1 and only slept till 2 because I have been suffering from a wonderful cough and sore throat, which led to me not breathing o so well. Needless to say Kristin was pretty freaked at being woken up by the sound of me choking in my sleep. A cup of tea and tons of cough drops later and we both tried to fall asleep again. Sadly we only made it to about 5 when once again I could not breath. It's a pretty scary feeling especially because there isn't any medicine that we have for a cough or my throat. This morning I ended up finally falling asleep as actually slept through the breakfast and cleanup waking up just in time to watch them set the last dishes on the table...guess being sick does have some perks haha. Needless to say there is a visit to the doctor in the coming future :( ugg i hate doctors!
Right now Sam, Jeremy, Allan, Thierry, and Juniho are all playing Urban Terror. It's basically this game where we all run around in a cyber world shooting each other! As you can imagine with all of us playing on our own computers in seperate rooms around camp it adds a most comical element. Kristin, Doris, and Emmy are preparing lunch and today we will be eating outside as the weather is absolutly gorgeous here.
This evening the students will arrive and we still have a bunch of stuff to clean in order to have their rooms ready, sadly we have to wait for the current residents to leave before we can clean thus the sitting around playing on the computers that has ensued.
Last night as we were all sitting and talking together we counted that we had 5 counries represented, and 9 different languages at our little table. You know you're at Champfleuri working equipier when...haha. It's been great to hang out with some different people and to get to meet more of the extended camp family. It seems that in the christian community of France everyone is related! The church here from Albertville actually has some people that I know from this summer and from around the area! And with that Sam just totally killed Jeremy and they are all celebrating...guess its time to go play myself!
Last night was long. We went to sleep about 1 and only slept till 2 because I have been suffering from a wonderful cough and sore throat, which led to me not breathing o so well. Needless to say Kristin was pretty freaked at being woken up by the sound of me choking in my sleep. A cup of tea and tons of cough drops later and we both tried to fall asleep again. Sadly we only made it to about 5 when once again I could not breath. It's a pretty scary feeling especially because there isn't any medicine that we have for a cough or my throat. This morning I ended up finally falling asleep as actually slept through the breakfast and cleanup waking up just in time to watch them set the last dishes on the table...guess being sick does have some perks haha. Needless to say there is a visit to the doctor in the coming future :( ugg i hate doctors!
Right now Sam, Jeremy, Allan, Thierry, and Juniho are all playing Urban Terror. It's basically this game where we all run around in a cyber world shooting each other! As you can imagine with all of us playing on our own computers in seperate rooms around camp it adds a most comical element. Kristin, Doris, and Emmy are preparing lunch and today we will be eating outside as the weather is absolutly gorgeous here.
This evening the students will arrive and we still have a bunch of stuff to clean in order to have their rooms ready, sadly we have to wait for the current residents to leave before we can clean thus the sitting around playing on the computers that has ensued.
Last night as we were all sitting and talking together we counted that we had 5 counries represented, and 9 different languages at our little table. You know you're at Champfleuri working equipier when...haha. It's been great to hang out with some different people and to get to meet more of the extended camp family. It seems that in the christian community of France everyone is related! The church here from Albertville actually has some people that I know from this summer and from around the area! And with that Sam just totally killed Jeremy and they are all celebrating...guess its time to go play myself!
Saturday, September 15, 2007
And the Fall season begins...
Well today marks the beginning of the fall season over here. In about an hour 120 people will be arriving as well as 4 more equipiers to work with us this weekend. Jeremy my friend who's a missionary in Africa is coming back to help! Super excited about this one as I havent seen him since July and he's pretty much hilarious. Plus he has the entire new worship cd from hillsong so that also makes me pretty happy! Then sunday night DEFI will begin and students will begin arriving! It's going to be getting pretty busy around here, but it's going to be a nice change of pace after such a calm end of the summer.
Random note: Right now Junior is teaching me how to tune a guitar. I really want to learn how to play...I think I might try and take up this project when I get to BIOLA. After all there must be someone who can teach me at such an artsy school!
Well the mass of people just began arriving so I will finish this post fast. Emmy returns today so we stop cooking for ourselves. Euget, Daniel, and Henri leave today as they finished the kitchen work this morning! So exciting! Yet at the same time it will be sad to say goodbyes all over again. Henri was so cute, he cut each of us a rose for the breakfast table. They smell absolutly incredible...i love roses :)
Well the bigger news of this past week is that Kristin and I where able to get out of the camp for a day on Thursday to visit Lyon and our friend Jonny from camp TED/STEVE. He lives just outside of Lyon and gave us our own personal tour of the city. To get there was quite it's own adventure. For those of you that don't know France uses buses to get everywhere. So early in the morning Kristin and I took the car and drove to the bus stop, caught a bus, took the bus to the train station and caught another bus to Lyon. Then we got to the train station in Lyon and discovered that um yea in France they are a little like our airports and resemble malls. Luckily Jonny found us! We bough
t tickets for the subway and except for a few mishaps (i.e. jonny getting stuck, jonny getting lost, jonny almost losing his ticket, jonny taking the wrong subway) we had a pleasant trip. Jonny showed us the opera, the river that runs through Lyon, Roman ruins, a Roman museum, and an absolutly amazing church on the hill with a view of the entire city! This church was built by the Catholic community of Lyon to thank the Virgin Mary for saving them from the plauge's that where haunting the area. Basically it was the most incredible church I have ever seen. It was filled with huge stained glass windows and gold leaf and smelled like candles and old polished wood--a great combo--and was so peaceful! Kristin, Jonny, and I took a ton of pictures. 
Then we toured the grounds and saw some of the gardens. It was pretty because here it is the beginning of Fall and so the leaves are changing and falling. I love the smell of fall, it is going to be so nice to get to go home for a real new england fall with all the colors and smells. I can't wait to hit up Richarsons apple farm and get some of those yummy apple donuts and hot apple cider! Alright back to Lyon... We had lunch overlooking Lyon and ended up just talking for a few hours. It was so nice to just stop, relax, and get to talk about the summer, fall, next summer and just the future. The day ended with us running back to catch our bus, that ended up actually being a train because our tickets where messed up. Luckily the man incharge was super nice and took pity on us and let us go for free! Yea for saving money!
t tickets for the subway and except for a few mishaps (i.e. jonny getting stuck, jonny getting lost, jonny almost losing his ticket, jonny taking the wrong subway) we had a pleasant trip. Jonny showed us the opera, the river that runs through Lyon, Roman ruins, a Roman museum, and an absolutly amazing church on the hill with a view of the entire city! This church was built by the Catholic community of Lyon to thank the Virgin Mary for saving them from the plauge's that where haunting the area. Basically it was the most incredible church I have ever seen. It was filled with huge stained glass windows and gold leaf and smelled like candles and old polished wood--a great combo--and was so peaceful! Kristin, Jonny, and I took a ton of pictures. 
Then we toured the grounds and saw some of the gardens. It was pretty because here it is the beginning of Fall and so the leaves are changing and falling. I love the smell of fall, it is going to be so nice to get to go home for a real new england fall with all the colors and smells. I can't wait to hit up Richarsons apple farm and get some of those yummy apple donuts and hot apple cider! Alright back to Lyon... We had lunch overlooking Lyon and ended up just talking for a few hours. It was so nice to just stop, relax, and get to talk about the summer, fall, next summer and just the future. The day ended with us running back to catch our bus, that ended up actually being a train because our tickets where messed up. Luckily the man incharge was super nice and took pity on us and let us go for free! Yea for saving money! 
Hope you all are enjoying the beginning of Fall as much as we are! Wish us luck, life is about to get rather hectic around here!
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
Shall we dance :)
Well today began with a reunion for the staff here at camp. Blain led a devotion from 2 Samuel 15. It was much shorter than last week allowing Doris, Kristin, and I a chance to actually understand some of what he was saying. Ushually they conduct the entire reunion en francais so basically we all sit there attempting to understand the general gist of what is going on, but its slowly getting to be more and more. Today I can honestly say that I understood most if not all of what Blain said. Of course the things I didnt understand just happened to be the same things that I really needed to know as an equipier for DEFI. Life always seems to work like that around here!
DEFI will begin this coming Monday so we are busy redoing the kitchen and polishing all the furniture. To help us with the kitchen we have Daniel, Uget, and Henri. They are all amazing! Henri is basically your stereotypical little french old man. He is soooo cute and funny! Today he made us listen to ballroom music and then gave us a little lesson in dancing. It was so much fun. He also let us paint part of the kitchen and as you all probably know I love paint! I love to make a mess with paint and I love to get others messy with paint. Basically poor Doris and Kristin when I was through with them!
This evening we had a real french meal. Uget has been very busy teaching us the in's and out's of french cooking! It's been exciting learning to cook with her and also learning french with her. This group of adults is really good at explaining when we make mistakes and I think I have learned so much in the few short days they have been here already! I find that listening has allowed me to expand my vocabulary by leaps and bounds. Especially when you have someone like Henri to tell you exactly what you did wrong and when in perfect english, german, or french!
Well it's time for some One Tree Hill with the girls! Happy Septmeber 11th!
DEFI will begin this coming Monday so we are busy redoing the kitchen and polishing all the furniture. To help us with the kitchen we have Daniel, Uget, and Henri. They are all amazing! Henri is basically your stereotypical little french old man. He is soooo cute and funny! Today he made us listen to ballroom music and then gave us a little lesson in dancing. It was so much fun. He also let us paint part of the kitchen and as you all probably know I love paint! I love to make a mess with paint and I love to get others messy with paint. Basically poor Doris and Kristin when I was through with them!
This evening we had a real french meal. Uget has been very busy teaching us the in's and out's of french cooking! It's been exciting learning to cook with her and also learning french with her. This group of adults is really good at explaining when we make mistakes and I think I have learned so much in the few short days they have been here already! I find that listening has allowed me to expand my vocabulary by leaps and bounds. Especially when you have someone like Henri to tell you exactly what you did wrong and when in perfect english, german, or french!
Well it's time for some One Tree Hill with the girls! Happy Septmeber 11th!
Friday, September 7, 2007
We get a whole weekend off!
Well today and yesterday where great.
Yesterday Kristin and I worked all day with Boone. We got up rather early and surprised him by trying to make the shelves for Blain's new office. Sadly we had to wait to actually finish setting them up because we ended up having to move the whole office around to fit them...our leader has such good measuring skills he got shelves that don't really fit in the designated space! Then we cleaned the chalet and Doris' room. Next a very french lunch with Theresa, Boone, Kristin, and Thierry. We are learning to appreciate these 2 hours with the group and are beginning to love playing computer games as part of our really french lunch break :)
After lunch we did outdoor work. I learned to mow thanks to the nimon and then I cleared vines off the grange. I got to stand a really long ladder and I even touched the roof! Needless to say not something everyone would love, but I love heights so it was actually a ton of fun. Plus it's a job you do alone so I could listen to music! Once we finished Kristin and I showered, flew a kite with the girls (Lena and Glenda) and then made dinner. We had "chicken po po" in the words of Thierry. For those americans reading it was chicken pot pie and slushes/milkshakes made by the mad scientist that is Boone. It was really nice to get to know the staff better. Even though Kristin and I are the youngest on staff they are beginning to treat us like family and last night was fun to sit, eat, talk, and then we all ended the evening by watching Hitch together! So So funny! And Sam got to come watch too! Yes for living right in the valley, you can go home, but you always come back!
Today was equally as fun, though a little different than yesterday. I got to sleep. It was my first real day off since STEVE and soooo soooo nice to sleep in. Then in the afternoon our new equipier Doris got here. She is austrian, but speaks perfect french, english, italian, and german. Gosh these silly europeans and their languages! Blain and Gudren got home today from their 10th anniversary vacation in Spain and David and the old cook came back for the fall. Thierry has once again returned to Albertville for the weekend and Allan and family are once again at their own house. All in all it was hectic with everyone leaving and arriving.
Right now Lena and Glenda are drawing me some beautiful pictures of horses as they just got dropped off by the bus and their parents are planning a little surprise so we're babysitting for a few minutes. We love this job perhaps the most out of all. These little girls are sooo cute and they love to do random crazy things with us. We've already tried to fly a kite and ended up caught in the trees and gone apple picking and ended up eating worms instead :)
When they leave Kristin will start cooking up some sloppy joes and french fries and we're giving Doris a welcome to Champfleuri dinner the american way, way too many carbs and some one tree hill to go with it!
Hope all is well for all of you and that you're all having a smooth transition into the '07-'08 school year! God Bless!
Yesterday Kristin and I worked all day with Boone. We got up rather early and surprised him by trying to make the shelves for Blain's new office. Sadly we had to wait to actually finish setting them up because we ended up having to move the whole office around to fit them...our leader has such good measuring skills he got shelves that don't really fit in the designated space! Then we cleaned the chalet and Doris' room. Next a very french lunch with Theresa, Boone, Kristin, and Thierry. We are learning to appreciate these 2 hours with the group and are beginning to love playing computer games as part of our really french lunch break :)
After lunch we did outdoor work. I learned to mow thanks to the nimon and then I cleared vines off the grange. I got to stand a really long ladder and I even touched the roof! Needless to say not something everyone would love, but I love heights so it was actually a ton of fun. Plus it's a job you do alone so I could listen to music! Once we finished Kristin and I showered, flew a kite with the girls (Lena and Glenda) and then made dinner. We had "chicken po po" in the words of Thierry. For those americans reading it was chicken pot pie and slushes/milkshakes made by the mad scientist that is Boone. It was really nice to get to know the staff better. Even though Kristin and I are the youngest on staff they are beginning to treat us like family and last night was fun to sit, eat, talk, and then we all ended the evening by watching Hitch together! So So funny! And Sam got to come watch too! Yes for living right in the valley, you can go home, but you always come back!
Today was equally as fun, though a little different than yesterday. I got to sleep. It was my first real day off since STEVE and soooo soooo nice to sleep in. Then in the afternoon our new equipier Doris got here. She is austrian, but speaks perfect french, english, italian, and german. Gosh these silly europeans and their languages! Blain and Gudren got home today from their 10th anniversary vacation in Spain and David and the old cook came back for the fall. Thierry has once again returned to Albertville for the weekend and Allan and family are once again at their own house. All in all it was hectic with everyone leaving and arriving.
Right now Lena and Glenda are drawing me some beautiful pictures of horses as they just got dropped off by the bus and their parents are planning a little surprise so we're babysitting for a few minutes. We love this job perhaps the most out of all. These little girls are sooo cute and they love to do random crazy things with us. We've already tried to fly a kite and ended up caught in the trees and gone apple picking and ended up eating worms instead :)
When they leave Kristin will start cooking up some sloppy joes and french fries and we're giving Doris a welcome to Champfleuri dinner the american way, way too many carbs and some one tree hill to go with it!
Hope all is well for all of you and that you're all having a smooth transition into the '07-'08 school year! God Bless!
Tuesday, September 4, 2007
The Hills are Alive...with the sound of Emily and Kristin
So Today Kristin and I began work a bit earlier, but soon to become the normal time of 8:30. We cleaned the petite plongue area and all the kitchen cabinets and a bunch of rooms in the grande maison. A long morning, but because Lorraine really wanted to go for a prayer walk into the mountains in the afternoon she gave Kristin and I time to do likewise. So Kristin and I did some laundry and then packed a bag and headed to the mountains.
We decided to hike to the first pretty little field we found and once we had a good view of the mountains we sat down and did our devotions and wrote some. I brought along my amazing new Ipod so we also each got some time to listen to music and just relax after a few very hectic and long day here at camp. It was sooo serene and peaceful after all the rushing. Kristin even found an apple tree so we got to have a little gouter sitting in this field and talking.
One of the greatest moments for the two of us today was seeing this plane flying over our heads and just laughing and recognizing that finally after a year of waiting we look at a plane and know we are exactly where we want to be :) love that feeling!
We decided to hike to the first pretty little field we found and once we had a good view of the mountains we sat down and did our devotions and wrote some. I brought along my amazing new Ipod so we also each got some time to listen to music and just relax after a few very hectic and long day here at camp. It was sooo serene and peaceful after all the rushing. Kristin even found an apple tree so we got to have a little gouter sitting in this field and talking.
One of the greatest moments for the two of us today was seeing this plane flying over our heads and just laughing and recognizing that finally after a year of waiting we look at a plane and know we are exactly where we want to be :) love that feeling!
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