Last Post

So this will be my last post in this blog. Sad I know, but I'm home so that's nice too! You can get the real emily rather than this cyber version :)

I got home Tuesday evening after an incredibly long flight. I only didnt get one piece of luggage and since I have never lost any I found it slightly funny and was fine with their immediate delivery the next morning! Other than that the trip was pretty uneventful.

These past few days have been days of hanging around, unpacking, and cleaning my room for spring. Sounds pretty boring to you probably but I have been enjoying it immensly as Helen and I are working together and our music is amazing! Yesterday we were girls and went shopping after school and today our friend and other sister is coming up for the weekend. I'm planning on going job hunting this coming week as well as catching up with the kids in boston! we're all pretty excited as its been sooo long since we were all together (beth we'll miss you still)! So on that note there is not much else to say. I am home. I will see most of you soon. I am getting a job ASAP. I don't miss France and I LOVE america! wohooo! okay, well goodbye all and thanks for your prayers and for those of you that actually read this blog all year!

LOVE
emily r kearns

TWO DAYS!!!!

so basically this is the post where I announce that I will be home on Tuesday evening! I fly our tomorrow morning and still have yet to pack. Basically today is packing and then skiing for the afternoon! Syched. Plus today I got to meet baby Theo for the first time. He is too cute and slept in my arms for a part of the morning meeting. Needless to say I was just a little distracted. These past few days have been filled with goodbyes and I am getting totally syched to get home. Yea for seeing all of you again soon!

Three Days to Go

So Yesterday was pretty nice. We worked with the group in the morning and then took the afternoon to walk all the way to town and get out hair cut. We decided to hitch hike back because the walk was so long and ended up getting picked up by Gudrun. Pretty funny to get picked up hitch hiking by your own family (basically). Either way all the equipiers have new hair cuts!

Today is my day off so I slept till about 11:30 and then got up and had a quick breakfast. Afterwards I continued the grand search for my stuff project. This place is so huge and my stuff has managed to get put EVERYWHERE! So then I packed some more stuff and figured out my stuff for getting home. Now I'm importing the last of the group's CD's onto my computer and then we're going to go do something fun with Sam :).

Tomorrow we head to church for the last time here and then a lunch with our friends family and a couple friends from church. Should be pretty fun.

I have Sunday, Monday and leave Tuesday morning to fly home...now that is crazy folks.

The Most Amazing ski day ever...

Today we went skiing with the group. Usually this involves us teaching them to ski really slowly. Luckily for us some of them already knew how so we got to play in the snow in the morning. Then we had the world's quickest lunch and headed out for some off pisting with allan and group. So it turned out that we had an amazing group of skiiers and the snow was up to our knees and no one was there...so we went off trail all day and got really sore legs. BUT we had all the leaders with us so basically the kids taught themselves. Yes all of this to say that today I got to ski with the most amazing ski group ever and we skiied the most awesome trails and the snow was deep and fluffy and like clouds. Yes I am tired. Yes it is late. Yes my legs are burning still. Yes I am going to bed right now. :)

So to begin here is the song I have had stuck in my head all day!

Listen to our Hearts
Micheal W. Smith

How do you explain,
How do you describe,
A love that goes from east to west,
And runs and deep as it is wide?

You know all our hopes
Lord, you know all our fears
And words cannot express the love we feel
But we long for You to hear

So listen to our hearts
Hear our spirits sing
A song of praise that flows
From those You have redeemed
We will use the words we know
To tell You what an awesome God You are
But words are not enough
To tell You of our love
So listen to our hearts

If words could fall like rain
From these lips of mine
And if I had a thousand years
I would still run out of time

So if You listen to my heart
Every beat would say,
“Thank You for the Life, thank You for the Truth, thank You for the Way.”

I've always had a love for music. In fact in case you don't know this already I am always thinking or humming along to some song. So no surprises then when I say that one of my favorite forms of worship is through song. To be exact through contemporary worship music, but I do still like hymns. Either way this song is one of those worship songs that has always touched me and I feel like it expresses my love for my Lord. My favorite line though has to be "and if I had a thousand years I would still run out of time". I want my walk with the Lord to be like this song says in that with every beat my heart is crying out to the Lord. I think it's a good reminder to us all and also a wonderful song of encouragment. Kristin and I were able to sing it with some of the french americans living in Alberville during our week there and we all agreed it was one of our favorites from the week so enjoy!

and on another note completly...
Today Verena and I led 12 teens in tearing apart a antique closet with housed about 4,000 spiders. Note I hate spiders please. Luckily for me we are working with southern guys who as soon as I made this known to them took over all spider removal for me :) special thanks to them! It took us so long and none of us could breath because there were so many of us crowded into such a small little closet...think gross spidery dark space. UGGG. Anyways then after lunch the group went into Grenoble and we stayed here. Finally I got some time to pack up some stuff for my departure. I have one full bag packed and most of my stuff at least organized for leaving this coming Tuesday! Man am I excited for some good american food!
So this evening I went to my last AWANA meeting. It was so sad seeing my kids for the last time and saying goodbye to everyone. To end the evening they gathered around me in a circle and took some time to pray for what is coming next. It made me once again remember that these kids say hello and goodbye to so many people and yet each person seems to matter so much to them! As I was about to head out the door one of my favorite TandT'ers came running up with tears running down his face. He wanted to give me a big hug and wish me tons of luck! I felt so bad and hope to stay in touch with them all. It's funny how in such a short amount of time these kids and leaders have become such a portion of my life, a little family here in France! I can't wait to see what the Lord will do in all their lives here in France!
So the countdown towards home begins and we're off to go chat with the group before the "mandatory lights out" time. Silly Georgians.

Georgia Arrives at Champfleuri...

Today a group of 30 teens on a senior class trip from Georgia arrived to work and play in the snow. Have I mentioned we have been getting non stop snow for the past few days. Thursday we are hitting the mountains for some powder play time with the group! Anyways today Verena and I were in charge of organizing group work around camp. Literally about 2 hours in we ran out of work and had to invent stuff for them to do. Picture if you can our laundry room (which of course you have never seen, but try anyways) totally filled with kids sanding, vacuming, dustin, mopping, lifting heavy stuff, shaking blankets, and throwing stuff outside the door to empty the room. Needless to say it was such a mess, but after a few hours of elbow grease it is looking fine! This evening the group had worship and a sermon on Abraham leaving behind his security. It got me thinking of how God sometimes makes us leave our family, our friends, and our land like in this story in order to bring us closer to him. The concept itself if one of those no duh ones and yet if you stop and really think about the idea it can be pretty hard to fathom. I for one do NOT LIKE to leave my security. With less than a week left in my France trip I can still admit how scary it is to me that I live here and that I did and have left my security of family, friends, and land. I would suggest it to everyone actually. It really makes you think not only about what's important, but also about your idols that sometimes you need to leave in order to recognize. So yes I liked the sermon tonight and it made me think during my last week here. I hope that you all had a blessed Easter and continue to enjoy the beginning of your weeks!

Peace in Christ,
em

Happy Easter! Joyeuse Pâque!

Happy Easter and a Joyeuse Pâque to you all! The Lord is risen. He is risen indeed!

First the song we have been listening to all morning with props to Sam...
Delirious--Hands of Kindness

Now some emily thoughts...
Church this morning was amazing. An entirely different Easter Sunday then I have ever seen and yet once again I am awed by how God works in France. Today our church welcomed to the pulpit a gospel choir from Grenoble. They sang like you would imagine the old southern baptist churches to praise complete with long flowy robes and piano accompaniment. Brief sidenote: the pianist(s) where amazing. The best pianists I have seen in a long long time! Alright and back to my original thoughts...Church was incredible. It's funny to see a different way of praising the Lord on such a day! I love being a part of this church and have come to love the congregation as my own during these past 8 months. Next week we are heading to one of the families houses for a brief lunch and farewell to the church before I fly home!

Easter here has so far consisted of a wonderful church service (see above) and a tasty lunch made by Mike. It was quite a surprise to be cooked such a wonderful lunch and we all appreciated this gesture immensly. Come on how can you pass up chicken, potatoes, hot cross buns, cake, and carrots?

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So to catch you all up on life...
Theresa had her baby this past Saturday morning. He was born healthy at 6 and a half pounds and they named him Theodore Jessie Anderson. We cannot wait to get to see he and mommy!

We had our end of season party this past weekend at a wonderful little pizzeria and had our goodbyes. Usually when equipiers are leaving camp Blain does a little presentation with bible verse that describes their time, chocolate, picture frame of their time here, and a tee shirt. So this time it was my turn. My verse is Deuteronomy 16:15(b) I think. Supposedly because of my Joy. Kristin's verse was from Matthew and talked about her servant heart.

Two weeks ago we spent a week working with a missions trip group from Boston that I have previously mentioned. The time was amazing! We had a chance to connect to some other teens living and working in france and a family that moved here around the same time as us with two teens our age. Besides that it was great catching up with old friends and meeting some new ones! It made me rediscover how much I love american teenagers. God works in mysterious manners. The week itself was filled with day trips, shopping, and then the missions side. We helped to restore an apartment for the Language school in Alberville. We also worked with two different youth groups and worked with many of the missionary families living in the area. It was an incredible week for everyone and I think the teens that came over got a really realistic view of missions and the culture of France.

It's snowing. Did it snow on Christmas? No. Is it snowing on Easter? Yes. Strange, very strange.

This past week we have had more snow than any other time here at camp. Friday morning we awoke to fresh snow and more falling from the sky by the minute. We convinced our boss to let us be ski bums and headed to the mountains. The snow was epic and up to my knees in some places! Literally the best snow that I have ever skied in! We will be getting in one more day of skiing as we will work with a group this coming Thursday.

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Since it is Easter I thought I would end this blog by reminding you all what this wonderful holiday means for me! Today is the most important day for me because it is the day that Christ was risen. During the time of the Crucifiction many men claimed to be Kings and yet mine died for this claim and to fulfill the prophesies he rose again making him stand apart from the rest. Without this important day the death of Christ is just the death of another man claiming to be God, but through his resurection he provided a pathway for us to live again and the proof of his origin.

"For God so loved the world that he sent his only son so that he might die for our sins and grant us eternal life" (John 3:16). This same man rose again today. He lived and died so that I might live eternally. He has granted me life through his death. He was sent to earth with this purpose. He died on a cross and took upon himself the sins of the whole world (you included) whether we accept this free gift or not is our own choice, but it has been made regardless. To accept this gift we must acknowledge his death on the cross for our sins. Today is the day we celebrate that our Christ has overcome death!

I hope you all enjoy your celebrations wherever you may be. I am getting yelled at as we are supposed to be going sledding now with a group from church! Salut!

Making Ice Cream...i know our social lives are just that interesting!

So right now we are all rolling this blue ball for making ice cream around the floor. Kinda strange I know, but what else is there to do in an old mansion with just a bunch of teenagers? haha. tomorrow kristin and i head to Albertville to work with Dana Smith's youth group! We know a bunch of people coming and another couple working there this week with the group. It should be pretty fun! Today was great. We got up to work and realized we didnt really have that much to do so about halfway through the day we turned it into a lie on the couches playing cards all day type of day. Pretty sweet. So this is my last post for a while here and then we come back for Spring cleaning and after that one last group before I pack up and head home. So strange! Good, but strange!

Happy Bithday Kristin!

So today was a special day for 2 reasons. One it's kristin's 19th bday and two it was the day of our good friend Laura's baptism. So we went to the ceremony and then had a little fete here. This evening we celebrated kristin's birthday at the buffalo grill in Grenoble avec Sam et Junior et Gaelle. It was a great and terribly fun evening and we even got the whole restraunt to sing happy birthday and bring a cakie thing and it was great!

more to come...talking to my sister!

Skiing!

So this past week has been incredible. We basically got the chance to ski everyday with the group here and this awesome guy Tony whos a really decent skier! So then a day and a half into the week Tony and I are ripping it up in some powder and I jumped onto the trail for a few minutes to hit an ice patch and ended up skiing backwards and biting it hard. I ate some powder! Either way I managed to ski down and ended up going to the mtn doc who told me I had torn a muscle in my right leg and hurt my left knee and was gonna need to stop for 2 full weeks and take some major painkillers. So here I am completly pain killered up listening to this awesome music site i found online. I've discovered this blog for french street bands ( pretty sick really)! Either way the bad part is of course I can't walk much and the group is making sure I bed rest. Also this week has sick powder to play in...think 8 new inches and here I am inside watching. Nice. Not.

Only three and a half weeks left. That's a crazy thought. We're crossing out t's for the coming trip to Albertville to work with Dana's youth group. We're buying out train tix right now and then getting all settled. I can't wait to see everybody!

Other than that kristin's bday is this Sunday as well as our friend Laura's baptism so that should be fun and we have a group too of course!

29/02

So this year is a leap year. Cool right?

anyways,
this week has been...interesting. we've been chilling with some dutch kids. the group here currently has a ton of young adults our age that we've been having fun hanging out with. There is a difference between the dutch and the french and we're learning that firsthand. We also got to taste the exceptional cooking of our resident dutch baker. he made us some really yummy cakey thing thats is very dutch and ive never seen before. other than that we found the christian bookstore in Grenoble this week and bought ourselves some good ol christian french worship music. we also had a baby shower for Theresa (buan's wife, our secretary). Her baby is due right before I leave for America. That's right. Before I leave. Kristin will be staying here for another month to help out Verena. We had been discussing this for a while and we feel this is the right decsion. It's going to be strange returning to America without her, but this seems to be where God wants her right now. So I will be heading home on the 1st of April by myself. Pray for a safe and easy flight as well as travel to the airport which in France can at times get confusing!
other than that we bid farewell to another equipier this week and she headed back to Germany. So now it's Thoman, Mike, Kristin, Verena and me here until the end. We are all pretty tight at this point and Mike has extended his stay here to hang out with us for longer. Verena will be here until August and Thomas lives down the hill and comes and goes. It's been a crazy and good past couple of weeks, but we are looking forward to this coming week. There will be a group about our age here for skiing and we are going with them EVERYDAY! That's a lot of ski time for us after such a long time of working! Hope everyone is enjoying their leap year!

Music--how we roll...

so my little sister is basically my hero and the most amazing person on this planet. besides jesus of course hehe. so she sends me lists of A-M-A-Z-I-N-G music. i mean she searches for days and weeks to come up with these lists. they are incredible! i have a slight (cough) obsession with music. all my friends have learned this sad fact first hand and those of them that have spent a good deal of time with me have learned the types that tend to make me the happiest. i am wicked amped for concerts in LA this coming fall! i have a list. for seriouse though i do. so anyways i am on break today and going through these lists of music. i also read all of Samuel. I liked it. I have been reading through my entire bible. I'm on Acts and now 2 Samuel. It's taken me a long long time, but it's been one of the most benefitting experiences of France so far.

Life has been hard here lately. We have the Dutch here. I know that sounds so neat, but in reality they are loud and demanding! Classy right? So we are dealing with their "needs". This means getting up wayyyy wayyy too early in the morning and having two seperate dinners because they want to eat at ungodly hours! Either way they are here for a week with one other group and then we have a nice easy group to finish the winter season! The time is just going to fly by until we come home. After these next 2 camps we then have a week with Dana Smith's group in Albertville and then Joshua Expeditions (think Bob Jones Uni) is sending a work group here for the rest of our time. Then HOME to you all!

So this past week we have had stunning weather! Think sunny skies and warm weather. We've been tanning and reading outside every afternoon before dinner. I have been enjoying listening to the french teens learn about Mark. It's neat to understand them and the discussions they have each afternoon!

Have I mentioned we have a new secretary for a bit. His name is Thomas and I know him from the youth center in Grenoble. He has really bad stress fractures and has to use special crutches for a while completly taking him out of the ski season and army for a bit. So yea keep his recovery in your prayers.

Pray that these next few months will be amazing here. That we will finish strong. That we will touch the hearts of all those we talk and interact with. That they will find people to replace us at AWANA's. That the camp will find workers for when we leave!

I hope everyone loves snow because i heard a rumor that New England is getting pummled right now! Hope all is well with all of you. stay safe.

I love my friends <3

i love my friends. tonight cedric our recent friend from the ski station stopped in to visit. we played some card games and talked for a long time. its been amazing getting to know and share our faith with him these past few weeks. tonight was amazing as he stopped in on his own this evening just to hang with us! please add him to your prayers. we have such a chance to minister to he and his friends from the ski shop here. pray that God gives us the right words and chances to present the message of the Father's love to him! And more than that just to be there for him as a friend and support of a different world than the one he finds in France usually!

just wanted to add that to those prayer lists. we did a bit of skiing today. then took naps wohooo. then worked a bunch.

week one down...here we go again...

well we just finished up with some worship time with the American Seattle group that just arrived here! There are two famous in champfleuri land people Lyndsey and Dan. They brought with them a bunch of other english speakers!

Yesterday I went skiing with the group that was here from an international church in aix. We worked with a bunch of the young teenage girls on their turning and speed skills. We got in a bunch of skiing last week. Then I skied with Allan's middle school boys group and we did some off piste and blacks. Worked on my non existant mogul skills. i would love to come home able to ski moguls and i totally think its a feasible goal. tomorrow sam and jonathan two old equipe are arriving here to work. then we get some americans and the other group the Grande famille is heading out to ski. life has been hectic here, but one week of winter season is down!

*cue drumroll*...THE WINTER SEASON HAS BEGUN!!!

yup, that's right. Today was the beginning of the winter season here at camp. Funny really as for all of us it's been the "winter season" for a few months here and to be truthful our's is better as it last a little longer than just one month!

So today was the arrival of our first Swiss group. From here on out it's up early every morning between breakfast and picnic duties. Then we have one day off a week and two afternoons off for free ski. Other than that it's work work work! ahhhhh.

Please continue praying for camp as once again we are in the midst of changing and readapting here. Today our permeneant staffer Lorraine headed back home to the US of good ol'A to take care of her ailing parents for no ones quite knows how long. She really doesnt know what's ahead if this could be a long or short stay and is actually once again going to live with her parents. She has to find work and also reknew her nursing liscense. Here this means we have one less staffer for the hectic winter season. It also means Blain (our director) has that much added work. Please pray for hands of service and not just until we leave. After Kristin and I depart in March/Aprilish there will only be one equipier here for the whole of the spring. That's crazy with the groups and work that will need to get done!

and....back to here today. We got up early and did devos then cleaned and got ready for the group. This group is small, but another group will be added to them tomorrow morning. So then we will have two groups at once. Monday we have a new staffer Sonja (German) joining us for the months of Feburary. Pray for her smooth transition into the equipier team.

Yesterday Kristin and I followed a bunch of the guys up to the mtn for a day off of wonderful skiing. Sadly the snow was kinda non existant and we were both exhausted from off pisting after about the second run! So in the coming weeks there will be many oppertunities to get up into the mtns and get in some powder. Hoping for snow here in the alps. I could see green. That is NEVER a good thing for skiing! haha.

Junior and Gaelle have moved into their new apartment and seem to be settling into married life wonderfully. We also have a french man named Cedric staying here for the week. He's not a Christian. but works for the ski shop we rent our stuff from. Throughout this past year we have all on staff here made a huge effort to get to know the staff there hoping to have a chance to talk with some of them about what we believe. It's been amazing thus far. They are even letting their staff members live here for a bit when they can't find another place for them. That's saying a whole lot as most of the town assumes we are a cult hidden away up here. hmmm...not cool. :(

anyways I'm on dinner duty and Emmy and I are going to be cooking up some o so yummy food for the group!

God Bless you all and thank you for your continued support and prayers.

P.S.--Dana Smith (our old youth leader or whatever he was/is) is heading here with a missions group the 9th of March. Happens to coincide with out end of season and we will be joining up with his group for about 4 days. This is such a blessing. One as many old friends are coming and will get to see camp and also as we will get some away from camp time to do some missions work around Albertiville ( where our old director is currently working and residing). This should be an exciting time and we can hardly wait!

I have also submitted all my scholarships and papers to BIOLA and God willing am certain I will be heading there this coming fall! I can't wait! Kind of exciting to know where I'm heading in that regard!

Junior's Wedding!

Friday evening the guests got here for the wedding. We had a crepe soiree for 17 people. Kristin, Andrais, and I ended up in the HEATED grange singing worship songs till about 2 am. finally bed before the big day.

THEN THE WEDDING!!!!!!
we got up and had breakfast then changed and all headed to the mairie for the official ceremony. Junior of course told us all the wrong time so we would be on time for the ceremony, but we were all standing in the hallway waiting for him thinking we were going to get the groom there late for his own wedding! In France when you get married the procedure is that you are officially married here in front of this official from the country and town. It's kinda weird and they read off all these legal papers of things you must do as citizens of this country (as a couple). Basically we got a big kick out of it as they told Junior and Gaelle their goal is to have tons of little french children...yea for france haha! Either way we had this ceremony with the close friends and family. It was very official, but everything was of course translated into portugese for the brazilian clan. Gaelle looked sooo pretty and Junior was soooo happy! We paused for a bunch of pictures and then headed back to camp for lunch.

After lunch we headed to the unofficial wedding ceremony in Grenoble at Sam's church. The ceremony was beautiful and very different than any other I have seen. It fit both of their personalities really well. Especially as we sang all the favorite worship songs in french and some in english too. I loved this part even if it was very different than in american weddings! Afterwards they did a bunch of stuff and some talking and translating. Then vows, rings, kissing the bride, lighting candles, and the whole regular show. Kristin and I choose the music for the wedding so they used I can only Imagine for the bride's song and a Casting Crowns song for their finish. It was such a nice wedding. My favorite part was when the ring boy was scared and was led up the aisle and Gaelle had to ask her dad (who was at the back of the church) to bring her the wedding vows she had written and she couldn't get his attention!!!! It was slightly comical and yet made everyone relax and enjoy the day. We then toasted and had snacks before heading back to camp again! One of my favorite portions of the ceremony was one the worship and two looking around and realizing that all of my friends I've met here where in the room. Or at least most of them. It was neat to see how everyone was connected and just to share the special day all together!

We spent the whole afternoon cooking a typical french wedding dinner of shrimp, eggrolls, tomatoes, tomatoe salad, potatoe thingy, duck, mushrooms, cheese, wine wine wine, cake, and oranges. It took about 3 hours to eat! But it was totally worth all the decorating and cooking. Everything was sooo good! The cakes were all on this plater that circled and we have 6 of them! That's a LOT of cake.

After dinner we had dishes and then a video with snapshots from their childhood. It was funny to see pictures of all the people I know from when they were sooo little. Then the rest of the evening was a dance party. At this point everything started to get really really funny because it was about 1 in the morning. We all danced till about 4 am. It was amazing. The equipe (andrais, mike, me, kristin and verena) and of course buan had quite a good time making up crazy dances. I think the best would be the time buan got a broom and began to use it as a prop ( it was very early haha). So yea we all danced and danced. Kristin, Mike, Andrais, and I invented a couple hopping dance and we practiced our congo line skills. It was also awesome getting to hang out with all our friends for the whole night!

So as you can imagine sleep is in order now. We're all off for dinner and then bed early tonight. Everyone is heading home and the wedding party is about to leave for the new apartment! It's been an exciting weekend and we even managed to make today a ski day! Alrighty good night!

Beginning of yet another week...

well last night was amazing! mike, sam, and i went to the FEU ( college group) in Grenbole. We go there once or twice a month for a crepe soiree thingy. We ate wayyy too much and then got to talk to these incredible two canadien girls...in english! they are amazing and are planning on meeting up with us a few more times before we head home! we also got to see some random people from this summer and other friends from FEU throughout the past week. That's been pretty sweet in itself! The wedding party is beginning already and we have guests arriving by the carload. Kristin and I made a trip to Grenoble today for wedding gear and dresses. So that's Sunday! Right now we have 17 bubbly american girls here for a work camp which should be tiring, but nice as they also speak and understand english! Other than that we're planning on getting some skiing in at least one day this week and then we're doing wedding stuff and then winter season begins in full with some ski camps!

Roadtrip!

so this past week we found out we would have 4 days off before the whole winter season takes over our entire lives. Mike, Justin, Kristin and I decided this would be the perfect oppertunity to see the South of France and get out of the cold for a bit. We left Sunday hitting Avangon and Aix en Provence where we stayed at a cheap french hotel called the Formular 1. Both cute little towns with a lot of history and some amazing chinese/thai food that we found at a little out of the way cafe.
Monday we got up pretty early and headed to Marseille. According to our 4 maps and directions we should have gotten there in about 30 min. yea it definitly took us 3.30 hours to get to our hostel. We ended up stopping at this random centre commercial in the downtown area for shopping ( my first french mall....exactly like all of them back home) and a parking lot picnic lunch....yes we're cool like that. There was even some mood music playing in the lot that we decided to have a dance party too ;) When we found our hostel we stopping in awe for a little while. A pretty nice view, an amazing old restored villa run by a family and these rooms with chrystal chandeliers. It was incredible. The guys gave us the princess room with the beautiful patio and breakfast area and we gave them the room with the built in kitchenette and living room where we all chilled most of the time. After we finally got to the downtown area. We walked the old port, walked around these old fortresses and saw chateau d'If, then strolled these little side streets and visited Longchamp palace (which is really a big statue and stairs and pretty gardens with a sick playground which we totally tapped). In the evening we were all really tired so we returned to the hostel for our pasta creation ( aka ramen) and this card game we are all obsessed with.
Tuesday we got up....once again pretty early....had breakfast delivered to our room (courtesy of the gents) which we all ate at the pretty breakfast area set up in our room as the sun rose. We headed out to Nice next, but got rather sidetracked along the way. We ended up stopping in a little fishing town called Cassis (my favorite town we saw) and for a hike in the Calanques (series of inlets, secluded coves, and beautiful views of the Mediteranean Sea). We had another picnic here at a little cove we found and ended up almost going swimming, but in the end decided it was just a bit too cold for us. Needless to say we enjoyed the sun and sea. Finally we checked into our next hostel in Nice. It was quite a bit different than the first two places we stayed. This one was a REAL hostel complete with all english speaking foreigners who we got to chat with. We stayed in a dorm and shared it with a Canadien girl. We ended up eating dinner in the monastery ( did i mention it was a restored monastery) with some other travelers our age. The chef was a line chef and he was such an amazing cook. He made pizza and chinese stir fry noodles. I took some great pictures of his antics. We enjoyed hanging out for a while and then headed into Nice for the evening. We say a Russian Chapel, the beach, the Chateau overlooking the city, the old town, the light up buddah's and ended by sitting and watching the stars and talking on the beach. It was a pretty sweet evening. Plus Mike and I found a fry place on the way back to the hostel and that was pretty sick too.
Wednesday morning we once again got up pretty early, had a quick hostel provided breakfast and then headed out. We drove to Monaco and walked around for a bit. We saw the castle and Grace Kelley's grave. Then headed back out towards Italy. Along the we ended up taking the coastal route and stopped in nearly (or it felt like) every town we drove through that had a cute beach. Either way we got some ice cream and walked some beaches. Then we drove into Italy and hit Ventiglia ( the first Italien town we hit) for a late lunch of pizza and coffee flavored Gelati as we walked the beach. Finally we headed back home through the mountains. It weas a really long trip home...emphesis on REALLY. It took us about 7 hours to drive back to Grenoble from there. But the view was amazing and we saw a killer sunset. We ended up stopping for dinner and cafe in a little town and had a very entertaining experience with the locals. When we did get back we unloaded, read out 10 emails from blain (you might think im exageratting, but im sooo not), had a really really late dinner of pasta and all collapsed.

So that is the brief and not explicite version of our travels. It was sooo much fun and we all had a great ( if not tiring) time. The south is very different and soooo pretty. Plus it was very warm and the beaches were amazing. It was neat to explore some of the places we had heard about for so long. And now we're preparing for the wedding and learning Brazilian to be prepared for the experience. Tonight Juniors fam gets here and his bro has been living with us today. This weekend consists of a group run by Mike, Kristin, and I and then Monday-Fri is a group from a Christian school in Ohio. Should be crazy busy, but fun all the same.

Random...

Technically speaking I'm working right now. My job is to keep Junior in this Grande Maison at all costs! Today is the day of his bachlor party and our job was to get him to come here and stay here until everyone arrived. Hard to believe that on February 2nd they will be getting married! It seems as though everyone is getting married these days....strange. We also have a baby to be born to camp. Theresa Anderson ( our secretary, and bosses wife) is going to have her first child this coming March right before Kristin and I head home! Please pray that this pregnancy goes according to plan as It has been a rough few months for her healthwise and has made it pretty stressful for both she and Buan (our boss).

Tonight Mike get's back from England. He was meeting his Tear Fund Missions group thats headed to Peru this spring! And Verena has saftely arrived in Romania to visit her friends.

Tomorrow after church Mike, Justin, Kristin, and I are headed off to the South of France and Italy! We are just a bit excited! I booked our hostels yesterday and we are going to be seeing/ staying in Avangon, aux de provence, marseille, nice, toulon, monaco, and wherever else we end up hitting as we road trip along the coast. We hope that there is time to hop across the border into Italy and exlore before heading home through the alps. It should be a pretty neat trip as we've mapped out some things we wish to see, some neat places to stay, and have bought tons of snacks and prepared music for the road. Hope everything goes well. We will be borrowing the camp car so just be praying that it stays together for our trip and we can have a smooth relaxing vacation! We are truly looking forward to the time off!

On other notes...
Two and a half months left. We begin the winter season next week and that means neverending camps and work groups are here. The entire month of February we have groups here, not one day without visitors! Then the beginning of March is much the same and then the season ends. We will be getting 5 days off and then we work a bit with Joshua Expeditions work group and perhaps will tour Austria before heading home. The neat part is whenever we travel here we can do it on the cheap as we have a car and have found some amazing hostels in all the towns we are visiting! It's so strange to see the rest of our time here booked up. Hard to believe I will be returning to ya'll so soon! On that note thank you all for your support, emails, messages, and prayers. It has meant so much to Kristin and I. You have all been sooo helpful throughout these past few months! God Bless ya'll.

A cool thing is that when we go home Thierry ( the old head of camp) will be touring around MA talking about France and the missions field here. It's going to be pretty sweet to have him meet friends and my family so they can get a taste of the place I love so much!

When Kristin and I get home we are both planning on waitressing and saving up some money for college! I am debating soulfest again this year with the group and perhaps get in some raking as I will be around Maine this summer with the fam. Then August 25th is Orientation! I am sooo syched for BIOLA! The future looks lovely and I can't wait to get home and catch up with everyone back there.

On a random note...
things we have become addicted to at camp lately...
HEROES!!! (thanks to blain our director who owns the whole first season)
our new projector for camp has been helping us to greatly enjoy our evenings!
Age of Empires (im not actually including myself in this one, but everyone else joins in the for annual evening wars)
oranges (what can i say we like our fruit)
skiing in the alps
the new hillsong united cd...it rocks check it out!

and I think that's all for this update. Time for a little bit of chicken po po ( or pot pie) and brownies to celebrate Justin's almost leaving! hehe.

Catching up :)

So i feel as though life has been kind of hectic ( okay it always is) around here and i have not had time to do anything. I have exactly 24 emails i need to respond to. my best friend and i have been putting off our phone date for 2 weeks!!! i have not yet sent christmas thank yous...they are still sitting on my bed. i have no folded or put away my laundry from last week. i still have not charged my ipod and its been about 2 weeks. i have yet to throw out leftover wrapping paper from our second christmas with the nimon clan. my life is sooo cluttered!!!!

but thats okay.

because every day i get off i go skiing with mike or kristin in the french alps. and i learned to say i went skiing today in the french alps in German. so life is good again!

and i will get everything done. Its just that between the Nimon family visiting, work, the Chosen group visiting and just life and friends I have been busy here. For the record Chosen is amazing. They are a group that sponsers pro snowboarders and they stayed here this weekend. The guys where wicked funny and nice, although i am not awake in the morning when they were trying to be sooo funny. insight into pro snowboarding...there is a scene its called plastic braclets all up your arms, wearing your goggles backwards, bandanas all the time, black and white are the new colors, hip hop pumping out of your hatch while you all beat box and break dance is a common sight, photography is in, dropping in is a common catch phrase. yes i have been hanging out with too many snowboarders lately. and i didnt even see that much of them between their boarding and modeling haha! alright now im going to go make kristin go to bed because i didnt get my nap today as chosen was late and there was just a bunch to do. meaning this emily is wicked tired and in need of some beauty sleep asap because she is not a morning person AT ALL! But i just wanted you all back home to know we are alive and well, just very busy. Only two and a half months left. ooo and next week justin, mike, kristin and i are roadtripping across france and into a little bit of italy. yes for a few days off this month!! hope all is well. god bless ya'll. em