Pendant Les Vacances

well it certainly has been a while since I’ve updated. Sorry about that. I want to write about my adventures and update you on how things are going at this point in my semester.

 So we started out our trip going to Lille, by train. On this train ride I was able to sit next to my friend Cory.  I was asking him about this Hungarian girl, with whom he had been spending a lot of time. And we eventually got to the question of what a relationship (with a girl) looks like to one another. He thought it was a really good question, and took his time answering. Eventually we started talking about how he grew up as a Lutheran where people just went to church to say that they were going to church. He definitely isn't living a Christian life, and I can see that his knowledge of the Bible is totally different than mine. I was disturbed by the fact that with the same Bible, there has come multiple dominations of and churches that can believe totally different things and have completely different ideas of what a Christian looks like. He told me that he did feel a burden for the things that he has done and the way he's been living his life. I don't really remember any more of the conversation because after this, the train ride ended and so did the conversation. But the cool thing was that the night before I had prayed that I would get a chance to talk with Cory about spiritual things. And it happened. I was thankful for and surprised by God answering my prayer. It was cool. Needless to say, we haven't talked since then, but I hope to get around to that subject again.

 So after Lille, we took the train to Brussels, Belgium and spent the night in the train station. The next night we decided to spend in a hostel, because we had still not found a couch to surf. The hostel was nice (it included breakfast), and we got to see Brussels during the day, as well as meet the girls, who came from Angers that day. The next day we found a couch to surf and it was an amazing first experience.  Julien was very hospitable; he even gave us waffles for breakfast as we headed out of his apartment very early in the morning for our flight to Riga. Flying with Ryanair has it’s ups and downs (no pun intended). The Ryanair flights leave from non-commercial airports that are very difficult to get to and you often have to pay to get a bus to take you there. If you have to check a bag they charge you upwards of 30euro a bag. It’s crazy. But I was lucky and was able to stuff mine into the little square container they had for the limitations on carryon bags; even if I did have to wear every piece of clothing in my bag.

 In Riga, it was snowing, the cold had already begun. 

We found a market in town and walked around for a while waiting for our host. I’ve already written about Riga so I won’t tell you much more, except that I really enjoyed Riga. It was where I bought my first scarf and my camera broke.  That was a depressing day, having to deal with the fact that my camera wasn’t going to work for a long time. But it’s ok now. I’ve barrowed pictures from the other that were with me.

 So our next stop was Vilnius Lithuania. After 4 wonderful nights in Riga, with a really skinny girl named Liene, her boyfriend Olafs, and their dog Vilkes, we took the bus to Vilnius. Once we arrived in Vilnius we waited for our host to meet us at the bus station. He met us and took us around the city immediately. We went to see his amazing University, which was in the middle of town. It was beautiful; full of beautiful courtyards and sculptures and paintings and so forth. It was like a museum or something. Vilnius 

was probably my favorite place we stayed because of our host, Ignas. He shared not only his house, but his food, his culture, his friends, his personality and his time with us. He had parties almost every night (not big ones, but just a few of his friends who would come over).  He lived outside of town in a nice neighborhood.  One night we had a crazy dance party, where we all got a chance to go into a room and pick out an outfit to wear. It was really fun. One night we even went into the sauna he had in his house. It was one of the most relaxing things I’ve ever experienced in my life.  As for food, his grandmother, who lived in the house, cooked us some soup one night and pancakes another. We happened to be in Vilnius for a special day called Shrove Tuesday, where we ate lots of pancakes and went around to houses wearing funny outfits and singing random things, asking for pancakes (kind of like trick-or-treating). For this day they have a tradition of burning the winter witch and chanting things and singing traditional songs. We got to go to the neighborhood celebration of this day. It was fun to participate in and see them burning the winter witch away. Vilnius used to be a pagan town, before the Christians came and built all the churches in the area. But they still practice many of the same pagan traditions. One night we cooked a chicken pot pie for their family. Even though it didn’t turn out too well, it was really cool to eat with their whole family, including the dad, Ignas and his sister Juljia. They even took some of the pie to grandma, who really enjoyed it.b

 

As were finally leaving Vilnius, after 5 nights and many exciting experiences, we were telling Ignas that he should come with us to Tallinn, Estonia, and after a few minutes he decided to come with us. He packed up his things very quickly and headed out with us to catch the bus. Tallinn was very interesting. We spent most of the time in the house where we were staying. It was like a huge house where tons of people come and stay all the time. There were parties there each night. One night there was a famous Estonia poet who came and had some sort of concert. While there, I met a guy from Hamburg Germany who has traveled by hitch hiking all over the world (almost 40 countries) and he’s only 22. It was cool sharing traveling experiences with him. I also met a few French people at this house.  It was weird, because I realized how much English I had been speaking in the last 2 weeks and my French had gone nowhere. But the French guys were amazing musicians. In the words of the Australian host we were staying with, who after couchsurfing at this house, decided to move there, “They can play the piano brilliantly.” Tallinn was very pretty. I would love to go back. It might have been the prettiest of the three (Riga, Vilnius, Tallinn), but I’m not sure. It’s hard to decide.

 After this we headed back: A bus from Tallinn to Riga, where we stayed a night; a flight from Riga to Charleroi airport; hitch hiked to Brussels, where we stayed another night with our first host Julien; a train from Brussels to Lille; and finally the train from Lille to Angers! Oh yes don’t forget about the bus ride from the train station in Angers back to our dorm. Haha. Yes. Very drawn out. But we when we arrived back “home” it was spring (le printemps). It was hot outside (or at least it seemed so to us).  And there were leaves on the trees, and the fountains were on. It is slowly getting warmer. Summer is coming…

 Well I’ve been here for almost 2 months now and I’ve already experience a lot of things: the strike, no classes, a trip to the Baltic States, food, culture, people from all over the world, couch surfing, different languages, church in France, even hitch hiking.  But alas, I regret to tell you that I am not well spiritually. I have no one who keeps me accountable. I have no way of having deep spiritual conversation with others or praying with someone. The few Christians I know don’t speak English and that makes things difficult.  I am not being very proactive at the moment, and I don’t want to fall in apathy. But I’ve realized the importance of finding some sort of fellowship while I am here. So I am going to seek out the other workers here in France and try to get in contact with them. Maybe I can find some way to get connected with some believes close to me who speak English. I am confident that there are many more in Paris or the North of France where things are more International and more people speak English. All this to say, I still want and need to learn the “Christian vocabulary” in French.  Today was another one of those day where I felt as if my French has improved a lot, but it’s easy to be apathetic when I really don’t have that much work to do. I’ve continued to get to know people throughout my dorm and I think that is one of the main purposes that I am here for (building intentional relationships with others). Finally, I appreciate the prayers and thoughts of everyone back home. They are most needed. I thank God for each day that I am here and allowing me to have this experience that is quite like one that a long term missionary would have.

 

“Know therefore that the LORD your God is God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commands.”- Deuteronomy 7:9