Saturday, October 16, 2010

I can't eat french fries with my left hand...


Oh France. Everything here is just... different. One thing I can't wait for is internet at our own apartment. I am currently eating and using the free Wifi at the one and the only McDonalds.


Last weekend, we were doing some Craigslisting and we found a stove top and a washing machine. [You see, in Europe, most houses and apartments come with bare bones. No lights, no oven, stove, washing machine, sink, counter, fridge, etc.]. First, we bought our stove top - I bartered the price thanks to my Negotiation class at Grand Valley. When we left the first stop, I took this picture of my roommate Beth:


The second stop to buy the washing machine was met with a crazy Californian lady who lives in France. Seriously, she was crazy! She wanted us to come pick her up because she didn't live where the washing machine? We couldn't because our car was full. Anyways, she ended up making us wait 1.5 hours to meet us, then decided, before we even went inside to actually see the machine, that she did not want to sell it to us. Waste of time! So, if you think about it, please pray that we find a washing machine, oven and freezer.

During the week, it was our first week at the office doing our own thing. I was helping out in the communication center. It is so crazy all they do there! We were responding to emails from people who have questions about faith, editing reports and addressing envelopes for a mailing to some North African countries. It was really cool to be on this side of the communication - office verse field work.

Later this week, we had doctor appointments so we can be cleared to live in France. Only as simple as that sounds, it was more difficult than it had to be. For this specific type of appointment, we had to buy 340 Euros worth of STAMPS. Stamps. Why would they need stamps? And these stamps you can't just buy anywhere...

... you would think that you could buy them at the post office, the grocery store or even a convent store? The latter is true, but everything in France closes from 12-2 for lunch, which made it impossible to find and buy them. Fortunately God is bigger than all of that and we made it to our appointment on time, all got cleared by the doctors, and got our French licenses -- we even got to keep our x-rays!


I do look forward to this coming week. I will be starting more into my role in the office and start projects of my own to help the staff on the field. One thing I have already done is designing a logo for the National Directors conference in November. Here is the final product:


I took the original picture on Spring Break 2010 in Jacksonville, Florida [shout out to Kaitlyn Farley, Drew Schafer, Ryan King and Brian Early!] The theme of this year comes from Psalm 66:5 which says "Come and see what God has done, how awesome His works in man's behalf!"

More to come very soon!




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