Angels and Mortals.

The above picture is all of us girls (minus dear Lydie) at the dinner of a very long week! We were told to dress up (since we all live in our leggings and sweatshirts), wear some make up (since we all seem to have forgotten what that is) and just be ready for a nice dinner.

The week we had consisted of the usual lessons, which is enough in itself to wrap your head around. A crazy teacher from the States who was awesome, but none the less so ecstatic and exuberant all the time you found yourself needing a nap after every conversation with him. Finally, it was the week of angels and mortals. On Monday we all picked a name out of a basket, the name written on the piece of paper would be our "mortal" and we would be their "angel". This was to say, we had to do things that would make them feel blessed and loved without them knowing who was actually blessing them. It could be anything from a little note that says "Good morning - Love, your angel" or buying them chocolate etc. We all found it a little difficult to do things for our mortals after writing a note, getting a flower from the garden or buying them some chocolate. Living in a place with no stores around forced us to get creative. It was a lot of fun to both make people feel special, but  to also feel special in return from some unknown 'angel'.

The special dinner we had was the revealing of our angels. The staff prepared a wonderful meal, decorated the room with candles and we just had lots of laughs surrounding the dinner table. It was a great way to relax after a long week and just be together. OH and I cannot forget, dear Whitney made the MOST delicious brownies I have ever had in my life, with homemade icing. I told her that when she opens a bakery, I will be there on opening day. They were scrumptious. Concerning my angel, I myself feel that I had the best angel, but I know everyone is biased. Little pieces of love found their way to me every day and always cheered me up and made me feel better about the week ahead, so thank you angel.

Tomorrow we are off on our mini outreach! My team is heading up north to Charleville-Mezieres. It's very close to Belgium so we just might go and cross the border!! We are staying in a church, not having showers and have half a backpack each per person aka...this is going to be an adventure. We have been working on dramas and dances all week, and even though I know it will be exhausting I'm so excited for all of us to stretch our comfort zones!

In case anyone was wondering Panda is doing very well. He has watched the first season of Greys Anatomy with me numerous times (its the only season I brought) and I think is wishing that I brought more DVDs with me. But c'est la vie!!

xxx

Craziness. Watch it.

Boyce Avenue Concert Tonight at home in Toronto. Panda = Jealous

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!

Yesterday was my birthday, and it was great! I woke up to my wonderful roomies (at that moment I did not think they were wonderful) singing Happy Birthday - not the worst 6 a.m. wake up call. I was then not allowed to go to the bathroom for a good half an hour but found out that it was because wonderful Betsy (Elizabeth - my go 2 girl) was decorating my door with hearts that had notes from all of our team here! So Sweet! I then went downstairs for breakfast and Betsy had all the cards from my family laid out at my spot with a tea, ready made and a gift. What was the gift you ask? Good question! Peanut Butter! The French do not really eat peanut butter, and it can be hard to find...but she prevailed. Now thanks to her we have the blessing of peanut butter at breakfast with our bread! Yum!  A nice touch of home. The usual class day followed, with another gift in break from Betsy of some chocolate. She knows me so well! Then lunch time! Olivier, our wonderful chef here, had decorated the room so beautifully and laid out my place setting with real flowers from the garden, some hearts and a tall glass of orange juice and MORE chocolate! Not wanting to hurt Olivier's feelings I shared the orange juice with the table and we ate a lovely meal, followed by cake and singing! We then had our usual chores and then a little 'fete' or 'party' in English, just really everyone hanging out. It was great! During the day I tried to fit in speaking to everyone important to me, could not forget that it was my beautiful Mumma's birthday as well! My phone was ready on hand to take phone calls from everyone! So all in all, everyone I had a great birthday!

<3

Soon I'll be off to Rwanda!

S

J'aime les vaches et les poires.

Yes, you read the title right, I have found a new love - cows and found a new love for pears. Elizabeth and I started taking long walks as soon as we came to live in Le Gault. We are in the middle of this beautiful countryside and we did not want to miss out on it. The first few weeks we chose different roads each time - we would walk through numerous villages just by walking straight down one road. One day we were walking through this beautiful village, and it was almost magical. We walked by a deserted mansion that looked like it was from Beauty and the Beast - as we explored we then found horses, and to our delight a pear tree just growing on the side of the road. We both looked at each other and with  mischevious delight decided to pick the most perfect pears we could find and eat them. We thought it was so French, just eating a pear on the side of the road with the juice dribbling over our hands. This is why I now have fond memories of pears.
Another marvelous day, we found ourselves exploring another road, and another town. We walked with awe struck eyes as we saw, blueberries just growing beside the road, and then raspberries and blackberries. We saw apple trees, hens, roosters...it was like a movie. Then we see to the left of us some cows. We were intrigued. They were far away so Elizabeth "mooed" at the cows (in a French accent of course), they also seemed intrigued, Elizabeth decided that another moo was necessary just for fun. This second moo caused the cows (5 of them) to run, gallop even towards the extremely weak fence that was created to keep them in. As screams of delight escaped our lips we ran away in fits of laughter. When we were brave enough to return we saw five angry cows staring us down. We walked home, fearful that everytime we turned around we would see cows galloping towards us. Yesterday we decided to return to the cows with our friend Andrej. As we practiced our French cow accent, we found that we really had learnt their language - I can not describe what I saw everytime we mooed, but it was a sight. If you were to drive by you would see three people dying of laughter. Let us say we learnt their love language. I therefore have decided that I love cows because they bring me joy.

To see the cows, please refer to facebook.
Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving back at home !
<3
Miss you all with my whole heart.

This really was a post about nothing, but I do hope that you enjoyed it.

Another view of Paris

 A week or so ago we headed to Paris, which is about two hours from the base. We were told to pack our backpacks with everything we "thought" we would need to live for four days...sounds easy right? Those were the only instructions. We filled out a medical waiver form with strange questions such as  "Are there any medical conditions we should know about?", "What are your physical capabilities?".... needless to say were a little bit nervous. After this we packed our bags, all thinking we had everything covered. What we didn't know was when we got to Paris everything we "thought" we needed would change.

I can't actually put into words everything we did, but let me tell you - it pushed us in every possible way. Physically, mentally, spiritually...any part of yourself was tested. We walked 35km in one day, 14 hours of not knowing when we would rest. We were only allowed limited bathroom breaks...and I mean no bathroom breaks. So we didn't drink water, although it was scorching hot, we had 20 minutes for lunch and 20 minutes for dinner. We walked through every district of Paris, saw every monument, every street corner. I have seen Paris, all of it.  We had blistered covered feet and wondered where we would end up sleeping...it was just in one word, rediculous. Four days of being in the exact same clothes, being sleep deprived and disoriented. My group was all French speakers so that even added another element to it...my  brain worked overtime just to understand "turn left". By the fourth day I dont think I even tried to say anything in French, just was silent and followed. We walked through deserted tunnels where once trains bellowed through. We did anything and everything you could do in a city of Paris that cost under 5 Euros. No luxury hotels for us. At one point they asked us "Are you having fun?" I would look at them with this blank stare..."No, im not." They seemed shocked at the response. There were laughs of exhaustion, I have never wanted to sleep on concrete more in my life. Every single surface looked tempting. Camp did end, finally, and we all survived...barely, but we survived!

After this "camp" we had two days of classes learning about Paris, walking around Paris...a city we were not keen to walk around again, but I can say I saw it all...twice :) We were all thankful for real beds, showers and places to even sit down. Finally after being in Paris for just less than a week we arrived at Le Gault and the Big House was silent, we all slept and slept...and slept. 

We were back on Wednesday night, and Friday I took the train to see my family, which is the next post :)