Discovering Dijon

Week 1 in France has almost come and gone. Can you even believe it? Dijon is absolutely breathtaking. One of the most beautiful places I have ever been in my life, it is unreal. As we have been walking around the city, our group continues to talk about how we feel like we are on the set of a movie and that all it would take was just a gust of wind to blow over all the building sets. I was able to travel over here with a friend who is from outside Atlanta and we landed in Paris around 6:00 am last Friday morning (23^rd), 12:00 am Atlanta time, and I maybe got 2 hours of sleep. Maybe. But we pushed through and were able to find a train from the airport to Gare de Lyon, the main train station in Paris. Then from there we hopped on a train from Paris to Dijon, got in a taxi, and drove to our hotel, the Hotel Jacquemart. 

My most proud moment of the day was when I walked up to the information desk in the airport and asked the man in French if he spoke English and his response in French was “yes, a little bit, why do you ask? Do you speak English?”. I started laughing and then said in French that I was American and needed help with train tickets and we proceeded to speak a mixture of French and English. But he thought my first language was French! Success! We can only speak French here in Dijon as part of the program I’m with, so since it was so early and I was enjoying my last few moments of English, I used that to my advantage.  Something I didn’t have to my advantage was the size of my suitcases. I’m pretty sure I under packed, but at the end of the day I ended up with bruises on the back of my legs from my suitcases banging against me. But hey, I’m here for 2 months so I think it’s fair to have 2 suitcases!

Saturday the 24^th: We were waiting for the rest of our group to arrive, so those of us who were already here explored the “centre ville”, (down town), bought some French go phones, found wi-fi where we could, and did a lot of window shopping. The rest of our group finally arrived that afternoon and we went out to dinner with our Professor that night. The great thing about this program is that anytime we eat with our professor, Wake Forest pays. Wake also paid for all of our expenses getting here, and we get a pretty great weekly allowance, so I may end up getting to save a lot of the money I earned over the summer that was going to be used as my travel money! The little things J Our professor has also already set up private museum tours and visits around the country for us, things I would want to do if I were traveling on my own anyway, so I’m thankful we get to use her resources to our advantage. That night a group of us went to a little café to use their wifi and drink tea. I was able to order the tea I fell in love with when I was living in Cape Town last year, so that was a huge success. I was able to make a few phone calls via Viber and I was so impressed with how clear it came through and how great the connection was. Praise the Lord for technology that works and for loved ones that pick up the phone when I call!

Centre Ville- Rue de la Liberté

Sunday the 25^th: Breakfast is complimentary at our hotel every morning, so I started the day off with that and then walked around the city some more. We had a tour of Dijon with the cutest French woman named Jacqueline. 

I wish I had understood more than I did because she spoke in French the entire time, but I picked up some of what she said and apparently this city has a lot of history surrounding it. One very interesting thing we learned about was the “Trail of the Owls” around the city, known as “La Chouette”. The owl is the symbol for Dijon and is admired for its great wisdom. So, if you follow the trails of owls around the city, it will take you to different famous places, one of which is La Place des Ducs, where the dukes of Dijon used to live. Their palace now serves as the home of what is known as the second best art collection in France, behind the Louvre. Safe to say we will be making a visit there soon! We finished off the night with a 2 ½ hour dinner at our professor’s apartment. We had orientation for this coming semester and we all left feeling a little overwhelmed about everything- the amount of French we have already consumed, the length of the meal, and the apparent coming difficulty of this course. 

Owl Trail

La Place des Ducs

Monday the 26^th: We went to the Musée d’Archéologique and got a tour from a student at the university we will be attending in October. (We are currently taking a 6 week history class of France, and then when class starts up in October for France, we will take courses at the actual university). Anyways, he was a little easier to understand than our tour guide, but it is amazing how tiring it is to pay attention to someone speaking another language just for an hour. It was a great tour and I learned a lot, but I still didn’t understand everything he said. After our tour we all got on the tram to practice going to school and all I can say about the school is I now understand why we never saw pictures of it when got any of the brochures about our program. It is a huge campus, but not nearly as beautiful as Wake. The international “wing”, where all international students study, is made up entirely of “immeubles”, or mods. We are extremely hopeful it will have heating as the weather here is already in the 50’s, but we honestly aren’t sure. Still, we are in France and so happy to get to study here for 4 months. After our visit there we rode back into town on the bus and did a little bit of shopping before dinner. I am on the search for a good pair of warm, comfortable walking shoes that are water resistant and aren’t athletic shoes. Specific? Yes. But it’s amazing how quickly you realize what you actually need. And of the 5 pairs of shoes I brought over here, (2 were sandals so don’t judge), none fit that description. This is France though so I’m sure I will be able to find some J

Tuesday the 27^th: Woke up and went out to eat at a little café for breakfast with a friend of mine. We both had “pain au chocolate”, (bread and chocolate- so nutritious), and then went and found another tea café with wifi. We worked on homework there and were able to connect with people from home, despite the fact it was only 4:00 am east coast time. The owner of the café told us he wanted to practice his English with us so we spoke French to him and he spoke English to us. He also let us try some of the chocolate they were making for their cookies fresh off the stove and he gave us some extras for free. I think he had a little crush on my friend J Afterwards I met with our professor for lunch since I have to do a presentation for the class on Wednesday about Provence, the city we are traveling to on Thursday. Then we met up with the group and went to our temporary classroom and had class for 2 hours. It is very interesting material, but it is still class...

I’m thankful I don’t have the superhero power of reading minds because there is no telling what everyone thinks of us. We aren’t the only non-Frenchies here since all of Europe is on vacation for the month of August, but I’m sure we stick out. I am extremely grateful for this incredible opportunity and truly wish each of you were here with me! Lots of love, all the way from France!

**Weird things I have learned this week: 1-Public restrooms cost money. 2- French people don’t go jogging but they are still all teeny. 3- Always order the “Café Plaisir” for dessert because you get a little taste of everything *(fun fact: I have yet to do this yet because I am still enjoying having real crêpes again, but my friends get it and love it). 4- They play American music everywhere we go- I heard a homeless man the other day playing the guitar and singing “Hotel California” in English. 5- You can't say "Bonjour" to everyone you walk by. This isn't the South anymore :(

On to the next Adventure...!

To anyone who was hopeful that I would post earlier about my summer, I am so sorry. I ended up getting to DeSoto and realizing not only would my StinkPad not connect to any wifi in Mentone, Alabama, but I also had no cell service, something that was hard at first but caused me to be so much more present with my girls. I hands down had the best summer job. EVER. I got to love on 600 girls all summer, teaching them Ropes officially as head of Ropes staff, but answering wonderful and hilarious life questions, having hard conversations, spontaneous cabin dance parties, going on trips, and talking about Jesus. I was so blessed by my girls and the staff I got the chance to work with. There are some beautiful Jesus lovin’ women out there, and if any of my guy friends want a hook up, I am telling you these girls are GEMS! We got to have a circus at camp, celebrate 4^th of July (twice for counselors), put on Christmas in July, have concerts in our cabin, and do so much more. The verse "Be on guard. Stand firm in the faith. Be courageous. Be strong. And do EVERYTHING with LOVE" in 2 Corinthians 13-14 was a constant encouragement and reminder to me of how to act each and every day. We were loved on as a staff and that made it even easier to do our jobs better and love our girls.

Just doin' our thang welcoming girls to camp opening night

Throughout the summer, I learned so much about myself and have so much more respect for mothers, more than I already had. Officially I only taught 4 class periods worth of activities each day, but I was still “on” from 7:00 am until 10:30 pm minimum. Don’t hear that as a complaint though- I truly enjoyed every minute of it!! It is my personal opinion that everyone should do something like that at least once in your life- the amount of times I was called out for funny things by my girls or told in different ways how loved I was by them, was amazing. Towards the end of the two months I started feeling exhaustion kick in though. I am not kidding, I have never been more exhausted in my entire life, but it was the most rewarding thing. I had been relying on Jesus throughout the summer and already feeling the blessings from that, but to see Him show up when I truly needed Him, was breathtaking and humbling. I remember one morning not even being able to understand what anyone was saying to me until after staff meeting, (circa 9:00 am… we had been up for 2 hours), and not feeling certain I could even walk to the ropes course. I have never felt Philippians 4:13 more vividly in my life because He showed up. Every time. Without fail. And He loved me and enabled me to love others despite my so evident weakness. I was blessed by encouragement from friends and family by way of letters, packages, phone calls, and sweet and thoughtful texts, so to all who took the time do that, thank you so, so much! You truly don’t know how much it meant to me!

Post camp I got to spend some time with the loved ones! We finally had our family donut eating contest we had been talking about all summer. I was predicated to get 5^th or 6^th (out of 6) and for all you doubters, I got 2^nd by eating 8 ½ hot now Krispy Kreme donuts. We made a few trips to the lake, hung out with cousins, and just spent time together, something that is becoming increasingly harder to do as everyone gets more independent and on their own schedule. My second sister left for college already and that’s a little crazy, but she is going to the college of her dreams and we are all so excited and proud! I also got to make a quick trip up to Boston in what would turn out to be a calamity of errors in the best way possible. I was so, so sick but had THE BEST time. I have been so blessed to get to experience firsthand what it feels like to be pursued by a Godly man, a man who loves Jesus and pursues Him daily. So time with him and his family was wonderful, encouraging, reaffirming, and they loved me well despite my pitiful condition.

So despite some failing health throughout the summer, I am on to my next adventure in life- studying abroad in France! When I say I have been dreaming about this since I was in 5^th grade, I wouldn’t even be lying a little bit. As internet permits, I will try to keep this more updated on life across the pond. We are currently staying in a hotel without wifi so the McDonald's cafe is our new favorite place, not to eat though of course! Hoping to make this more like a Cape Town thing where y’all get the once a week updates but we will see! My biggest prayer for myself is that my relationship with the Lord would grow over here, not remain the same, so if y’all wouldn’t mind helping me pray for that, that would be awesome! I hope this finds each of you well and that you are encouraged by something in this. Lots of love all the way from France!