Once. Or, how to make an album for the ears and eyes.

The other day I went to see a movie called Once (at the recommendation of Darrin Jones) that turned out to be really wonderful; I'd even venture to say it's shaping up to be one of my favorite films. It's a unique approach to film: instead of creating a plot and then layering on music to inject emotion, the entire movie is actually born out of the music. In fact, it's more a "visual album" than a movie; it's like curling up to listen to your favorite album and watching it unfold beautifully before your eyes.

The story is a snapshot into the life of an Irish musician who meets a girl while playing his music on the streets of Dublin, and for a few days they experiment in making music together and in the process, significantly impact each other's lives. Essentially, it's a love story, but not a conventional one: the bond that develops out of their creative partnership is so much deeper and more significant than a passion-filled romantic love. It's a love marked with respect, integrity, and self-control, with a deeper purpose than gratification of desires.

The story is fictional, but the music is straight from real life. The male and female leads (Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova) aren't professional actors, but musicians (Hansard is of the band The Frames, and both record independently; Irglova is to Hansard as Lisa Hannigan is to Damien Rice). This, along with the simple but beautiful cinematography, gives the film a powerful sense of authenticity. I love how effectively song is used as dialogue; one song portrays just as much emotion and movement to the story as ten pages of dialogue would.

So, to state the obvious, I loved this film! I'm certainly no movie critic, but I'm highly recommending it. It's not a grand film, it's simple, but it's incredibly powerful in it's simplicity. See (and hear) it.

Thankful. Or, How to celebrate an American holiday in France.

I walked down the street on my way to the market early Thursday morning feeling extremely festive and thankful, and was a bit surprised when all around me were French people bustling about, on their way to work and school, as if it were just a normal Thursday, and not at all an occasion to be full of holiday cheer. I had an inexplicable urge to cheerfully announce to each person I passed "It's Thanksgiving!" For some reason, the complete lack of Thanksgiving spirit was making me feel exceedingly more Thanksgiving-y than I normally would. I reached the Cours Mirabeau and discovered that, coincidentally, the Christmas lights, which the Cours had been completely covered with weeks before but had yet to be turned on, had all been illuminated that morning, giving the whole street a cheery glow. I knew that the French were completely ignorant that it was an American holiday that day (and if they had known, most wouldn't have cared), but it made me feel that, even subconciously, the French knew it was a day to be festive.

That night I hosted a Thanksgiving celebration at my home. Hilary, Andrea, and I invited friends from all our different social spheres to share a Thanksgiving meal with us. We ended up with 40 people at our apartment, and yet still managed to have a sit down meal with a place for everyone (ok, so we had to bring in extra tables and chairs and pile all the living room furniture in our bedrooms, but we pulled it off). It was the first time I've ever done a Thanksgiving meal myself, so I was really glad to have Pat and Lindsey also slaving away in my kitchen all day. We managed to have all the elements of a traditional Thanksgiving meal, as well as some delicious international dishes (ever had paella and sushi for Thanksgiving??). Less than half our guests were American; the rest were from France, Spain, England, Scotland, Germany, Switzerland, Australia, New Zealand, and a couple more I'm forgetting right now, and many had never experienced Thanksgiving before. There were so many different groups of people, I wondered how everyone would mesh, but by the end of the night, there were loads of connections formed and new friendships made. It truly felt like one big family gathered together. Several people told me how happy they were to be so welcomed and included. This is Thanksgiving.

One of my favorite parts of Thanksgiving was asking people all night long what they were thankful for. So here's my own (slightly belated) Thankful in 2007 list:
**I'm thankful for the internet. Ok, I'm not acutally thankful for the internet, but it allows me to stay in touch with people I dearly love who are far away. And I am thankful that through the internet and a couple webcams, I was able to see and talk to my whole family (including Nana, Grandpa, and Vogel fam) on T-day. I'm very thankful for my amazing family.
**I'm thankful for my wonderful apartment that I can use to welcome many people, and for my wonderful roommates that make it home.
**I'm thankful to be doing a job that I love, that I am passionate about, that fits me well, and that is furthering God's Kingdom.
**I'm thankful that Ikea makes a product that tastes remarkably like cranberry sauce.
**I'm thankful that God blew me away with His extraordinary provision this year, and for the confidence that He will continue to do so next year and all the years of my life.

Playing catch-up on the blog. Or, the Catch-22 of traveling and blogging.

I’ve been traveling like a crazy nomad lately (I’ve been in 5 different countries in the last month!), which means that I have loads of stuff to blog about, and I’ve had absolutely no time in which to do so! If only I were traveling less and had more time to blog... but then, I'd have nothing to actually blog about! I guess I’m going to have to work backwards or something to get my blog caught up with the present. Not to mention the fact that 2 weeks in the Netherlands for Field Orientation, plus the visit of a dear friend from California, plus a vacation traveling all over Ireland, plus a conference in Paris have provided so many stories, thoughts, and ideas that I need to get them down in writing before they’re lost forever in the depths of my long term memory. But before I launch myself into retelling my travel tales, let me share what’s going on in Aix right now.

1. It’s snowing!!!!! I’m not even kidding people. It is SNOWING in the south of France in the middle of November! And I’m not even talking about a little bit of slushy rain that melts as soon as it hits the ground. I’m talking big fat white flakes that stick to the ground and are perfect for making snowballs. I looked out my window yesterday afternoon and all I saw was a flurry of white. What is going on here?? The thing that baffles me the most is that nobody else seems at all baffled by this. Ok, I know I’m a southern California girl who doesn’t really know how to deal with snow, but I’m thinking that massive amounts of snow in the south of France in November should surprise anybody! Am I right? But everyone’s wandering around like this is perfectly normal. I guess I better buy some snow gear or something.

2. I got a kitten!!! Perhaps you remember hearing the story of the kittens that were born on our balcony on my birthday? Back at the beginning of September, our next-door neighbors’ cat was looking for a cozy, safe place to give birth to her 6 kittens, and decided that our balcony was the ideal location. The neighbors discovered this, brought the kittens back to their own apartment, but Mama Kitty courageously returned her kitties one-by-one to our balcony by leaping from her 5th floor balcony to ours with a kitten in her mouth. So when the kitties were old enough to leave their mama at the end of October, I decided to adopt one. I admit I surprised myself when I decided to get a cat, as I’ve always been an ardent dog person. But a dog requires a bit more commitment and effort than I can provide right now. I really wanted a pet, and I felt a special connection with the kittens that were born on my balcony on my birthday, so now here I am, a cat owner. And as it turns out, I love my kitten! His name is Fitz (short for Fitzwilliam, as in Fitzwilliam Darcy, as in the Jane Austen character…) and he is tiny and black and adorable. He’s the ideal cat for our extremely extroverted apartment, because he’s very social, loves to cuddle, and loves new people. And for some reason, he loves to perch on my shoulder like a little bird. While I’m at my desk working on the computer, he’ll sit on my shoulder for hours and stare at the screen. (I thought this was extremely bizarre behavior until I stumbled upon Jenelle’s blog entry).

3. I’ve got loads of good stuff going on right now with my job at iccp, so I’ll just give you one highlight—youth group! Adam and Tasha and I have been planning all kinds of fun activities lately. On Halloween we took our middle schoolers bowling—in full Halloween costumes of course. Halloween is a pretty new thing in France, so we attracted a lot of attention walking down the Cours Mirabeau in crazy costumes and wigs.

The next week (during school vacation) we took the youth group to the OK Corral, a “western” themed amusement park not far from Aix. A western amusement park, complete with cowboys and Native Americans, in the south of France, is completely hilarious. We had a hilariously good time. (Check out pictures of both of these events here.)

Ok, travel stories coming very very soon. And please hold me accountable, friends. If it’s been too long without a new story, feel free to get on my case.