and we're back...

one month.

one month is admittedly too long to go without a new blog post. apologizing. moving on. starting to write again.

one month also happens to be the ideal amount of time to put one's life on pause, neglect one's blog, and journey halfway around the world to spend some much needed catch-up time with far-away family and friends. for this i do not apologize.

after almost a year in france, i was very ready to spend the holidays in california. the fact that i love my life abroad doesn't exclude me from missing my family and friends in california.

highlights of my trip home include:
--hot beverages you can take to go in paper cups with lids
--eating so much mexican food, i think i'm sick of it for a while
--hours of playing cards with my family, including a particularly spirited game of nertz in coffee bean and tea leaf that just may have disturbed a few other patrons
--honorary roommate status at lauren and laura's house in santa barbara
--spending time with my church families
--butterfly beach
--family dinner and game night at the guys' house
--paying for everything in dollars. and not paying for anything in euros.
--family. and friends. and family. and friends...
--sharing what God is doing in France with a lot of people
--driving up the 101, ipod blasting, watching the sun set over the pacific ocean

low points include:
--sitting motionless for 3 hours on the 101 because of an accident
--mom's broken ankle (what is with our family and christmas-time foot injuries?)
--accidentally attempting to "faire les bises" multiple times and causing a few awkward situations

of course, i could go on and on listing highlights, because it was a wonderful trip. i am so thankful to have spent time with all my dear friends and family members. to all of you- come visit me in europe! i'll return the favor and show you a really good time.

the weirdest thing to adjust to during this quick little culture hop, besides the huge cars and huge portions of food, was the realization that i've changed. as easy as it was to slip back into my old little niches in my california life, i know that the previous 10 months (and the previous 3 years, really) in europe have changed me. not in major ways. in subtle, hard to recognize, why don't i quite feel at home in my home ways. it's good to start processing out those changes now that i'm back home. and by back home, i mean back in france.

because i was a big-time blog slacker while i was in the states-
MERRY CHRISTMAS and HAPPY NEW YEARS to all my wonderful blog readers! i hope you all passed a wonderful holiday season!

wow, it's 2008. here we go...

My Life as a Rockstar. Or, Yet another reason I really love my job.

I never thought I’d say this, but I’m kind of a rockstar. The absurdity of it still makes me giggle. But it’s true. One of my roles at [iccp] is, along with Adam and Tasha, to start a high school ministry from scratch. One way I decided to go about this was to start a band. Actually, this band is the realization of a dream that began years ago after observing that, 1. music is a powerful avenue for outreach because it speaks to so many people, and 2. we have some incredibly talented high school musicians in our community who were longing for an outlet for their musical gifts and for a place to be connected to something meaningful. A few years (and a bit of blood, sweat, and tears) later, a band was born.

Last weekend was our public debut, and we debuted in a big way. On Saturday night we played for a event that was organized for youth in the greater Provence area. Our (still nameless) band has been rehearsing for months and months, and I was so pleased with how well we clicked as a group for this first gig. We also had the opportunity to play on the Cours Mirabeau, the main downtown street in Aix. A large stage is set up at the top of the Cours as a part of the Christmas market, and our band was invited to play 2 sets on this stage on Friday night, and 3 sets during the day on Sunday. We drew a huge crowd both days and got really great feedback. I’m still not sure how to handle the attention (I don’t think I’m a rockstar by nature), but I am excited about the fact that through this we’re connecting with a lot of people and [iccp] is becoming better known in the community.

So we’ll see where this goes. Yesterday I got a connection to potentially play at IPN, a nightclub in town popular with exchange students that has started doing live music once a week. My job is so awesome.

It feels good to be legal. Or, a French bureaucracy Christmas miracle!

I am a legal resident of France!!! And it’s slightly unexpected. The process to get a residency card in France is anything but easy- it usually takes a year before you have the card in your hand, and requires loads of paperwork, a doctor’s visit, hunting down a place to pay the required taxes, and multiple visits to the sous-prefecture office. I had to make one such visit the other day...

My récipissée (the temporary piece of paper saying that my residency card is in process, and allowing me to travel in the meantime) had expired, and I had to get it renewed so that I could travel to the States for Christmas. The average non-French resident has their récipissée expire and get renewed several times before their actual residency card is ready. Well, when the girl behind the window looked me up in the computer, she says, to my utter shock, “we should have your residency card here.” Somehow, (and it must have been either a complete and utter fluke or an act of God’s grace), my residency card was ready in an abnormally timely fashion, before I ever had my medical visit or paid the necessary tax. And normally the sous-prefecture would have held on to my card until those things were taken care of (which would probably require many more months of hassle), but when I explained I was traveling in a few weeks, he said, “ok, I’ll give you the card now, the rest will get worked out later.”

Extraordinary efficiency in French bureaucracy and a friendly, helpful government worker! Sometimes France really can surprise you...

So This is Christmas. Or, The carol service is over, I can have my brain back.

Last weekend [iccp] hosted our annual Christmas Carol service in the big cathedral in Aix. It was especially significant for me this year as I devoted several months of my life to the planning of the event as one of the coordinators (along with the lovely Lindsey Pettyjohn). I must say that, despite my slightly elevated stress levels leading up to the event trying to keep track of more details than my brain could contain (I didn’t even realize how much it consumed all my brain space until it was over and I was suddenly able to think about other things), the event went smashingly well. The place was packed- around 1200 people were able to hear the story of Jesus’ birth in both French and English. It’s very cool that we have such a good relationship with the Catholic Church that they give us free reign of the Cathedral each year. Go to this link to check out a 360˚ panoramic view of the service. Hold down your mouse button and scroll around to have a look around the cathedral.

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.