Champagne and Jesus

This weekend has been a great one friends!

On Saturday I went to Reims, France, which is in the Champagne region, where they make... you guessed it, champagne!

We left our dorm at 6:30 am which was a bit obnoxious, but we got to sleep on the bus. When we finally got to the city we immediately got to tour the champagne caves/cellars at a company called Pommery which has been around since the 1800s. Psycho, right? It was very cool. It was almost like walking through catacombs of wine.

Apparently the founder of the company, Louise Pommery, always liked art, so they still to this day hold art shows down there. There was an art show of contemporary art there at the moment. It was very awesome to have the mixture of the old champagnery with the new age art all around it. Some of it was creepy! There was one spot where they had lined up a bunch of rubber boots down a hall way. It looks like it's just a display of what people used to wear to work or something... until when you pass them they start MARCHING. It was awesome, but freaky.

The other one which was my favorite wasn't even visible. There was a small room which was barred with a gate, which was just part of the structure of the cave. You could not see into it. It was like a darkened jail cell and when you walked past it, it startled growling and snarling like there was some sort of creature held in there. Even though you KNOW there isn't anything there, you just feel like you shouldn't go near it. I stopped and watched people's reactions as they walked past and it was hilarious. Many jumped, some screamed. So great.

At the end of the tour, we got a champagne tasting. I had never had it before, and it was really good! I like it much better than wine. I now get to say that I had my first champagne in Champagne!

We spent the rest of the day exploring Reims and it was beautiful! We saw the cathedral Notre Dame de Reims there. I think that's what it was called. IT WAS SO BEAUTIFUL. Even more than Notre Dame de Paris. No joke. There were 2,300 statues on the outside of the building. Crazy! There were flying buttresses everywhere and ugh, so beautiful. Inside there was magnificent stained glass all over. I love stained glass. It was so great.

I made a new friend during our tour of the city and she told me she went to a church in Dijon. I was very excited because I have wanted to go to church since being here, but I didn't know where to go and I didn't want to go alone.

So this morning I went to my first French church service! I love it! It is a tiny little church and it was packed to the brim. I am so happy to have found a church in France, you can't even understand. I was feeling kind of not myself lately what without church and reallife and real life friends. I am so excited to become a part of this church.

The service was great. We stared out with singing and it was such fun to sing worship in French. I liked the tunes and it was gratifying when I usually understood all the lyrics. I could sing along like a champ. I loved it.

I got a little taste of home when the speaker started his talk with the words to the preamble of the Declaration of the United States! It turns out he was going to be talking about being happy and whether it comes along with Christianity as an assured gift. So what with the whole American "pursuit of happiness" schtick, we began. I could understand most of what was said and it helped to follow along in my English Bible. We studied Matthew 5, which says:

¹ Now when Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, ² and he began to teach them.

The Beatitudes

He said:

³ “Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
⁴ Blessed are those who mourn,
for they will be comforted.
⁵ Blessed are the meek,
for they will inherit the earth.
⁶ Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for they will be filled.
⁷ Blessed are the merciful,
for they will be shown mercy.
⁸ Blessed are the pure in heart,
for they will see God.
⁹ Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they will be called children of God.
¹⁰ Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

¹¹ “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. ¹² Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

I thought it was interesting that in the French version where we say "blessed" it says "heureux" which means "happy". I love translations in everything, I find them so interesting.

After church was over I stood around awkwardly while I was introduced to a few people. That was fun. Apparently they like to give you "la bise" which is that two cheek kiss thing and say their name as they do it. My friend warned me of this and I still messed it up. The first girl I met, "bise"d me and said what sounded like "ça va?" to me, which means "How are you?" I responded with "ça va." as well, which can also mean "Fine" as a response. However, I instantly figured out that she actually said "Sarah" meaning her name was Sarah. I felt like an idiot. Oh well, she didn't seem like she thought I was some sort of social leper or anything.

We talked to a guy named Julien who told us about their group for university students who meet on Mondays (after "bise"ing me, I succeeded this time). I hope I can muster up the courage to go to these. It seems a little bit intimidating to me, but all in all, I miss Bible studies and this will also really help my French.

I am so pumped to meet some French people with some common interests with me, so I hopefully will go.

Anyways, this was long, so if you read it... thank you! Je t'aime!

I'm really bad at blogging.

So if any of you actually care, I am sorry I haven't posted in forever. It's not that I don't have time, it's just that sitting down and typing out what I have done never sounds appealing to me. But here we go.

I have been in France for ever a month! That is craziness. I am 1/4 way through my trip. We have gotten into a routine when it comes to the weeks. We have classes Mon-Fri and sometimes we'll go do something fun during the weeknights, but most of our fun happens on the weekends.

Specifically, A few weeks ago we took a day trip to Geneva, Switzerland with our program. This was the first of our 3 excursions. On the way to Geneva, we stopped in Jura France and had a cheese tasting. It was comte cheese and we tried two different varieties. I liked one, but the other tasted absolutely awful in my opinion. Anyway, it was cool because this kind of cheese only comes from a certain kind of cow, so it is rare and special. Oooo aaaaaah....

When we finally got to Geneva, we had a walking tour with one of our professors, Stephane, and then we were set loose to get our lunch/dinner. My friends and I stopped at a little restaurant and got some cheese fondue and pizza to split between us. You honestly cannot go wrong with melted cheese on bread, right? SO good!

After this we headed over to get some gelato and coffee. I just had gelato, and I got cassis flavored which was glorious. Cassis is their thing in this region, it is currants. Then we went on a search to find Swiss chocolate and came out victorious with a few candy bars each. I even still have one left, somehow with the help of the heavens I have not eaten it yet.

After this, our time had come to a close and we had to meet back up with our group to head home. Most of us slept on the bus home. It was a long day!

This past weekend, some friends and I traveled to Paris! It was like a dream come true. I have been learning about Paris since I was basically 8 years old and to finally get there was great. We left Dijon at 6:50 am on a train, that was a fun time. After arriving in Paris, we had to maneuver the subway to get to the Bastille district where our hostel/hotel was. Our hostel only cost us each 30 euro a night, which was so low that we were a little worried about its condition, but guys, it was BEAUTIFUL! I have never been to a nicer, better decorated hotel. We grabbed some lunch and coffee (crepes for me) and then we headed out to central Paris! First we went to the Eiffel Tower and spent a very long time taking very touristy pictures. We decided that we were going to unabashedly show that we were American and have no shame about it.

Next we took a walk to find the Champs Elysees and the Arc de Triomphe. Here's a funny story! So to get to the little area where the Arc is, you go under the street and back up again on the other side. In the tunnel, we saw a long line formed and we were very confused because we never knew that you had to wait to get there. Then we saw a sign that you had to PAY 10 euros to go up there!!! WHAT? Then we saw a second set of stairs with people coming back down.... As we got closer, we saw a sign on those stairs that said "monter interdit" which means "going up is prohibited". Well, let's just say that we acted like we couldn't read French and scooted ourselves on up that way. There was even a POLICE OFFICER right behind us and he said NOTHING. I think he just didn't care. So we got to go take pictures and admire the artwork at a five-finger discount.... ooops. :)

After this we walked down the Cahmps Elysees (the ritzy shopping section of Paris) in order to find dinner an hopefully Starbucks (since we don't have it in Dijon). After a long walk we found one and I got a caramel frappaccino, but let me tell you Parisians, Starbucks is ripping you off. I didn't get nearly as much as at home and it cost about twice as much, but it was worth it!

After this we found a little restaurant on a street right off the main road called Chateaubriand and they had a full course meal special for 19 euros. It was so great! You got an appetizer, wine, entree, bread, dessert, and coffee for that. I had a glass of red wine, then ESCARGOTS! That's right, I ate snails. They were pretty good too, except I think it's all in the garlic butter sauce, without that they wouldn't be so great. We were brought out bread and then our meals came. I had steak and fries and it was very good. :) I haven't had steak since being here, so it was a treat. After this we ordered our desserts. I had chocolate mousse and MMMMMMmmmmm was it great. Then we were all served coffee and a little piece of chocolate to go with it. I love Paris. I hadn't been that full since getting to France.

After this we made our way back to the hostel. Some of us went out to a club that night, but I stayed home because I was feeling exhausted and my feet hurt. I do not regret this decision at all. I slept very well in the hotel and woke up early with my friend who also didn't go out the night before to go to Notre Dame cathedral. We started our morning by finding out that it was daylight savings and we had gotten an extra hour to do stuff that day and we were very happy about that! So we set off on yet another subway adventure. I have been on so many subways at this point that I am pretty pro at it. We got to Notre Dame and it was still early enough that not too many tourists were there yet. It was also a treat because mass was happening inside, so I got to experience Sunday morning mass in Notre Dame de Paris!!! Such a blessing. :) It was so incredibly beautiful and I found myself just feeling more connected to God than I have since being here. I haven't been able to find a church to go to while I am here, so even just being there was nice.

Afterwards, we didn't know what else to do and my friend thought of the Jardin des plants, which means plant garden, so we headed there. It was a very pretty and very large garden/park place. We split up and I walked around a little bit and then just sat down and read some of the book I am reading because it just seemed like the prettiest place to read a book ever. I loved it.

After the park we headed off to get lunch before we had to catch our 2 pm train home. We found a verrrrry small Chinese food place and I had curry chicken and we were off to Gare de Lyon to head home.

This Monday was Halloween. They don't really do it here, but it is growing. So naturally, us Americans and our Canadian friends decided we were dressing up anyways. We all dressed up as jungle cats and I was a leopard. We went out dancing and it was a fun time. More people were dressed up than I expected, so that was good.

Anyways, now I have class later today, so I am going to go. Have a good day!