je suis

Yesterday was really cool. I started off the day by going to church in the morning with my host parents, that is, the ACP or American Church in Paris. It is an "inter-denominational" Protestant church here in the city where many english-speaking residents attend church, some just on vacation in the city and others whom have been moved here for a longer period of time because of their jobs, etc. The church itself is very beautiful and looks like one of the older post-reformation churches that are architecturally similar to catholic churches without the crucifixes, mini-chapels on the sides inside, etc. The service itself was pretty more structured, or traditional, than anything I had ever been in, but I really enjoyed it for the most part. Many contemporary Christians automatically scorn anything that has any semblence of tradition because it has become cool to hate what isn't new and hip. I understand their intentions, but at some point it becomes more about being different than anything else. And as that happens, the baby sometimes gets thrown out with the bathwater. Anyway, we recited confessional statements as a congregation and the best part was the hymns. It was just an organ and our voices but the time of singing was great. Guitars and drums are nice, but just singing hymns as a congregation can be so spiritually edifying as well. It's easy to focus on what the lyrics are saying about God and also easy to experience the blessing of worshiping as a corporate body when you hear everyone's voices united in praising God.

After the service I met a few young adults. One guy was a student at UPenn who is studying abroad; one guy was from Texas; one guy was french; one girl was from Tennessee and another was from Estonia. We went to a cool little street-cafe for lunch and then checked out two museums, the Picasso Museum and a museum of parisian history. After that the girl from Estonia got a call from her friend from Albania (both are working here in Paris as Au Pairs, how does Paris sound for next summer Lynne?!) and we all went to pick her up from the metro station. We got dinner and then spent the rest of the night walking along the riverbank. It was absolutely the perfect night. It cools down here to a comfortable temperature in the evenings and we could see the sun setting from one of the bridges behind Notre Dame. Just walking around with people is so much fun. One person described the city as an outdoor museum and it's true. It was also cool to be with such an international group - america, france, estonia, and albania. What made it even cooler is that the girls from Estonia and Albania both speak German so as we walked along the three of us would speak German to each other while the others would speak French among themselves and then the two groups would talk to each other in English. So that may sound geeky but I really got a kick out of it since I love languages so much and you just don't find yourself in that kind of situation in Burlington.

Today I moved to my new place of residence for the rest of my stay in Paris. Until Thursday I am living with a cool old man named Francois, in his apartment here in the western suburbs. He is so nice. He doesn't speak much english but we get along great and can figure things out with some hand signals. Well I am very tired and I am getting up early to spend the first half of the day tomorrow in the Louvre. Then at 2 or so I will go to a July 4th barbeque, after which I am helping to set up for another July 4 party at the ACP. After that it's off to a pub somewhere in the city with some german friends I've made to see Germany vs. Italy. If they win, Germany will be in dem Endspiel (in the final game)!!! Everyone make sure to tune in for that - it should be a good game. Bonsoir!