Quiet Week!

It has been a quiet week, so our Blog won't be too exciting. We have done a lot, a lot, and a lot of books. We don't know where we're at with the count, but Kathryn said today she's getting a callous on one of her fingers. But needless to say we have managed to stay busy with getting into quite a routine here in France, church being one that we do a lot! We go to French church on Sunday mornings - which lasts 2 full hours, and then we go to the English church on Sunday evenings - that lasts just about an hour - maybe a little longer, but then you stay and visit for quite a while! Then Kathryn goes to the young peoples service (with the French church) that meets every other Saturday evening - and last but not least - with the people associated with the library - we have prayer meeting every other Friday morning for 2 hours! So we stay pretty busy just attending church! Kathryn mentioned to one of her friends back home about how much she goes to church, and her friend teased her that she was going to come home as a nun!


Kathryn - being the very hair-conscientious person that she is - was going crazy with her hair - needing a cut and highlights terribly! After finding an ok establishment she has been on cloud 9 ever since having it done! It was the highlight this week - pun intended!

Debbie went with to help with some of the translation; we could only imagine what a disaster it could end up being? There were some words Debbie didn't know, but tried! If you need highlights - that would be called ‘meches.’ Of course you need to choose the color from - oh say - 50 choices! And you need to say if you want wide or narrow highlights, and you need to tell them just how you'd like your hair cut. Luckily we brought a picture, which is worth a thousand translated words! Then comes - do you want your hair washed, conditioned, dried, styled, teased, waxed or shaved. "I don't know" isn't a good answer, as well as you really might not want to tell them to do what they think is best (we heard the result is never good); either one could give you many more bad hair days then you ever thought possible. In the end the result is wonderful and we are all so happy with it, Kathryn says she's been French-i-fied! Elle est tres elegente! Ce n'est pas?

Debbie has been feeling discouraged with French. She didn't know as much as she thought she did when she got here, and what she does know isn't coming out too well. But she is working on it. She is realizing that she could benefit greatly with more school, but it's all good because for the most part, she is able to at communicate what is needed to get us both by - even if it's pretty primitively!!!! She has been meeting once a week with a older French woman that lives down the street. They have a wonderful time speaking ‘Franglish,’ eating French pastries and enjoying each others company.
I think we are getting to experience another of Southern France's wonderful weather phenomenons - the mistral. Ten inches of snow in 8 hours was pretty exciting, but it's been cloudy and rainy for 2 days - and now the wind is blowing like crazy!!!!!!!!!! We shut the shutters to the French doors in our salon (living room) so we don't accidentally end up redecorating in a sort of out-doorsy look complete with real leaves and tree limbs. Maybe between the mistrals and the catholic population here in France, this is where the Flying Nun was inspired.

Kathryn and I will be coming home as flying Nuns!

3 days in Italy!

Time to update everyone on the goings on with Kathryn and Debbie in Aix! Well – we actually didn’t spend much time in Aix this week because we went on our first excursion. Our host family was out of town all week, so it was a good time for us to go as well.

We chose Italy – Florence to be more specific for our first destination. We were a little surprised at the cost for the train tickets, but when we realized it would take 12 hours to get there, we understood. We left our apartment Monday morning at 5:00 a.m. and arrived at the hotel in Florence around 6:00 p.m. Kathryn did a great job finding us a hotel right by the Ponte Vechio – for only $45 euro per night – and it included breakfast! It wasn’t the Ritz, but the bed was comfortable, the coffee was hot, and we were right in the Centre Ville! (We did have to share a bathroom too, but that turned out to be no problem - there are advantages to traveling during the low season – very few tourists.)

Tuesday we had reservations for the Academia Museum at 9:00 a.m. and being so early, we got to view Michelangelo’s “David” all by ourselves!!!! From there we enjoyed the beautiful day – and the view from the Duomo-tower – we climbed 420 some stairs. The day was clear and I think Kat got some superb photos. In the afternoon we visited the Uffizi Museum, had a slice of pizza – a coffee – a gelato – with sharing our lunch was only 10 euro. Before heading back to our room we stopped to have a glass of wine – and met some very nice locals. The lady sitting next to us had a real Jimmy Choo purse (if you don’t know what that is – I didn’t – ask someone in their 20’s). She worked for Jimmy Choo in San Francisco for 6 years and just transferred to Milan, but was in Florence to visit her mother. Our evening ended in a Pizza place where we had a fantastic diner and visited with a family from Australia.

Wednesday morning it was raining – what a difference a day can make. We took the train to Pisa. The tower was still leaning, and it started to rain there too, but we took our chances to head to the coast - to Cinque Terre (where Mike broke his leg!) It was another good move – it was beautiful when we arrived. Not many tourists – and we couldn’t hike between all 5 towns because of slippery trails. We had a good dinner at the one and only restaurant that was open. We stayed one night – again Kathryn did an awesome job – only 50 Euro and it included breakfast again – and we had a view of the Mediterranean! We hiked for a little bit, but then figured we better start the big trek home. From Cinque Terra we went to La Spezia, from La Spezia we went to Genoa, Genoa to Nice, Nice to Marseille and, and, and….We were supposed to go all the way to Aix – however our train wasn’t to arrive until after midnight – and it was the wrong station in Aix. Not knowing what the taxi situation would be – and not wanting to walk 10 kilometers at midnight – especially when we had no idea where that station was in respect to our home – we decided we had three choices – get a hotel – take our chances with the train – or take a taxi. We both agreed on how much we were willing to pay for the taxi – and we soon found out it wasn’t enough – but a few minutes later the taxi driver came after us and said one of the drivers lived towards Aix – and he would take us home for the price we had suggested. God is good. Home never felt so good. We were in our fast asleep in our own beds before our train would have even left Marseille!

We are back into our work schedule and have had two very productive days since we’ve been home. We work everyday, but that is okay – the little excursions will make it all worth it!

One of the other guests at our apartment introduced Debbie to an older, local woman. They are meeting once a week for study and conversation. Kathryn is working on a computer program to help her learn more French also.

Au revoir until next week- Deb and Kathryn

We are living in a 4 story apartment building just on the northwest side of the densely packed streets of the main part of town. Our apartment is on the 2rd floor – which in the US would be the 3rd floor - the French don’t count the first floor. The location is absolutely perfect and is so close to everything, including a beautiful small park and a large supermarket called Casino (funny name.) The apartment has two back bedrooms, kitchen, one bathroom and the library off the living room. There is also many more books in various other places around the apartment as well. The living room faces southeast and with the low winter sun – it seems we get sun all day long. Our room is very nice, having two small beds, which seem smaller than twin beds and does not look anything like a prison cell (Haha.) We are really enjoying the house and it is slowing becoming our home day-by-day.
The first three days we spent wondering the town of Aix en Provence. There is great architecture and many fountains on the corners of the streets. So far, we have only heard two other English speakers out on the street. Kathryn is dying from not being able to talk to anyone and Debbie has to hear all the blabber that she was accustomed to using with her Clients at the hair salon. It took a while for Debbie to initially speak French to the people, but is gaining confidence to speak a little easier.
The librarian from England came on Wednesday and after a lunch of French onion soup and salad, we jumped into our project. We calculated needing to do about 80 books per day – and after only getting 4 books done the first day, we wondered if we would get a minute off, let alone a weekend for site-seeing around the area!!!!! But things are picking up – we got 41 books done today in about 5 hours. It is tedious and you just need a break after so long. It’s not that our eyes go cross-eyed from the numbers, but you get exhausted from thinking so much.

New Years Eve was really fun. There were 6 of us including Nathan – from our host family, Charlyn a friend to Robyn and Nathan, Mary the librarian, and Colette a French friend of Charlyn. We spoke a lot of “Franglish”: Colette knows some English and everyone else except for Kathryn knows French or some French.

The weather has been nice for the most part; cool, but nice. One doesn’t go out without scarf, hat, coat and gloves though!

Today, Sunday morning, we are going to the French church in the morning and then we will go to the English speaking church in the evening. Debbie is looking forward to hearing a service in French and Kathryn is looking forward to finally meeting some people her own age. Not much in the way of stores being open on Sunday – so you have to make sure you have what you need on Saturday before 8 – that is when the grocery story closes!

Thank you again for your prayers.

Au revoir -Deb and Kat