Marseille:
...is HOT and HUMID! No air conditioner...temperatures in the upper 80s and 50% humidity makes for too much sweating. Now I know that those of you sittin back home in Phx in the 115 degree heat are laughing at me...but it really is very different. I mean....when just sitting at my house I start to sweat! No moving needed! I really don'tt like sweating unless I'm going for a run or have some other good excuse to be sweating :-) But...I'm not gonna complain cause you in Phx and just as hot as me...and I have friends in places that are even hotter than that!
....is pretty different during the summer. Alot of people go on vacation so our schedule is pretty free right now...but thats doesn't mean there still isn't stuff to do. A typical day for me includes
- a morning run,
- cool down in the park (cause its cooler than my apt) where people like to walk if they aren't working or where people like to bring their lunches to eat,
- go home and eat some lunch,
- clean up and go meet one of my language partners or if its Wed. we have an english club
- spend a little more time out in the community...shopping, going to our neighborhood boulangerie (bakery), going to a cafe, shopping for fruits and vegetables (I think the lady at the stand is starting to recognize me now! yeah!)
- and then I come home, make some dinner and call it a night
May seem like a simple schedule...and it is, but we are still concidering many other ways to get involved in the community, some of which we might try to start soon...and some of which won't start until September when school starts back up and people return from vacation. But as for now, there are alot of people out and about...hanging out in the shade at the park...eating ice cream and things resembling icees
....is a place for weird stories to happen. Replacing a light bulb the other night I slightly electrocuted myself... which then caused the circuit to blow for all the lights in our house. Would have been ok, but apparently something happened when it shocked me and when I tried to put the new bulb in with out touching the exposed wires this time....it sparked and blew BOTH the breakers for our house. So after flipping all the power back on, I promtly stopped trying to replace that lightbulb.
...will not be my home for 3 weeks in July and August. Katie, Del, and I are headed to Paris for an intensive French school where we will basically have an intense reveiw of the French that we have already learned a nd probably learn some new stuff too.
....is the site of our new English club held every Wed. night at 5 PM!!! This is exciting news. Basically we meet every week and speak English with whomever would like to come for 1 hour! Its a great way to get to know people and help them with their English.
....campuses are a great place to find language partners. I have had 16 responses to my fliers I put up on the campuses. I am hoping that those 16 responses will lead to about 5-6 weekly partners. We meet for about an hour, once a week, and speak half english and half french, so we are helping each other on language. Once again...a great way to meet people. I have met some really great people through the fliers! YEAH!!!
...is my home for now. I am enjoying the time I get to explore Marseille. There is still so much that I haven't seen in this town or in the towns surrounding it! However, I do miss all of you at home. All of you at the newly named West Greenway Bible Church (very excited about that by the way!). And although I am enjoying my new home, things can get quite lonely here at times... so, PLEASE, send me messages...facebook messages (apparently the newest fad at the WG)...emails...cards...packages!!!
I am going to repost my email for those of you that might not be on my email list...if you would like to be on the email list let me know!
Thankyou all so much for your prayers...but please let me know how ya'll are doin! Love you guys!
