Vacation Has Begun

Vacation has begun! After working hard in grammar, history and phonetics courses for quite some time, I am happy to be welcomed by some time off. It’s really an exciting time to be in Paris: the sun is shining brightly, the students have all been let out for two weeks, and the streets are now buzzing with tourists. In our last grammar class our professor encouraged us to start the celebrations early, “sans doute il faut commencer la fête!” So, we were invited to bring desserts and drinks on Friday and hang out for the last half of the class. I can’t think of a better way to start a weekend.

Later on that day I hung out with friends from the young adults group at church and we went up the Tour Montparnasse in the south of Paris. Standing some 210m about the streets of Paris, the Tour Montparnasse is the tallest building in France and one of the tallest in Europe. Going up the elevator was quite an experience in itself—59 floors took maybe 2minutes in total! It was incredibly fast and the view we got when got to the top was just amazing...it would have been well worth a wait if there was one. Since its construction in 1972 the tower has also played host to a number of odd happenings, including a dangerous feat by an urban climber in 1995. French adventurist Alain "Spiderman" Robert scaled the building’s exterior glass and steel wall using only his bare hands and feet and with no safety devices. He managed to make it to the top, even though he reputedly almost fell halfway up. Here’s his website if you want to see his website to witness some amazing pictures of him in action: www.alainrobert.com.

Next week I will be spending a week away from the city and its skyscrapers. I have decided to spend some time in quiet reflection and prayer at a place called Taizé. It is an ecumenical monastic community founded just after World War II by a Protestant Swiss pastor named Brother Roger. Today, there are dozens of brothers who have made the community their home and each year thousands of young people flock to Taizé for a journey of prayer, worship, fellowship, and reconciliation. If you are a young Christian in Europe you have most likely heard of Taizé and you have most like gone or are going to the place. In the spring and summer there are hundreds of tents that line the fields and the church is filled with young seekers. I am really excited to make this pilgrimage and to see what God has in store for me, I have great expectations for what He may show me!