My Life in Boxes

For the last four years of my life it feels like I have always been on the move. From home to university and back every academic term, from university to my summer job at camp, and from home to Paris. Now I am on the move from residence to apartment in Paris and once again meticulously cramming my clothes and books into boxes. This move, though, is a rather happy one. My mom and my sister are visiting Paris for a week and so Iugging my suitcases across the city on the metro wasn’t such a dreary experience.

For me, this is the big finale here in Paris. I just finished moving out of my student residence and saying the bittersweet goodbyes to all the good friends I made along the way, including my two very funny Algerian roommates. They made me a nice French meal as their going-away present and I left them some good old Canadian maple syrup. After I made it to the new studio apartment I went to go pick up my mom and my sister from the airport. They we’re really excited to be in Paris for the first time and their excitement for Paris is definitely rubbing off on me. I feel a bit like I’m discovering the city again for the first time even though I’ve lived here already for about five months.

So far we have surprisingly seen a lot. On their first night here we visited the Eiffel Tower, the Invalides, and the Seine at night. On their second day we took in the famous Notre-Dame cathedral, the classic université Sorbonne, the quiet Saint-Séverin, and the rustic bohemian bookshop Shakespeare & Company. It’s been a bonus to all of us to have each other here since my family treats me to food and I point out all of the best deals for them and steer them away from the tourist traps. Tomorrow we are going to visit my church and then take the afternoon on a boat tour of the Seine. Here’s to a week being nothing but a tourist after a full semester of having my nose in the books.

Passing Exams and Saying Goodbyes

Exam week has arrived in Paris! It’s hard to believe our courses have already come to an end here, even those dreadfully long 2hr grammar courses have started to grow on me. Leaving is always a nostalgic thing: happy to welcome change but nobody really likes goodbyes. Luckily my professor gave out a list to the class of everyone’s name and email if they wished to share it, so keeping in contact with the friend’s I’ve made in class shouldn’t be too hard...thank you Facebook! This week, after my last final is passed on Tuesday, I am looking forward to welcoming my mom and my sister who are coming up to visit for six days. They are pretty excited to say the least. As their well-travelled tour guide of Paris, I’ve got a whole itinerary planned for them and I’ve even put in a “No Speaking English Day” for something different and to help them improve their French.

Yesterday, after an afternoon of wandering down the Champs-Élysées in the sun, we had our farewell day at the church. Since it was so sunny and mild out we had a little church picnic following the service in the park facing les Invalides. It was really nice and apparently very French. I am learning that as soon as the biting cold wind leaves the city Parisians are out of their apartments lounging on the grass and kicking around soccer balls late into the night. After sharing food together with everyone we gave a little speech in French thanking everyone in the church for being so welcoming and helpful to us Canadians. As the sun went down and the great dome church lit up, we all went home singing happily (the few songs we all knew in common). We’ll I better head off, since the girls are leaving very soon to go back (June 2) we’ve decided to do some last minute “sorties” in the city. This morning it’s Sainte-Chapelle and a walking history tour of Paris. Until next time!

United in Christ: Taizé’s Message of Trust, Love, and Reconciliation

When I first arrived at Taizé I thought to myself, “Oh, this is it?” I walked up the dusty path into the community and found hoards of young people strewn out across the welcome area. I walked past the great Taizé bells and into the picnic tent with my newfound American friend, who happened to know the community like the back of his hand. As we past a group of teens laughing and spraying each other with the dish-washing hoses, we found a nice spot to sit and grabbed some extra food that was left over from lunch. One thing I got from being there already on the first day was how welcoming and accepting this community was to new pilgrims. I got a real sense of that as I went through the reception process with a young person from Germany named Jenni. Although she had only been in Taizé for a day, she happily showed where I would work, sleep, and participate in Bible studies. She seemed as though she knew so much and she had practiced at her job for weeks. But I knew that Jenni simply put her heart into this small job, because she loved people and she was responding to the trust she was given by the Brothers.

It’s just amazing to me how the Brothers have set up this community: it is completely trust-driven and run by the pilgrims who come to stay each week regardless of their age or background. I was given the task of cooking the dinner meal for about 1000 young people and leaders. Although I had very little experience or knowledge in the kitchen, I was given this job with a high degree of trust and confidence that I could do it well. Before I could say to the welcome team “well, you know I’ve never worked in a kitchen and what if I mess up?” they signed me up for the job. There was no room for doubting oneself here, just trust that God will equip pilgrim to step up to the task given. This principle of trust in young people is echoed throughout the community and in my opinion it is one of the reasons why young people continue to come back to this inconspicuous hill year after year. In a world where teenagers and college agers are suspect from the start, Taizé models a faith in young people that runs deep. The community’s former prior, Brother Roger once said, “I am willing to go to the ends of the Earth to shout my trust in young people.”

This sense of responsibility gives the pilgrims affirmation and confidence; to know that they are trusted, regardless of their previous mistakes or employment botches. For me, the work also gave a notion of contribution. I knew that if I didn’t do my job well that the community would not be able to eat each night, and so I saw how my job fit into the whole. During morning meals, when I wasn’t working, I got to sit and eat with everyone and share stories. One pilgrim I met along the way was Laura, an undergrad student from Berlin who had taken two weeks off from classes to re-think her life in the thick of it all. It was really interesting to me that she wasn’t at all worried about getting those notes or catching up for the exam, she simply knew she needed time to think, listen, and seek God...and so she took the risk. Many other young people come to Taizé for the same reason; it is a haven of peace and quiet that stands almost antithetical to the buzzing noise of the modern world. Dominique, another friend, was a Swiss youth leader at a Catholic church who brought with him two young teens to experience a week of uniqueness at Taizé. For Dominique, although he comes back every year with a handful of new youth, Taizé is a spring of rejuvenation and fresh air for him where he can listen attentively and without distraction to the truth God has to speak into his life.

Overall what I think stood out the most for me during my time at Taizé was the simple reality that I could peacefully and without a gulp in my throat have good, real fellowship and conversation with Christians from other traditions. At Taizé, the question of denomination usually comes secondary (if indeed it comes at all) to the reality of being followers of Christ. No marginalizations or separations were made based one’s Christian tradition and all the pilgrims worshipped together with the Brothers three times a day. We sang together in praise of the Lord and we prayed together for the peace and reconciliation of the world. It was a deep and very fulfilling experience for me and I gained a new hope for the future of the Church, one where the message of Christ’s uniting power comes first and division is left behind.

A First Visit to the Community of Taizé

I found myself back in my familiar class this morning after what had felt like a month off; unfortunately it was only two weeks. After my time with friends in Paris I hopped on a train (this time at the right station!) and headed south to the hilly region of Burgundy. There I joined some 800 or so young people and a brotherhood of monks for a week of prayer, worship, simplicity, and community life. Sounds unusual...maybe even a bit dull, right? I had the same first impressions when I first heard about this place. Tucked away in silence on a secluded hill in France, the community of Taizé is unassuming, and yet over the past 60 years it has become a magnet for young European Christians, many of whom make unbelievably long pilgrimages just to make it there every year. Since I feel so strongly about the uniqueness of this place and the experience I had there this past week, I have decided to write you two blogs on Taizé.

After train and bus travel through some of the most beautiful countryside I have ever seen, I was dropped off on a dusty path outside of the Taizé grounds. The community itself is situated on a steep hill, overlooking pastures and tree-lined valleys below, so the initial view is incredible and stretches on for miles. Adjacent to the grounds of Taizé is the tiny medieval village of Taizé; from where the commune got its name. The village which has maybe five or six homes and an ancient church that dates back to the 10th century. The area has been marked by the arrival of the Taizé community’s founder: Brother Roger Shutz. In 1940, during the German occupation of France, Brother Roger purchased the land for the community and began to minister to the poor. Although he had very little, he would house Jewish refugees and feed them from a little plot of land he farmed. Soon, he was targeted for his work by the Gestapo and was forced to flee to Switzerland until things blew over. When the war had ended Roger moved back to the community in France and soon thereafter other Christian brothers began to join him and a fraternity of brothers was formed. Today, there are more than 120 Brothers of Taizé, many of them coming from different countries and Christian traditions.

Like the diversity represented by the brothers, the visiting pilgrims are among the most diverse groups of people in the world. When I was there, I met young people literally from all over the world. Off the top of my head, I can recall meeting Germans, Brits, French, Austrians, Spanish, Russians, Americans, Italians, and one other Canadian. The first person I met walking into Taizé was an American: Scott, a 27 year old medical school student from Texas who had been coming to Taizé every year since his teenage years. Scott told me that he had a deep love for the community of Taizé, but he couldn’t quite pin down what it was exactly that kept drawing him back. After a week there I would say that this is a common feeling among the pilgrims... there’s something very unique about this place called Taizé. Next blog I’ll update you on how the week unfolded for me and about Taizé’s message of reconciliation.

An Unplanned Extra Week in Paris

Well, I do feel a bit lucky right now. As university students across Canada are as you are all busily preparing for exams or cramming in those last minute all-nighters, we have been blessed over here in France to have two weeks of vacation! I have learned that France’s educational system is particularly different from Canada’s in just that respect: time off. In France there are many more lengthy breaks for students, making it seem as though less time is spent in class. But in fact, the academic load of the semester is much heavier and the days are longer for university and lycée (high school) students. One of my roommates for example attends a lycée and he is in class from 9am to 4 or 5pm all week and he even has classes on Saturday. International students in my program at the Sorbonne are a bit more fortunate in terms of our time off, allowing for more time to explore.

This week, although starting off oddly, has been a very good week and God has surprised me with a lot. On Sunday morning, I woke up before the sun at 5:30am and headed out to the empty streets of Paris with a heavy pack strapped on my back. I hopped into a taxi and asked to be dropped off at the train station at the north end of the city. As I walked into the station I realized I was actually early for the time of my departure, so I parked myself down and munched on some breakfast for half an hour. As it neared the time when my train was supposed to leave, I started to get a little worried; I couldn’t find any indication of my train headed to Taizé! I rushed to the information desk and asked what was going on with my train. The lady at the desk uttered these words and my heart sank: “Désolé monsieur mais vous êtes à la mauvaise gare, il faut que vous alliez à Gare de Lyon pas Gare du Nord. ” Basically, I had missed the small print of the ticket and was waiting at the wrong train station! That was not the most encouraging of moments for me. Luckily I have two weeks off and was able to re-plan my trip for the next week (since Taizé’s only welcome day is Sunday).

So, admittedly, this week started off quite embarrassingly and unplanned, yet I have thoroughly enjoyed the extra leisure time in the city. So far, I have used it mostly to hang out with some of the good French friends that I have made in Paris (as well as one very funny Scot and an awesome Indonesian). I have also caught up on some reading, sent out some postcards back home, and visited some of those less known sites on my Paris bucket list (which is not small I assure you!). It’s been great so far and in retrospect I am actually glad it has happened this way. At least now I know for the next train I catch out of Paris to make it to the right train station! More updates will come next week, when I do end up making it to Taizé. But I’ve got to head out; tonight I’m hosting a dinner party in my residence! Ciao

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!

Easter in Paris

This is the first time I’ve spent Easter outside of Canada and it was definitely an interesting experience. Earlier in the week I had heard of a massive gathering of Christians in Paris on the morning of Easter Sunday and so I planned to get myself out of bed and attend the early service. When I got to “la Défense”, the large open area where the assembly was being held, I was amazed at the amount of people that had come out to hear the message of Christ’s Resurrection. There, under cloudy skies and drizzling rain of Paris at 7:30 in the morning was a crowd of around 6,000 believers. They had come from all sorts of backgrounds and faith traditions; on the stage in front of the crowd stood representative pastors, priests, and laymen from just about every major Christian denomination.

Each took a turn to lead a certain part of the service: from songs, to creeds, to Scripture passages. And each leader wore their respective formal wear for the event, making for a very interesting and colourful stage presence. It was the most ecumenical of ecumenical events that I have ever attended and it gave me great encouragement to see so many Christians of diverging traditions come together to worship the Saviour. The event was simply called “Pâques 2010: Christ est ressuscité ” and it was a celebration in light of the rare occurrence when Easter falls on the same date for Orthodox, Catholic and Protestant churches.

On Easter Monday I eagerly stood in a long line of young men, all waiting to see the newest action film to hit the scene in Paris: “Le Choc des Titans”. I met up with some friends I met through church and after two hours we entered the giant opera theatre where the movie would be playing. For only 10 Euro we got a centre-balcony seat, right in the middle of the biggest big-screen I’ve ever seen (these ones largely out-do our normal Silvercity or Famous Players screens). When the movie started I was a bit surprised, I had mentally readied myself to follow a French film...but this was in English! I have to admit I was slightly relieved that I could pay more attention to the plot and less to the language. But it turns out there wasn’t much of a plot to follow after all, just action.

The movie itself was not bad and I really enjoyed spending an evening out with friends, away from being cooped up trying to heal my swollen ankle. Luckily that is on the mend and I hope that by the next time I post an update for you guys I will be a walking man!

The Balance Between Being a Student and a Tourist

It may sound corny but one of the highlights this week for me has been getting letters from friends back at Redeemer. The simple process of opening envelopes and reading encouraging notes sent across the ocean really is a great feeling and it shows how lucky I am to have such good friends. Now I just have to find the time to write back some equally long and humourous letters! Looking back over this week I realized it wasn’t one of the more “touristy” ones that I’ve experienced. Instead, I found myself quite occupied with more pressing, but less interesting activities. I finished applications for summer work, polished off a five-page essay for grammar class, and applied through Redeemer’s Financial Aid Department for the 2010 Application for Scholarships & Bursaries.

On Friday night I was able to get out and enjoy an evening with a handful of young adults from my church. We attended a play called “Marc L’Expérience” (the Mark Experience). It was an amazing show put on by a number of local Parisian university students who are all members of Christian groups on their respective campuses. Without costumes, music, lighting, or even a stage, they delivered an incredible rendition of the entire book of Mark. The text really came alive that night and in the audience we got a greater sense of how the words on the page might have been lived out. Afterwards, in discussion with some friends, I came to realize how much of the depth of the Gospels we may actually miss out on because of the fact that there are not normally read or acted aloud. Speaking the truths orally, in the way in which they were originally conveyed, seems to bring them to life in a sense, really demonstrating the power of spoken word. I was happy to have experienced that evening and I was actually proud that these students sacrificed so much of their time to practice and memorize the entire book of Mark.

Saturday, I went with two of the other Redeemer students on the same study program to visit the Centre Pompidou. The Centre Pompidou is the nucleus of contemporary and avant-garde art in Paris. The building, which houses works as diverse as Picasso’s cubist paintings to documentaries by modern filmmakers, was built to appear inside out. The enormous walls outside are surrounded by pipes, elevators, water ducts, and scaffolding while the inside features clean, polished stone. The museum is practically too large to explore in one visit. There is an adjacent library, a video area, children’s workshops, computer lounges, cafés, and a performance centre for dance and theatre. We quickly reasoned that the bulk of the centre would be better to discover when we had a full day at our feet. Heading out in the quarter known as “Les Halles” we strolled through markets, shops and local food outlets. Emile Zola described the area as “the belly of Paris” for a reason: he was referring to the meat, vegetable, and fruit stands that have been thriving in this quarter since the 12^th century. We stopped at a café, explored a smaller but less cumbersome photography museum and went our separate ways for the evening. It seems like I’ve seen so much in Paris so far, yet every time I take one of these little detours I get taken aback by interesting places like these.

My Days Start with Chocolate Cereal

Bonjour les amis! It’s been another great week in Paris! I’m happy to say that I am almost fully accustomed to the rhythms of Parisian life, and even without the use of one leg. My day typically involves waking up around 7:30am or so (that’s about 1:30 in the morning for you!) and eating a big breakfast of chocolate cereal. It has become my staple food here; very common, very good, and very full of caffeine-rich dark chocolate. After my breakfast, I usually rush off to catch a bus just down the street. Although I live in the far western corner of the city, the bus that I take actually goes direct from my road all the way to the Panthéon, which is right next to my classes.

Every morning I take two hours of grammar class with the most diverse group of young people I’ve ever encountered. In my small class alone there are students from Turkey, Austria, China, Brazil, Norway, U.S.A., Spain, Korea, Germany, Greece, Columbia, and of course Canada:). It’s been such an experience to interact with these people and to learn more about their respective cultures. And the interesting part is that amongst all the variation in language and culture, the unifying factor between us all is...French! The simple fact that we have all come to improve our French makes it easy to meet and speak to people that I may not otherwise have had had the chance to meet because of language barriers.

After grammar class ends at noon I head out into the busy streets of Paris to grab lunch at one of the nearby boulangeries or patisseries. Sandwiches and baguettes are both cheap and practical. You can easily purchase a fresh, full-sized baguette for under a Euro ($1.50). In Paris, and especially in the student quarter, a lot of people eat their lunch “à emporter”: meaning that they eat it either walking or sitting on a nice park bench near a fountain. Luckily I have both those options available to me and I don’t always have to rush. Depending on which week it is, after grammar class I will either find myself in a phonetics lab speaking French with a professor or in the International Student Library finishing that day’s homework.

Three days a week I also attend conferences or lectures that are held in one big hall; usually with more than 200 other international students. The three that I chose are: French Art, the History of Paris, and “la Sorbonne dans la ville”. In my opinion, the greatest advantage to studying in Paris has been being able to see the art, architecture, and museums that we hear about in our classes. Just this week, while studying the works of Eugène Delacroix with a friend, I was able to actually go to the Louvre and see his most famous paintings in the original. What struck me, even more than the detail and the vivid colours of Delacroix’s work, was the overwhelming size and scope of each of the paintings. Many of this 19^th century artist’s masterpieces covered entire walls bigger than the glass front of the Peter Turkstra Library. Seeing this sort of thing in person is an amazing experience and I hope to able to return to Louvre in the near future. It is the sort of place where you could spend days exploring at length and still have things to see. A bientôt!

Wow! This has been quite an eventful few weeks in Paris. Classes are fully underway at the Cours de civilisation française and that started to create a rather dependable routine for me, that is until something came along to jostle that consistency.

This past weekend I was invited to go on a trip to Disneyland Paris with my student residence here in France, and in the process of trying to catch a train I was late for... I ran a little too fast and jumped a few too many steps. Luckily, the fall didn’t result in a broken ankle but I will be relegated to walking with crutches for the next few weeks. The irony of it all is that Paris is a city renowned for walking and cycling as the primary modes of transit. This is both an ironic and humbling experience for me. I know God has many lessons for His people on the other end of such self-inflicted accidents. The great part of the day was that, in the end, I was still able to see most of Disneyland Paris (although mostly by sitting down) and to really enjoy another different experience.

France so far has been anything but predictable. My time could be well described with these words: incredibly exciting and incredibly diverse. The weekend before Disneyland I had a chance to get to know better some of the young adults from our church “L’Église Évangélique Baptiste de Paris-centre” or as most people call it “Rue de Sèvres.” The people at this church have been incredibly inviting and have extended so much grace to us visiting Canadians. It is really exciting to see a group of Christians in this country who are so involved in loving and welcoming new people.

Our outing with some of the young adults a few weeks back was hiking and rock climbing in an area just outside of Paris called Fontainebleau. It is a beautiful spot that really takes you out of the noise and the business of the city and brings you to a place that could easily be mistaken for Northern Ontario. The landscape was gorgeous and the rocks were climb-able! We spent our day climbing, hiking, talking and eating packed lunches and snacks all outside under the warm sun. It was a great day to remember and I can’t wait to do it again!

I’m having the other Redeemer students over for dinner tonight at my residence so I better go start making dinner. It’s tacos tonight!

A Month in Paris

To most Canadians, the thought of living in Paris seems fanciful and extraordinary. Narrow cobblestone roads, high heels and scarves, and restaurants serving luxurious meals. This is Paris right? Well, so far, over the month that I have been here in Paris it’s been that, but it’s also been much more. As part of one of Redeemer’s semester abroad programs (“Redeemer in France”) I have been privileged to be able to visit one of the most remarkable cities in the world. Paris offers so much to see and the other three students on the program here can attest to the fact that after more than a month of sight-seeing and travelling in between classes, we still haven’t been able to see it all...or the half of it for that matter! Our program, known as “Les cours de civilisation française”, runs from February to May with a normal course load of classes ranging from Art History to French Phonetics.

During the first and second weeks we have been here, the four of us Redeemer students visited the Champs-Élysées, the Arc de Triomphe, the Eiffel Tower, the Latin Quarter, the Sorbonne, the Jardin des Tuilleries, etc. etc. Having our French professor Dr. Rusthoven around for the first week was really a blessing, since she knows her way around the city quite well. Apparently she has been organizing the Redeemer in France program for 19 yrs now.

Here in Paris, we've also been connected with a great local church called Rue de Sèvres (Baptist evangelical) named simply after the street it’s on. It's a really amazing place, the people there have been the most welcoming to us out of anyone yet that I've met here in Paris. They've really taken us in with open arms. It's a small community by numerical standards back home; there are maybe 150 people or so in the parish. But in France most Protestant or evangelical church communities are very small. In fact Rue de Sèvres is one of the bigger ones in Paris! On Tuesdays I usually go to their young adult’s night and on Sundays they have two worship services that are great as well. I've already made quite a few friends in the church and some outside of it as well! Paris has been great so far, and classes are zipping by. It’s true, the students who went last year told us before we left to enjoy our time in Paris because it will go by fast! Now, off to do just that...