Les Yeux Ouverts!

Eyes wide open. That’s how I feel right now. Tonight Hélène and Yves-Marie invited Rachel and Linden over for dinner. There was meat! I had told her that the girls really wanted to meet (not meat) my family, so we had a big dinner with cocktails and the works! It was SO nice. After dinner we all sat around the table and had a very deep conversation about religion in France and amongst young people. Hélène said that we were three out of four Americans that she has recently had in her home, and four out of four of us are all Christians. She was saddened to think that she could not find the same thing in her own country. She said that if she were to gather four French people for conversation, maybe one of them would be Christian, but not practicing. At that Rachel went off the handle. She started talking about how important it is for Christians to pray for France and for those who refuse to believe. Yves-Marie just about stood up and shouted AMEN. They were very impressed that students would have such a strong faith in God. They were very pleased to spend their evening speaking with us.

All through dinner Yves starred at me with a very intrigued look. He was consistently smiling for some reason. This was actually the first time for me to lead the entire dinner conversation. He usually comes to the table, scarfs down his food, talks ninety to nothing about some event of the day or wanting a scooter, and runs away. Tonight he just sat and watched. He sat for a long time too! I wanted to ask him what he was thinking. At one point he heard me make an inside joke with Yves-Marie and he asked me if I would tell him about the joke later. It was almost as if I was his American buddy. Like I’ve said before, working with students Yves’ age has been a passion of mine every since I became a Community Leader (resident assistant) at Baylor. These students are always going going going. They’re hard to capture, but when you do capture them, they never want you to leave. Tonight when I went to find Rachel and Linden to show them where the apartment was located, I invited Yves to come with me and he actually came this time! On the way back to the apartment from the Tram we started to talk about girls. I mentioned something about my future girlfriend being a Christian. He asked me, “Does she have to be a Christian?” I struggled to respond, but eventually said, “Well, yeah”. He then told me that he didn’t think his girlfriend was a Christian, but that she didn’t believe in God at all. Perhaps this was why he was intrigued with me all through dinner. I’ve never talked about Christianity with Yves before, but now I’m curious. Just because he comes from a practicing Catholic family doesn’t mean he actually believes in God. Now I’m intrigued Yves!

If you could have only been with me a lunch today! Mom, you’re going to love this one! After class my two Chinese friends were waiting at the door with big smiles, ready to eat with me. We went to the cafeteria with another American friend from our class named Amanda. As lunch was wrapping up, I started to eat my bread. The bread in the cafeteria is hard, but I can usually manage. Not today! Today I just happened to swallow too much and it got stuck in my esophagus. As I tried to make it go down, the voices in the room became babble. I did no longer understand words in English or in French. My face got really hot and I didn’t know what I was going to do. I finally poured my water glass out onto my tray and puked into the glass. I felt SO stupid! I just knew that everyone was watching. Min was very nice as she got up and ran to get me some napkins. Now that’s a good friend! If I had been her and I threw up in the middle of the cafeteria in front of God and everybody, I would have been tempted to get up and take my tray. God bless these pour people who are tolerant of my stupidity! If you ever eat in the cafeteria with me in France or in the US, please don’t let me eat the hard bread!

After lunch we had one last class and then I went to the gym. I still can’t understand the mumblers, but I’ll know I’m completely fluent when I can! One guy asked me if there was a sink in the dressing room, but when he first said it I thought he sounded more like he was imitating a motorboat. I just stood there and looked at him until I finally said, “J’ai mal compris” (I misunderstood). When he finally enunciated, I could hear him as clear as a bell! It’s funny how that works!