The last full day of our trip.... Just as the beginning of the trip came up on me unexpectedly, so has the end. It feels like the trip is just starting, and now it is time to leave.
Today we had a lot of wrap up work to do... We did a bunch of laundry and gave Chloé's apartment a thorough cleaning, and we also had to pack up all our stuff and gifts. For our last Parisien lunch we had... quiche from the bakery. A bit anticlimatic, unfortunately. So was supper-- our old boeuf bourgignon, with an extra 1/3 of a bottle of rosé.... The sauce was pretty powerful!
We got finished with all our errands just as it was time to leave for the meeting. It was a good meeting, a couple of double-ups on the parts, so it seems like there is some extra work shared all around due to the "vacances". I got a chance to chat with Georges Temeng a bit more, which was cool. He has had some really interesting experiences, and it was too bad that I didn't have more time to spend with him. Would have been great to take him and his wife out for dinner and hear some of his stories from Senegal and Sierra Leone.
It was Aléxia's last meeting, so there was a lot of buzz afterwards. Before the meeting, a sister (Ruth Tandier) came up to me and Joel and said that she wanted to take us out afterwards, so after we finally finished saying goodbye to everyone we hopped in her car and left. I was kind of in a bit of a down mood, cause I would have liked to have spent our last night with the Thomas' or others, but I figured we ought to make the most of it. Ruth had brought along her flatmate, Sandrine, and another sister from the congregation, Aline. Aline actually was in Toronto some years ago and knows Glen.
As we were driving along, Ruth lets us know that she is taking us for drinks to the Ritz Carlton (!). That was pretty cool... Joel and I both had cognacs, super smooth, tasty and sweet. Smelled like maple syrup. It turned out that it was Rémy Martin VSOP! But I'm pretty sure that what they export to Canada is different than what you get in France. There's absolutely no comparison between what had tonight and what you get in Toronto.
Anyways, the whole Ritz experience was pretty neat. Ruth was making romantic advances on Joel and Joel kept encouraging her. A very interesting way to end the trip, to say the least.
So, tomorrow is the real last day. It's been a great trip, and I am sad to leave. Paris definitely has a permanent place in my heart.... And I've met a ton of cool brothers and sisters that I would love to come back and see again, but probably never will, unfortunately. But, this is the right way to end a trip... Better to end the trip 3 days to early than 1 day too late.
Well, I hope I'm wrong and I get to come back sometime, hopefully soon. Now that I've gotten all the obligatory tourist stuff out of the way, I can come back and see the real Paris. There are so many restaurants to be tried, patisseries to visit... I'd love to do some service in French, go to a French meeting. I feel so torn at the end of this trip! I know I have to go home, and that there is a lot of work to be done... But I'd love to do some more exploring and get to know some of these new friends better.
But, life marches on... So tomorrow shall come, and in less than 18 hours I will be at home!
Tuesday, 11 August 2009
Monday, 10 August 2009
Service with Thierry
Another day which begins with us sleeping in.... This is becoming a pattern.
We woke up around 11 am, rushed to get ready for service, then grabbed a sandwich and coffee and hopped on the metro to the 6eme to get some territory. We picked up the territory from a brother and sister that are crashing at Fleur's place, then got back on the metro. We got to Thierry's place by about 1:45 pm.
Thierry was a bit late since he had just closed the deal to sell his car. We left at around 4 and headed towards the territory. Actually, we ended up doing street work instead of our territory. We walked around the 16eme, looking for English people. Thierry demonstrated an awesome skill in being able to identify where a person comes from based on what they are wearing. We met a few people, but it was pretty slow... We mainly wandered around and chatted about fashion. He explained to me how long it takes for fashion to come from Paris to North America... He compared it to congregations within a circuit. Some congregations will adapt to new direction very quickly, some will take multiple circuit overseers to say the same thing. We in North America are the stubborn congregations, whereas Italy is the eager congregation. For example, they have had skinny ties in Paris since 2000, but practically no one in North America wears them. Along the way we met a Filipino woman, I left a Bible Teach book with her and Thierry took down her info. Hopefully something comes of it....
We kept talking and eventually reached Trocadero, a lookoff point between two museums. There's a great view of the Eiffel Tower from here, and so there were tons of tourists. We also saw about 12 Mormons in two separate groups. Thierry wanted to show us inside one of the museums, so we looked around. He pointed us towards a room in the lower level where last month he had a runway show. We also bought a couple of really funky thank-you cards for Chloé and Jeanine.
We started our walk back, and right beside where we parked, a man was sitting on a bench reading a book. I asked if he spoke English, he said no, so I asked him in French if he likes reading. He said 'yes, but not just anything'. I looked closer at his book and saw that it was a book of prayers. I told him I was a Witness and on vacation from Canada, I apologized in advance for my French and told him about our purpose. He said that he knows a lot of Witnesses and that there are a lot of similarities, but wonders why we don't have churches where people can come and pray, but instead he sees us always walking the streets. I explained that we have Kingdom Halls, and that we have 2 meetings a week. Then I read him Matt 28:19, 20 to explain why he always sees us in the streets, preaching. Anyways, the conversation continued, it was very pleasant, and he seemed interested. Thierry came over and got his information and we'll see what happens. Thierry happened to have a magazine with the article 'Do All Religions Lead to God' and we left it with him. As we were driving away, I could see he was reading it very attentively. So, we'll see if anything becomes of this call too.
Afterwards we came back to the Thomas' house, had some snacks and waited for Thierry & Ghislaine's friends, Phillipe & Joél to come. They arrived at around 8 pm, we waited some more for Aléxia to come, and at around 8:30 we gave up and headed out for supper. Thierry took us to a nearby place, called "4B". Food was OK. I was super tired from the day and had a little nap while we waited for our food. Aléxia finally arrived and interrupted my nap.
Then we came back to the Thomas' place, had a little apértif, I tried to hack through Romanza on guitar, Aléxia and Albérique played Heart & Soul on the piano, and Joel tried to remember the words to sing along.
Finally, Phillipe and Joél graciously gave us a lift home so we didn't have to take the entirely uphill bike ride home.
Tomorrow we will be cleaning the chaos we have wreaked on Chloé's apartment, probably do our packing, then go to the meeting in the evening.
We woke up around 11 am, rushed to get ready for service, then grabbed a sandwich and coffee and hopped on the metro to the 6eme to get some territory. We picked up the territory from a brother and sister that are crashing at Fleur's place, then got back on the metro. We got to Thierry's place by about 1:45 pm.
Thierry was a bit late since he had just closed the deal to sell his car. We left at around 4 and headed towards the territory. Actually, we ended up doing street work instead of our territory. We walked around the 16eme, looking for English people. Thierry demonstrated an awesome skill in being able to identify where a person comes from based on what they are wearing. We met a few people, but it was pretty slow... We mainly wandered around and chatted about fashion. He explained to me how long it takes for fashion to come from Paris to North America... He compared it to congregations within a circuit. Some congregations will adapt to new direction very quickly, some will take multiple circuit overseers to say the same thing. We in North America are the stubborn congregations, whereas Italy is the eager congregation. For example, they have had skinny ties in Paris since 2000, but practically no one in North America wears them. Along the way we met a Filipino woman, I left a Bible Teach book with her and Thierry took down her info. Hopefully something comes of it....
We kept talking and eventually reached Trocadero, a lookoff point between two museums. There's a great view of the Eiffel Tower from here, and so there were tons of tourists. We also saw about 12 Mormons in two separate groups. Thierry wanted to show us inside one of the museums, so we looked around. He pointed us towards a room in the lower level where last month he had a runway show. We also bought a couple of really funky thank-you cards for Chloé and Jeanine.
We started our walk back, and right beside where we parked, a man was sitting on a bench reading a book. I asked if he spoke English, he said no, so I asked him in French if he likes reading. He said 'yes, but not just anything'. I looked closer at his book and saw that it was a book of prayers. I told him I was a Witness and on vacation from Canada, I apologized in advance for my French and told him about our purpose. He said that he knows a lot of Witnesses and that there are a lot of similarities, but wonders why we don't have churches where people can come and pray, but instead he sees us always walking the streets. I explained that we have Kingdom Halls, and that we have 2 meetings a week. Then I read him Matt 28:19, 20 to explain why he always sees us in the streets, preaching. Anyways, the conversation continued, it was very pleasant, and he seemed interested. Thierry came over and got his information and we'll see what happens. Thierry happened to have a magazine with the article 'Do All Religions Lead to God' and we left it with him. As we were driving away, I could see he was reading it very attentively. So, we'll see if anything becomes of this call too.
Afterwards we came back to the Thomas' house, had some snacks and waited for Thierry & Ghislaine's friends, Phillipe & Joél to come. They arrived at around 8 pm, we waited some more for Aléxia to come, and at around 8:30 we gave up and headed out for supper. Thierry took us to a nearby place, called "4B". Food was OK. I was super tired from the day and had a little nap while we waited for our food. Aléxia finally arrived and interrupted my nap.
Then we came back to the Thomas' place, had a little apértif, I tried to hack through Romanza on guitar, Aléxia and Albérique played Heart & Soul on the piano, and Joel tried to remember the words to sing along.
Finally, Phillipe and Joél graciously gave us a lift home so we didn't have to take the entirely uphill bike ride home.
Tomorrow we will be cleaning the chaos we have wreaked on Chloé's apartment, probably do our packing, then go to the meeting in the evening.
Sunday, 9 August 2009
Driven by sheer boredom
Today Ralph & Paula left for home. They ought to be back by now.
I had planned to go out in service this morning with the folks from the West congregation, and I woke up at 7 am, got dressed and everything. At 8 am, I woke up Joel and asked "Service, or sleep?" He replied "Sleep" in a tone that I knew meant I would never be able to wake him up. I really wanted to head out, but I was thinking that if I did go out, I would never be able to meet up with Joel, since there is no phone at Chloé's flat. Now that I think back on it, I should have gone out anyways, since he didn't end up waking up until 1 pm. So instead, I went back to sleep too.
We woke up and bummed around the 9eme a bit, poking around aimlessly. Basically everything was closed since it is Sunday. We walked up near our old flat and I had a patented Jason-Kim-crazy-idea.... I suggested that we ride our bikes back down to Thierry & Ghislaine's, tell them we were super bored and want to take them out to dinner.
So we got our bikes, rode down and arrived at their place around 6 pm. Turns out that Thierry is engaged in a major project-- he is tiling his backyard stoop. Well, we told him that we are super bored and ask if he needs help, and he accepts. So we spent the next 4 hours or so with Joel helping him tile and me helping Ghislaine clean up their little garden and shed. They are getting a whole bunch of projects around the house finished, since they will be moving away in a month.
Afterwards, Ghislaine made us some supper. Joel and I felt a bit embarrassed, since we hadn't come by to try to scam dinner, we were just sincerely bored and doing some work was actually enjoyable. But, they insisted and so we stayed.
It was nice spending time with Thierry and Ghislaine. We got to know them much better than yesterday. Turns out that Thierry's father is also in the truth. He moved from Guadeloupe to France and had his family there. He wanted to serve where the need was great, even though he had a family, so one day he asked the branch coordinator where should move. The branch coordinator told him "Guadeloupe". He was a bit taken aback, but his desire was to be of help, so he moved. Not long after moving, he was told that there was an even greater need in Martinique, so he moved there. It seems that he was a well-known brother, since Thierry mentioned that he served as an assembly overseer. Thierry's mom and dad still live in Martinique. His mom is in Paris to help with the move, and will actually stay with them for the first month in Qatar.
Tomorrow we made plans with Thierry and Alberique (his son) to go out in service, and in the evening, after his family study, to go out for dinner. This actually works out great, since I just got an email from the Niels saying that their dad is staying an extra week because the chimney repair is taking longer than expected.
Tuesday we will probably help the Thomas' out some more with their yard work, then meeting in the evening.
I had planned to go out in service this morning with the folks from the West congregation, and I woke up at 7 am, got dressed and everything. At 8 am, I woke up Joel and asked "Service, or sleep?" He replied "Sleep" in a tone that I knew meant I would never be able to wake him up. I really wanted to head out, but I was thinking that if I did go out, I would never be able to meet up with Joel, since there is no phone at Chloé's flat. Now that I think back on it, I should have gone out anyways, since he didn't end up waking up until 1 pm. So instead, I went back to sleep too.
We woke up and bummed around the 9eme a bit, poking around aimlessly. Basically everything was closed since it is Sunday. We walked up near our old flat and I had a patented Jason-Kim-crazy-idea.... I suggested that we ride our bikes back down to Thierry & Ghislaine's, tell them we were super bored and want to take them out to dinner.
So we got our bikes, rode down and arrived at their place around 6 pm. Turns out that Thierry is engaged in a major project-- he is tiling his backyard stoop. Well, we told him that we are super bored and ask if he needs help, and he accepts. So we spent the next 4 hours or so with Joel helping him tile and me helping Ghislaine clean up their little garden and shed. They are getting a whole bunch of projects around the house finished, since they will be moving away in a month.
Afterwards, Ghislaine made us some supper. Joel and I felt a bit embarrassed, since we hadn't come by to try to scam dinner, we were just sincerely bored and doing some work was actually enjoyable. But, they insisted and so we stayed.
It was nice spending time with Thierry and Ghislaine. We got to know them much better than yesterday. Turns out that Thierry's father is also in the truth. He moved from Guadeloupe to France and had his family there. He wanted to serve where the need was great, even though he had a family, so one day he asked the branch coordinator where should move. The branch coordinator told him "Guadeloupe". He was a bit taken aback, but his desire was to be of help, so he moved. Not long after moving, he was told that there was an even greater need in Martinique, so he moved there. It seems that he was a well-known brother, since Thierry mentioned that he served as an assembly overseer. Thierry's mom and dad still live in Martinique. His mom is in Paris to help with the move, and will actually stay with them for the first month in Qatar.
Tomorrow we made plans with Thierry and Alberique (his son) to go out in service, and in the evening, after his family study, to go out for dinner. This actually works out great, since I just got an email from the Niels saying that their dad is staying an extra week because the chimney repair is taking longer than expected.
Tuesday we will probably help the Thomas' out some more with their yard work, then meeting in the evening.
Saturday, 8 August 2009
Yesterday was quite the packed day...
We had to check out of our flat by 10 am, and we had arrangements to move into Chloé's place for the rest of the trip. A sister that lives nearby (Jeanine de la Rue) had a spare key, so we were going to meet up with her at the Anvers metro station, just nearby. So we woke up early-ish, got all packed up, grabbed a pastry walked over to the café right across the street from Anvers metro station (the same one where Joel & I bumped into Chloé that morning).
We met up with Jeanine and got the keys, then hailed a cab to go back to the flat and pick up our bags. As we were driving down Chloé's street, we see Ralph walking up towards us... I roll down the window and he shouts out "The key doesn't work"... We unload everything into the hallway of her building anyways and continue to futilely try to open the door, even trying other doors. That doesn't last too long. Joel and I decide to head back to our old flat (it was still before 10 am and we still had to return the keys) and use the phone there to call Chloé and/or Jeanine. Left a message with Chloé and call Jeanine. Jeanine picks up, Joel explains the situation to her, she offers to come over, all the way back and help us out... We felt terrible about taking her away from service, but we didn't really see another way. It took her 30 mins to get over, but in the meantime Chloé called back and explained that we had gone to the wrong door! The entrance to her flat was through the courtyard, but we had taken the first entrance! Frantically tried to call Jeanine before she got there, but it was too late. By the time I got back to Chloé's place, Jeanine was already there and they had already started moving the bags in. Kind of frustrating, since we had taken Jeanine away from service and made her travel 30 mins... But she was super nice about it and said she could go back home and do some telephone witnessing/search for English.
I don't know if I ever mentioned this, but Jeanine was interviewed at the Service Meeting when we visited Paris English East. She's been in English for 13 years, and is pioneering. An older sister, but seems to be a very hard worker, and one of the mothers in the congregation. That night she had also brought a Bible study with her, and the study had 2 very rambunctious kids. Still, Jeanine firmly kept the kids in their seats and helped the mom get as much as she could from the meeting. Joel also helped with one of the boys, which helped too.
After we finished moving in, we did a bit more shopping. I got a cool coat from a little shop. Then we grabbed some lunch at an Italian/French restaurant, and headed back home to get ready for the meeting. Ralph and Paula finished packing, while Joel and I headed off to the Paris English West meeting.
The meeting was good, the talk was OK, given by a local brother. It was "Ruining of the Earth Brings Divine Retribution". Tons of warmth, and had a cool little bit in the talk where he engaged all the kids by naming them from the platform and listing off their favourite animals (he had asked them before the meeting). That got their attention... One of the kids couldn't believe he had said his name and kept staring for a good 5 mins, probably hoping he'd say his name again.
Watchtower study was done by George Temeng, who also did the baptism talk at the international (my favourite talk). Super cool brother... Very warm, fatherly, lots of depth, but didn't take over. Wonderful brother.
After the meeting, tons of people to talk to. I met one brother who, it turns out, works for the king of Qatar (at his house in Paris). Joel met a sister who is a lawyer, works in Luxembourg and takes the TGV back and forth from Paris. She studied to become a lawyer to help the branch, but they haven't called her yet. I met a brother (André-David) who was a missionary in Benin for 6 years, until health problems brought him and his wife (Harriet) back home. He had moved from Paris to England to learn English and apply to MTS. He attended MTS in Manchester, married an English sister and they were assigned to Benin. They actually served with James Shin, which is cool. While they were back home for their health problems, Harriet got pregnant! They now have a 4 1/2 year old girl named Victoria. As can be imagined, their life has been upside down for a while, moving back to Paris, health problems, new baby. So André-David said that he hasn't really kept in touch with any of his missionary friends. But he said he's slowly getting back in touch, so I am supposed to email him James' email address.
Met a bunch more folks, and one of them (Alexia) invited over to crash a going away party they were having at their house. A family was going back to Qatar after having visited Paris West for a few months or so. Alexia's dad, Thierry, works as a fashion designer for Karl Lagerfeld. I didn't understand the meaning of this at first, but Joel explained to me that Karl Lagerfeld is the head designer for Chanel and also owns Fendi. Thierry and his wife are super cool. Very warm and hospitable, easy going and love people. We did a thing where we all took turns telling stories, experiences, etc., and there were some amazing stories.
Thierry and his family are planning on moving to Qatar within the next month. They'll still keep their place back in Paris, but he is hoping to be able to get a house there that can serve as a place for the brothers to use for meetings, etc. Should be interesting... I forgot to get his email address to find out how things go when he gets there... I'll have to remember to get it on Tuesday at the meeting.
It was an awesome time at Thierry's place, I didn't want to leave, but the metro was about to run the last train. So we left at around 1:30 am and rushed to the metro station. We caught trains for the first two legs out of three, but for the third leg we just missed the last train... So we went upstairs, grabbed a couple Vèlib bikes and biked about 20 mins home. I was sooooo tired when we got home!
We had planned to go in service this morning, but we were too tired, we slept in. Now we're trying to think of what we are going to do with our last 2 1/2 days in France.... I sent an email to Virginie and Didier, hopefully they get back to us. Or maybe we'll go visit Bethel, or perhaps even visit that brother in Bordeaux.
We had to check out of our flat by 10 am, and we had arrangements to move into Chloé's place for the rest of the trip. A sister that lives nearby (Jeanine de la Rue) had a spare key, so we were going to meet up with her at the Anvers metro station, just nearby. So we woke up early-ish, got all packed up, grabbed a pastry walked over to the café right across the street from Anvers metro station (the same one where Joel & I bumped into Chloé that morning).
We met up with Jeanine and got the keys, then hailed a cab to go back to the flat and pick up our bags. As we were driving down Chloé's street, we see Ralph walking up towards us... I roll down the window and he shouts out "The key doesn't work"... We unload everything into the hallway of her building anyways and continue to futilely try to open the door, even trying other doors. That doesn't last too long. Joel and I decide to head back to our old flat (it was still before 10 am and we still had to return the keys) and use the phone there to call Chloé and/or Jeanine. Left a message with Chloé and call Jeanine. Jeanine picks up, Joel explains the situation to her, she offers to come over, all the way back and help us out... We felt terrible about taking her away from service, but we didn't really see another way. It took her 30 mins to get over, but in the meantime Chloé called back and explained that we had gone to the wrong door! The entrance to her flat was through the courtyard, but we had taken the first entrance! Frantically tried to call Jeanine before she got there, but it was too late. By the time I got back to Chloé's place, Jeanine was already there and they had already started moving the bags in. Kind of frustrating, since we had taken Jeanine away from service and made her travel 30 mins... But she was super nice about it and said she could go back home and do some telephone witnessing/search for English.
I don't know if I ever mentioned this, but Jeanine was interviewed at the Service Meeting when we visited Paris English East. She's been in English for 13 years, and is pioneering. An older sister, but seems to be a very hard worker, and one of the mothers in the congregation. That night she had also brought a Bible study with her, and the study had 2 very rambunctious kids. Still, Jeanine firmly kept the kids in their seats and helped the mom get as much as she could from the meeting. Joel also helped with one of the boys, which helped too.
After we finished moving in, we did a bit more shopping. I got a cool coat from a little shop. Then we grabbed some lunch at an Italian/French restaurant, and headed back home to get ready for the meeting. Ralph and Paula finished packing, while Joel and I headed off to the Paris English West meeting.
The meeting was good, the talk was OK, given by a local brother. It was "Ruining of the Earth Brings Divine Retribution". Tons of warmth, and had a cool little bit in the talk where he engaged all the kids by naming them from the platform and listing off their favourite animals (he had asked them before the meeting). That got their attention... One of the kids couldn't believe he had said his name and kept staring for a good 5 mins, probably hoping he'd say his name again.
Watchtower study was done by George Temeng, who also did the baptism talk at the international (my favourite talk). Super cool brother... Very warm, fatherly, lots of depth, but didn't take over. Wonderful brother.
After the meeting, tons of people to talk to. I met one brother who, it turns out, works for the king of Qatar (at his house in Paris). Joel met a sister who is a lawyer, works in Luxembourg and takes the TGV back and forth from Paris. She studied to become a lawyer to help the branch, but they haven't called her yet. I met a brother (André-David) who was a missionary in Benin for 6 years, until health problems brought him and his wife (Harriet) back home. He had moved from Paris to England to learn English and apply to MTS. He attended MTS in Manchester, married an English sister and they were assigned to Benin. They actually served with James Shin, which is cool. While they were back home for their health problems, Harriet got pregnant! They now have a 4 1/2 year old girl named Victoria. As can be imagined, their life has been upside down for a while, moving back to Paris, health problems, new baby. So André-David said that he hasn't really kept in touch with any of his missionary friends. But he said he's slowly getting back in touch, so I am supposed to email him James' email address.
Met a bunch more folks, and one of them (Alexia) invited over to crash a going away party they were having at their house. A family was going back to Qatar after having visited Paris West for a few months or so. Alexia's dad, Thierry, works as a fashion designer for Karl Lagerfeld. I didn't understand the meaning of this at first, but Joel explained to me that Karl Lagerfeld is the head designer for Chanel and also owns Fendi. Thierry and his wife are super cool. Very warm and hospitable, easy going and love people. We did a thing where we all took turns telling stories, experiences, etc., and there were some amazing stories.
Thierry and his family are planning on moving to Qatar within the next month. They'll still keep their place back in Paris, but he is hoping to be able to get a house there that can serve as a place for the brothers to use for meetings, etc. Should be interesting... I forgot to get his email address to find out how things go when he gets there... I'll have to remember to get it on Tuesday at the meeting.
It was an awesome time at Thierry's place, I didn't want to leave, but the metro was about to run the last train. So we left at around 1:30 am and rushed to the metro station. We caught trains for the first two legs out of three, but for the third leg we just missed the last train... So we went upstairs, grabbed a couple Vèlib bikes and biked about 20 mins home. I was sooooo tired when we got home!
We had planned to go in service this morning, but we were too tired, we slept in. Now we're trying to think of what we are going to do with our last 2 1/2 days in France.... I sent an email to Virginie and Didier, hopefully they get back to us. Or maybe we'll go visit Bethel, or perhaps even visit that brother in Bordeaux.
Friday, 7 August 2009
In which I regret not updating my blog more often this trip
I completely forgot that this blog even existed... I am now going to try to cram 4 days of events into one post.
On Tuesday we slept in a bit, then rented some bikes and went to rue Cler, a neat open air little market area. We shopped a bit and had lunch at Le Petit Cler, a cool little restaurant. It turned out that Glen stayed an extra night, since his flight was overbooked. They gave him 300€ (!) and a hotel room with all meals for the privilege of staying in Paris one more night. So we met up with him at about 5 and headed over to the Kingdom Hall. I thought I had already said this in a post, but I can't find it-- I absolutely detest public transportation. So I insisted that we take a taxi... It would havbe been so sweaty and gross in the metro...
The meeting was good, they have 3 MTS grads in the Paris East congregation and two of them had parts. Most of the congregation was away for vacation, along with the rest of Paris. Even the CBOE was gone... Apparently he needed a break after organizing a huge department during the Int'l Convention. Still, the congregation was lively and we had a good time meeting everyone before and after the meeting.
One cool thing that happened during the meeting-- I ran into Virginie and Didier Niel... The last time that I saw them was probably 7 or 8 years ago, in Toronto! I thought that I would have run into them during the convention, but I didn't, and I kinda forgot about the possibility of meeting them in Paris. So it was pretty cool to bump into them at the meeting. It was actually a coincidence, since they live about 30 minutes west of Paris and technically the Paris West congregation is closer. But they are planning (with the blessing of the elders) to join Paris East starting Sept 1, and they were visiting. Anyways, it was great to see them, and we hope to spend some time with them next week (they're busy with her dad this week).
After the meeting we took Chloé (a pioneer sister who was actually interviewed on the international convention program-- a celebrity!) home, since she lives just a few mins walk from our flat. We all went for dinner/dessert first, at a cruddy little restaurant close to our flat. That was it for Tuesday.
Wednesday we slept in late, wandered around a bit while trying to buy a cell phone (we didn't end up getting one), bought ingredients for boeuf bourgignon, then met up with Paula and Ralph at the Notre Dame at 3 pm for a bike tour. The bike tour was by Bike About Tours, and was amazing. It was about 4 hours long (with a little 20 min break for snacks in between), and he took us around some neat little spots, many of which are not any other tour route. Our tour guide was David, an ex-Canadian from Calgary who has lived in Paris for the past 3 years. He was really knowledgeable about the city and we were unable to determine if he is gay or not.
I ended up getting separated from the group right near the end of the tour, at the Louvre. We had passed through the original square and biked past a couple that were singing opera in one of the outdoor hallways (a man and a woman). It was honestly one of the most beautiful things I have ever heard in my life... The cover to their sheet music said "Mendelssohn", and I've been searching fruitlessly for the name of the piece on the internet. Anyways, we biked past, but it was so beautiful I just had to turn around and keep listening. By the time I turned around to look for the rest of the group, they were gone. I circled around the fountain to see if they would come back, but after about 15 mins I figured they weren't coming back, so I headed over to the Bike About office (where we had started) and found the rest of the group.
We got a sheet from Bike About with a bunch of restaurant selections, and we had actually gone to a couple already. We picked out another one and headed over; a Southwestern French restaurant called Chez Papa. It was fantastic... Very hearty food and everything tasted amazing. We bid Glen goodbye and then headed home.
Thursday was a packed day.... Joel and I woke up early and scoured the area for a café that was open. We found one and ordered a cappuccino and café au lait. We both took one sip from our drinks, looked at each other, and after about a 1.5 second hesistation, I said "Wanna find another place?" and before I finished asking Joel already said yes. It was honestly that bad. Unfortunately we still had to pay the full 8 €. We kept searching and it was getting late, but we finally found a place that had decent drinks and was open. As we were having our coffees, we heard "Hi!" from across the street-- it was Chloé, on her way to work! That turned out to be really fortuitous, as I will explain later. Anyways, we chatted for a bit and invited her to come with us to a jazz club that night, and she said yes and headed off to work.
We then headed off to the Louvre (by métro.. ugh) and made it there by 9:30ish. We did the tour using the brochure "Bible in Hand" which is produced by the France branch. That took a gruelling 4 hours... We broke it up into two parts, though, and left for lunch around 1 pm. During the tour we bumped into a bunch of Witnesses wearing badges. We met a cool family from Italy, and they hung out with us on the tour for a little bit.
For lunch we walked in the blazing Parisien wilderness for 40 years and finally made it to a restaurant suggested by Bike About, called Au Pere Louis or something like that. It was actually really good. After lunch we went to the Georges Pompidou museum (new art) and went up to the top floor, where they have a restaurant for cold drinks and to take in the awesome view. Then we went back to the Louvre for round 2. We got to see the Mona Lisa, and were just about done with the "Bible in Hand" tour when the Louvre personnel told us that it was closing! There was one really nice lady that let us quickly see 3 statues, even though she had just told us it was closed for the day. In the end, we managed to catch all but one exhibit... Not too shabby!
We were pretty tired out, but when we got home we decided to cook up the boeuf bourgignon. It was actually lots of fun-- Ralph filmed the whole thing and we did a mock cooking show, with Paula's help in the cooking department. It was getting later and later and we hadn't heard from Chloé yet, so we called her. Turned out she had misunderstood and was waiting for us at the jazz club, with her friend... Good thing it was close by. So she came over and met us after we had finished eating. But the dumb thing about Paris is this whole vacation thing. What is the deal??? Everyone leaves the city at the exact same time, so if you come July/August the city is DEAD. The jazz club didn't have any live music during vacation time... ARGH... So we just went out for coffee to a café that ended up having a piano dude. Not bad. At the end of the night he came over to us (we were sitting right next to him) and asked for 'money for the music'. I hate that... Anyways, before I get into rant mode...
Chloé's friend is named Kathleen. Cool sister, has travelled all over the world and just got back from living in Mali for a while. Works in a bakery, and we were supposed to visit her today, but we forgot... Oops.
So the reason it was fortuitous that we met Chloé Thursday morning-- after coffee Thursday night, we walked her home, since it was late and Montmatre isn't the nicest place at night. In the course of conversation, she offered Paula and Ralph her apartment while she was away for vacation.... Paula didn't want her to think that we had taken her out just to ingratiate ourselves to her and get her to offer us her apartment, so she said we'd call her, kind of implying no. But later on, we thought about it and realized it was the perfect solution to our problem... We had only booked our flat until Friday night, but Ralph & Paula leave Sunday morning. So we need a place to sleep Saturday night, and somewhere to put our stuff Saturday. So today we called Chloé and made arrangements to get her key from a nearby sister (Chloé was actually just about to get on the train to leave for the south of France!).
That brings us to today (Friday). Today we slept in and then went out to do the very last of our shopping. I did a ton of shopping and am now almost out of money :( I bought a bunch of shirts and ties and almost all the rest of my gifts for the folks back home. Joel and I were walking past a little store and saw a stack of licence plates in the window and stopped to check them out. The door to the store was closed, but there was a sign that said "Buzz", so we hit the buzzer. A man came out with a bit of a puzzled look on his face. The puzzled look didn't go away when we told him we wanted to buy a licence plate. He looked back at his wife who was peeking out from the back. We explained they were for gifts. I asked him how much for one, and he said 10 €. I asked him how much for two, and he said 15 €! Great deal! Especially since Miriam and Priscilla had said they bought just a little motorcycle plate for something like 15 €... I should let them know... We paid and left the store, but we ended up going back and buying 4 more for 30 €. I think that they're leftovers, though, since it seems like they're a little bit messed up. Anyways, who cares, they're great gifts either way.
We went up to Sacre Coeur to check out the gift shops, and Joel got a street artist to make him a cool drawing of a picture I took of the Space Invader graffiti. Looks awesome.
We came home and finished arranging things for tomorrow's move to Chloé's apartment and had supper. We're gonna have to pack up now (I have a bit more left to do) and leave at around 8:30 tomorrow. Hope I can wake up in time!
Good night!
On Tuesday we slept in a bit, then rented some bikes and went to rue Cler, a neat open air little market area. We shopped a bit and had lunch at Le Petit Cler, a cool little restaurant. It turned out that Glen stayed an extra night, since his flight was overbooked. They gave him 300€ (!) and a hotel room with all meals for the privilege of staying in Paris one more night. So we met up with him at about 5 and headed over to the Kingdom Hall. I thought I had already said this in a post, but I can't find it-- I absolutely detest public transportation. So I insisted that we take a taxi... It would havbe been so sweaty and gross in the metro...
The meeting was good, they have 3 MTS grads in the Paris East congregation and two of them had parts. Most of the congregation was away for vacation, along with the rest of Paris. Even the CBOE was gone... Apparently he needed a break after organizing a huge department during the Int'l Convention. Still, the congregation was lively and we had a good time meeting everyone before and after the meeting.
One cool thing that happened during the meeting-- I ran into Virginie and Didier Niel... The last time that I saw them was probably 7 or 8 years ago, in Toronto! I thought that I would have run into them during the convention, but I didn't, and I kinda forgot about the possibility of meeting them in Paris. So it was pretty cool to bump into them at the meeting. It was actually a coincidence, since they live about 30 minutes west of Paris and technically the Paris West congregation is closer. But they are planning (with the blessing of the elders) to join Paris East starting Sept 1, and they were visiting. Anyways, it was great to see them, and we hope to spend some time with them next week (they're busy with her dad this week).
After the meeting we took Chloé (a pioneer sister who was actually interviewed on the international convention program-- a celebrity!) home, since she lives just a few mins walk from our flat. We all went for dinner/dessert first, at a cruddy little restaurant close to our flat. That was it for Tuesday.
Wednesday we slept in late, wandered around a bit while trying to buy a cell phone (we didn't end up getting one), bought ingredients for boeuf bourgignon, then met up with Paula and Ralph at the Notre Dame at 3 pm for a bike tour. The bike tour was by Bike About Tours, and was amazing. It was about 4 hours long (with a little 20 min break for snacks in between), and he took us around some neat little spots, many of which are not any other tour route. Our tour guide was David, an ex-Canadian from Calgary who has lived in Paris for the past 3 years. He was really knowledgeable about the city and we were unable to determine if he is gay or not.
I ended up getting separated from the group right near the end of the tour, at the Louvre. We had passed through the original square and biked past a couple that were singing opera in one of the outdoor hallways (a man and a woman). It was honestly one of the most beautiful things I have ever heard in my life... The cover to their sheet music said "Mendelssohn", and I've been searching fruitlessly for the name of the piece on the internet. Anyways, we biked past, but it was so beautiful I just had to turn around and keep listening. By the time I turned around to look for the rest of the group, they were gone. I circled around the fountain to see if they would come back, but after about 15 mins I figured they weren't coming back, so I headed over to the Bike About office (where we had started) and found the rest of the group.
We got a sheet from Bike About with a bunch of restaurant selections, and we had actually gone to a couple already. We picked out another one and headed over; a Southwestern French restaurant called Chez Papa. It was fantastic... Very hearty food and everything tasted amazing. We bid Glen goodbye and then headed home.
Thursday was a packed day.... Joel and I woke up early and scoured the area for a café that was open. We found one and ordered a cappuccino and café au lait. We both took one sip from our drinks, looked at each other, and after about a 1.5 second hesistation, I said "Wanna find another place?" and before I finished asking Joel already said yes. It was honestly that bad. Unfortunately we still had to pay the full 8 €. We kept searching and it was getting late, but we finally found a place that had decent drinks and was open. As we were having our coffees, we heard "Hi!" from across the street-- it was Chloé, on her way to work! That turned out to be really fortuitous, as I will explain later. Anyways, we chatted for a bit and invited her to come with us to a jazz club that night, and she said yes and headed off to work.
We then headed off to the Louvre (by métro.. ugh) and made it there by 9:30ish. We did the tour using the brochure "Bible in Hand" which is produced by the France branch. That took a gruelling 4 hours... We broke it up into two parts, though, and left for lunch around 1 pm. During the tour we bumped into a bunch of Witnesses wearing badges. We met a cool family from Italy, and they hung out with us on the tour for a little bit.
For lunch we walked in the blazing Parisien wilderness for 40 years and finally made it to a restaurant suggested by Bike About, called Au Pere Louis or something like that. It was actually really good. After lunch we went to the Georges Pompidou museum (new art) and went up to the top floor, where they have a restaurant for cold drinks and to take in the awesome view. Then we went back to the Louvre for round 2. We got to see the Mona Lisa, and were just about done with the "Bible in Hand" tour when the Louvre personnel told us that it was closing! There was one really nice lady that let us quickly see 3 statues, even though she had just told us it was closed for the day. In the end, we managed to catch all but one exhibit... Not too shabby!
We were pretty tired out, but when we got home we decided to cook up the boeuf bourgignon. It was actually lots of fun-- Ralph filmed the whole thing and we did a mock cooking show, with Paula's help in the cooking department. It was getting later and later and we hadn't heard from Chloé yet, so we called her. Turned out she had misunderstood and was waiting for us at the jazz club, with her friend... Good thing it was close by. So she came over and met us after we had finished eating. But the dumb thing about Paris is this whole vacation thing. What is the deal??? Everyone leaves the city at the exact same time, so if you come July/August the city is DEAD. The jazz club didn't have any live music during vacation time... ARGH... So we just went out for coffee to a café that ended up having a piano dude. Not bad. At the end of the night he came over to us (we were sitting right next to him) and asked for 'money for the music'. I hate that... Anyways, before I get into rant mode...
Chloé's friend is named Kathleen. Cool sister, has travelled all over the world and just got back from living in Mali for a while. Works in a bakery, and we were supposed to visit her today, but we forgot... Oops.
So the reason it was fortuitous that we met Chloé Thursday morning-- after coffee Thursday night, we walked her home, since it was late and Montmatre isn't the nicest place at night. In the course of conversation, she offered Paula and Ralph her apartment while she was away for vacation.... Paula didn't want her to think that we had taken her out just to ingratiate ourselves to her and get her to offer us her apartment, so she said we'd call her, kind of implying no. But later on, we thought about it and realized it was the perfect solution to our problem... We had only booked our flat until Friday night, but Ralph & Paula leave Sunday morning. So we need a place to sleep Saturday night, and somewhere to put our stuff Saturday. So today we called Chloé and made arrangements to get her key from a nearby sister (Chloé was actually just about to get on the train to leave for the south of France!).
That brings us to today (Friday). Today we slept in and then went out to do the very last of our shopping. I did a ton of shopping and am now almost out of money :( I bought a bunch of shirts and ties and almost all the rest of my gifts for the folks back home. Joel and I were walking past a little store and saw a stack of licence plates in the window and stopped to check them out. The door to the store was closed, but there was a sign that said "Buzz", so we hit the buzzer. A man came out with a bit of a puzzled look on his face. The puzzled look didn't go away when we told him we wanted to buy a licence plate. He looked back at his wife who was peeking out from the back. We explained they were for gifts. I asked him how much for one, and he said 10 €. I asked him how much for two, and he said 15 €! Great deal! Especially since Miriam and Priscilla had said they bought just a little motorcycle plate for something like 15 €... I should let them know... We paid and left the store, but we ended up going back and buying 4 more for 30 €. I think that they're leftovers, though, since it seems like they're a little bit messed up. Anyways, who cares, they're great gifts either way.
We went up to Sacre Coeur to check out the gift shops, and Joel got a street artist to make him a cool drawing of a picture I took of the Space Invader graffiti. Looks awesome.
We came home and finished arranging things for tomorrow's move to Chloé's apartment and had supper. We're gonna have to pack up now (I have a bit more left to do) and leave at around 8:30 tomorrow. Hope I can wake up in time!
Good night!
Monday, 3 August 2009
Vacation part deux
Today got off to a rough start and didn't really pick up at any point. I guess I am still a little down about the convention being over.
So I stayed up super late last night and was planning on waking up early to see my mom off to the airport. But the either alarm clock didn't go off or I didn't hear it, and so she had already left... :(
Then we had our last breakfast at the hotel, said goodbye to everyone there and rushed to get our bags all packed. Oh, I have to remember the names of the sisters that know Vic Shields.... Dang... I forgot and don't think I'll ever remember. Oops. One of the sisters had her hair dyed red. If I ever give this link out to anyone and you were part of the Canadian delegation and you remember who I am talking about, let me know.
After we threw our bags into the taxi, Ralph and Paula sped off to our flat in the 18eme arrondissement, since they were late to meet up with the proprietor, and we still had to check out. Joel and I followed by metro.
The others don't really understand why, but I have a real hatred for the metro. OK, maybe not a hatred, but an intense aversion. I guess it stems from years of living in the suburbs, driving a car and not needing to use public transit. Plus extreme laziness. This intense aversion was not in any way lessened by this last trip on the metro. At the last stop we had to climb probably 8 flights of stairs to get out. I was thankful that we had sent our luggage ahead with Ralph & Paula instead of carrying it ourselves... That would have been murderous... The trip would have met a tragic end and my remains would have had to have been couriered back to Canada. Ralph & Paula, though, were not so thankful about having transported our luggage....
When the taxi dropped them off at the flat, the street was temporarily closed and the driver had to drop them off a ways off from the front door. So Ralph had to lug all the bags down the street, to the door. Then up two flights of stairs. Good thing he is accustomed to manual labour, unlike a certain accountant I know.
Joel & I finally arrived at the flat, and all 4 of us headed out to roam. We stopped at the bakery directly across the street and picked up some absolutely amazing pastries... Soooo good!!! Next we headed over to the Champion to do some grocery shopping. 90 euros later we came home and had a fully stocked fridge. Later on in the afternoon, Joe & Lynette Connell came over and Paula made an awesome green bean salad with lemon and onion, beets and camembert, which went along marvelously with the Bordeaux the proprietor had left for us.
Then Glen called and was going to metro it over, but instead I biked over and we biked back together. Lots of really sharp looking clothes. Biking through Paris was quite an experience in itself... After finally figuring out how to rent a bicycle, I hopped on and started riding-- and suddenly realized I had no idea where I was supposed to ride. It took a while, but I figured it out and there were no near death experiences, which is always a good thing. Along the way back Glen and I stopped at Vercourt, Glen's favourite menswear shop.
We made it back to the flat around 7:30 pm, and Joel was pacing outside.... I knew that was a bad sign... Turned out that I had accidentally taken both sets of keys and so the gang had to wait inside the flat the whole time I was gone... I felt like a heel, and the gang was perturbed, but Christian love prevailed eventually, but not after some smarmy remarks. This was definitely not one of the high points of the day.
We then met up with Myriam and Priscilla, two extremely short sisters from St Hubert, QC. But what they lack in height they make up for in niceness (I am probably going to send them the link to this blog, so I have to pretend I liked them). Joel had planned to take them to a chocolatier, but when we got there, we found the store was closed for the summer... So instead we toured around the area, went to the Sacre Coeur church, listened to some really awful French busker, ate some pretty good repes and perused the souvenir shops, then finished off with some coffee and dessert.
Afterwards we came home and broke into some fine Cognac. I ironed a million shirts and tried calling my mom, but she didn't answer (probably sleeping).
Well, that is basically our day, blow by tedious blow. Tomorrow is a sleep in day, and meeting in the evening.
I think I am beginning to fall in love with Paris... It is a very enchanting city with many faces... Even though no one is really around (everyone leaves town for holidays in August), there is still a really cool vibe to the city; tons of history and character... If life was not so complicated, I would easily pack up and find me a little flat in the 18eme.
So I stayed up super late last night and was planning on waking up early to see my mom off to the airport. But the either alarm clock didn't go off or I didn't hear it, and so she had already left... :(
Then we had our last breakfast at the hotel, said goodbye to everyone there and rushed to get our bags all packed. Oh, I have to remember the names of the sisters that know Vic Shields.... Dang... I forgot and don't think I'll ever remember. Oops. One of the sisters had her hair dyed red. If I ever give this link out to anyone and you were part of the Canadian delegation and you remember who I am talking about, let me know.
After we threw our bags into the taxi, Ralph and Paula sped off to our flat in the 18eme arrondissement, since they were late to meet up with the proprietor, and we still had to check out. Joel and I followed by metro.
The others don't really understand why, but I have a real hatred for the metro. OK, maybe not a hatred, but an intense aversion. I guess it stems from years of living in the suburbs, driving a car and not needing to use public transit. Plus extreme laziness. This intense aversion was not in any way lessened by this last trip on the metro. At the last stop we had to climb probably 8 flights of stairs to get out. I was thankful that we had sent our luggage ahead with Ralph & Paula instead of carrying it ourselves... That would have been murderous... The trip would have met a tragic end and my remains would have had to have been couriered back to Canada. Ralph & Paula, though, were not so thankful about having transported our luggage....
When the taxi dropped them off at the flat, the street was temporarily closed and the driver had to drop them off a ways off from the front door. So Ralph had to lug all the bags down the street, to the door. Then up two flights of stairs. Good thing he is accustomed to manual labour, unlike a certain accountant I know.
Joel & I finally arrived at the flat, and all 4 of us headed out to roam. We stopped at the bakery directly across the street and picked up some absolutely amazing pastries... Soooo good!!! Next we headed over to the Champion to do some grocery shopping. 90 euros later we came home and had a fully stocked fridge. Later on in the afternoon, Joe & Lynette Connell came over and Paula made an awesome green bean salad with lemon and onion, beets and camembert, which went along marvelously with the Bordeaux the proprietor had left for us.
Then Glen called and was going to metro it over, but instead I biked over and we biked back together. Lots of really sharp looking clothes. Biking through Paris was quite an experience in itself... After finally figuring out how to rent a bicycle, I hopped on and started riding-- and suddenly realized I had no idea where I was supposed to ride. It took a while, but I figured it out and there were no near death experiences, which is always a good thing. Along the way back Glen and I stopped at Vercourt, Glen's favourite menswear shop.
We made it back to the flat around 7:30 pm, and Joel was pacing outside.... I knew that was a bad sign... Turned out that I had accidentally taken both sets of keys and so the gang had to wait inside the flat the whole time I was gone... I felt like a heel, and the gang was perturbed, but Christian love prevailed eventually, but not after some smarmy remarks. This was definitely not one of the high points of the day.
We then met up with Myriam and Priscilla, two extremely short sisters from St Hubert, QC. But what they lack in height they make up for in niceness (I am probably going to send them the link to this blog, so I have to pretend I liked them). Joel had planned to take them to a chocolatier, but when we got there, we found the store was closed for the summer... So instead we toured around the area, went to the Sacre Coeur church, listened to some really awful French busker, ate some pretty good repes and perused the souvenir shops, then finished off with some coffee and dessert.
Afterwards we came home and broke into some fine Cognac. I ironed a million shirts and tried calling my mom, but she didn't answer (probably sleeping).
Well, that is basically our day, blow by tedious blow. Tomorrow is a sleep in day, and meeting in the evening.
I think I am beginning to fall in love with Paris... It is a very enchanting city with many faces... Even though no one is really around (everyone leaves town for holidays in August), there is still a really cool vibe to the city; tons of history and character... If life was not so complicated, I would easily pack up and find me a little flat in the 18eme.
Sunday, 2 August 2009
Climax, followed by anticlimax
Wow... What a day!!! It was kind of a slow buildup for me, but it all came to a magnificent climax today. Followed by an equivalent anticlimax. More on that later.
First off, the good stuff: Tons of convention highlights... Lunch time talk by Brother Lett, on 'There Are More With Us Than There Are With Them'. Super down to earth and encouraging. Very lovable brother. Then, the drama. To be honest, not as well acted as back home, but still quite powerful. I think I might have actually cried more this time. Then the final address by Brother Lett.... He sure knows how to close off a convention! At the close of the program, we sang song 212 first, then 129 (the scheduled last song). That was pretty cool, to sing 2 songs back to back. That gave Brother Lett enough time to hoof it over from the main hall to the English hall to give the final prayer. Kept it relatively short, which was interesting. After the prayer, we actually sang 5 more songs! 29, 42, 127, 171 and 195. One of the coolest experiences in my life... Joel, Glen, Jeremy Jenewein and I all belted them the last few together, and even did the call and answer bit for song 195. Tons of fun!!!
Then it was all over.... We hung around for a bit, trying to soak it all in. But finally it was time to go home. We missed all but the last bus back... They were kind of annoyed at having to wait for latecomers, especially the driver, but everyone was cool by the time we hit the road. Met a bunch from Bonnyville, AB, which was unexpected. I have to remember to deliver hellos to Debbie and Paula...
We made it home, and met up with our gang plus the Jeneweins and Colemans (missionaries from Cotonou, Benin, actually the same missionary home as James Shin). We hit up a cool shawarma stand in the Latin District and then made our way over to the Eiffel Tower to see if we could make it for the Kingdom Melodies sing-along. Met a ton of Witnesses along the way. I'm sure that others were wondering who the heck we were, so many waving and greeting each other seemingly at random on the streets. We bumped into a man along the way (I think the conversation started because of our badges). His name was Mark, originally from South Africa but now living in London and in Paris for a weekend trip. He's Jewish and had a bunch of questions for us about Jehovah's Witnesses. We all kinda took turns explaining stuff to him and he seemed to appreciate it, though it seemed like maybe it was all a bit much for him. In any case, at the end when he was leaving he told Glen that he was really happy that he had met us and that he could feel the love among us. So it seems that our conduct and demeanour won out over any sermon any of us gave him.
Finally we arrived at the Eiffel Tower, probably around 11 pm. There was still quite a crowd there, in the park, kind of pushed off to the side. It was kind of a weird vibe... This is where the anticlimax part comes in. Just the fact that we were all standing in the dark, there were worldly people wandering in and out of the crowd, some with beers in hand, some of the brothers and sisters were in totally casual clothes... It felt like a strange picnic party. I felt like I really wished that I could get into it, but I just couldn't. Plus it was getting super late... Thankfully someone had the good sense to shut down the concert at around midnight, or else the French would really have thought we're fanatics... As it was, the crowd probably lingered long past 1 am. Just didn't seem like a fitting end to a super spiritual day where we had been urged to keep our senses.... I dunno.
In any case, the postives of the day far outweighed the one negative. It has been an amazing trip so far, and I'm thankful that I got to attend. What a privilege to be a delegate, representing the brothers from Canada! Everyone was so wonderful and I met some cool folks and got some cool swag (aka "booty" (in the Biblical sense)). I am definitely going to be saving up for the next international convention. I honestly can't see how I could skip it after having had such an experience this time.
I told Joel today that I wish we had done our touring first, then gone to the convention last. The rest of our trip is really going to pale in comparison to the convention. But, we'll be relaxing, and associating with the brothers in Paris, so it's not like it will be in any way unenjoyable.
Tomorrow (actually I am writing this at 3 am Monday morning) we wake up at 6 am to see my mom, Sneha, Marita and Rachel off. Then we need to check out by 10 am and move to our flat in the non-gay 18th district of Paris.
Good night!
First off, the good stuff: Tons of convention highlights... Lunch time talk by Brother Lett, on 'There Are More With Us Than There Are With Them'. Super down to earth and encouraging. Very lovable brother. Then, the drama. To be honest, not as well acted as back home, but still quite powerful. I think I might have actually cried more this time. Then the final address by Brother Lett.... He sure knows how to close off a convention! At the close of the program, we sang song 212 first, then 129 (the scheduled last song). That was pretty cool, to sing 2 songs back to back. That gave Brother Lett enough time to hoof it over from the main hall to the English hall to give the final prayer. Kept it relatively short, which was interesting. After the prayer, we actually sang 5 more songs! 29, 42, 127, 171 and 195. One of the coolest experiences in my life... Joel, Glen, Jeremy Jenewein and I all belted them the last few together, and even did the call and answer bit for song 195. Tons of fun!!!
Then it was all over.... We hung around for a bit, trying to soak it all in. But finally it was time to go home. We missed all but the last bus back... They were kind of annoyed at having to wait for latecomers, especially the driver, but everyone was cool by the time we hit the road. Met a bunch from Bonnyville, AB, which was unexpected. I have to remember to deliver hellos to Debbie and Paula...
We made it home, and met up with our gang plus the Jeneweins and Colemans (missionaries from Cotonou, Benin, actually the same missionary home as James Shin). We hit up a cool shawarma stand in the Latin District and then made our way over to the Eiffel Tower to see if we could make it for the Kingdom Melodies sing-along. Met a ton of Witnesses along the way. I'm sure that others were wondering who the heck we were, so many waving and greeting each other seemingly at random on the streets. We bumped into a man along the way (I think the conversation started because of our badges). His name was Mark, originally from South Africa but now living in London and in Paris for a weekend trip. He's Jewish and had a bunch of questions for us about Jehovah's Witnesses. We all kinda took turns explaining stuff to him and he seemed to appreciate it, though it seemed like maybe it was all a bit much for him. In any case, at the end when he was leaving he told Glen that he was really happy that he had met us and that he could feel the love among us. So it seems that our conduct and demeanour won out over any sermon any of us gave him.
Finally we arrived at the Eiffel Tower, probably around 11 pm. There was still quite a crowd there, in the park, kind of pushed off to the side. It was kind of a weird vibe... This is where the anticlimax part comes in. Just the fact that we were all standing in the dark, there were worldly people wandering in and out of the crowd, some with beers in hand, some of the brothers and sisters were in totally casual clothes... It felt like a strange picnic party. I felt like I really wished that I could get into it, but I just couldn't. Plus it was getting super late... Thankfully someone had the good sense to shut down the concert at around midnight, or else the French would really have thought we're fanatics... As it was, the crowd probably lingered long past 1 am. Just didn't seem like a fitting end to a super spiritual day where we had been urged to keep our senses.... I dunno.
In any case, the postives of the day far outweighed the one negative. It has been an amazing trip so far, and I'm thankful that I got to attend. What a privilege to be a delegate, representing the brothers from Canada! Everyone was so wonderful and I met some cool folks and got some cool swag (aka "booty" (in the Biblical sense)). I am definitely going to be saving up for the next international convention. I honestly can't see how I could skip it after having had such an experience this time.
I told Joel today that I wish we had done our touring first, then gone to the convention last. The rest of our trip is really going to pale in comparison to the convention. But, we'll be relaxing, and associating with the brothers in Paris, so it's not like it will be in any way unenjoyable.
Tomorrow (actually I am writing this at 3 am Monday morning) we wake up at 6 am to see my mom, Sneha, Marita and Rachel off. Then we need to check out by 10 am and move to our flat in the non-gay 18th district of Paris.
Good night!
Saturday, 1 August 2009
In which I lament the singing abilities of North Americans
Today was the Saturday of the international convention. It was a pretty cool day, baptism talk was amazing! Not everyone liked it, but I thought it was superb. An African (?) brother gave it, he's in the Paris English congregation, so maybe we might meet him when we go to the Paris English East meeting on Tuesday. He was very clear and it was apparent that for him the truth is very simple... I loved that. No complicated or obscure teachings, he stressed faithfulness and giving Jehovah our best.
Another highlight for me today was after the session; a group of South African brothers and sisters got together and sang a few Kingdom songs acapella. They have some cool harmonies and really get into the singing... I got a couple of videos of it. The last song we all joined in, that was pretty cool!
I've met probably hundreds of people... It has been really amazing, so different from our usual district conventions... I wish we could bring some of the international convention flavour to our district conventions... Not feeling awkward or embarrassed to walk up to people and introduce yourself. Maybe I'll try that next time in Kitchener!
The international convention part of the trip is coming to a close, and I am starting to feel sad that it will so soon all be over... It's been a great trip so far, and I know for sure I'll be signed up for the next international, if there is one. We met a family from California (Glen knows them from before) and the mom has a special savings account set up just for international conventions.... Great idea!
Almost time for supper... I think I have more stuff to say, but can't remember right now.... I'm going to upload my pictures to Picasa... There should be some cool videos there, too, of the South African brothers singing.
Another highlight for me today was after the session; a group of South African brothers and sisters got together and sang a few Kingdom songs acapella. They have some cool harmonies and really get into the singing... I got a couple of videos of it. The last song we all joined in, that was pretty cool!
I've met probably hundreds of people... It has been really amazing, so different from our usual district conventions... I wish we could bring some of the international convention flavour to our district conventions... Not feeling awkward or embarrassed to walk up to people and introduce yourself. Maybe I'll try that next time in Kitchener!
The international convention part of the trip is coming to a close, and I am starting to feel sad that it will so soon all be over... It's been a great trip so far, and I know for sure I'll be signed up for the next international, if there is one. We met a family from California (Glen knows them from before) and the mom has a special savings account set up just for international conventions.... Great idea!
Almost time for supper... I think I have more stuff to say, but can't remember right now.... I'm going to upload my pictures to Picasa... There should be some cool videos there, too, of the South African brothers singing.
Tuesday, 28 July 2009
Day 1... or is it 2
The unbridled and outrageous humour will now begin to be unleashed on the unsuspecting masses dwelling within the internet.
And yes, I will be reading aloud every word as I type it.
Just to warn any eventual readers: This blog was never meant to be read by anyone except myself. Therefore, I am the intended audience, and I will attempt to be as tedious and boring as possible in every post, just to discourage anyone that may possibly stumble upon my blog from reading any further. This is simply to help me remember my trip, and is not in any way designed to entertain or even inform anyone else. You have been duly warned!
Today was day 2, I believe. Joel just said it is Day 1.
Today we landed in Paris, faced innumerable lineups (aka queues) and ate cat food (aka steak tartare).
So far we have met a bunch of people, and many whom we know from before and have not seen for ages. At supper I ran into Marisa Smith, who is now 23 and married.... I still have her locked in my memory as a precocious 10 year old.... Makes me feel old....
We went for a coffee around lunch time and some Frenchie bartender was making rude gestures after he saw our badges. What a loser. I invited him to the convention but I think he might have misunderstood me and thought that I was inviting him to hang out with us.
Found a nice little café just a block or so down the street; probably will become regulars there by the end of the week.
Our hotel is pretty nice, except the elevators are slooooooow.... And it's going to be a rush every day to get up and down before and after the sessions.... Well, what can you do. At least we didn't have to swim through crocodile infested waters to get here. Just nearly dying trying to cross the street through a traffic circle.
Well, that is it for today. Uploaded my pictures to Picasa, in case anyone wants to see them. But since no one even knows this blog exists, that is a pretty pointless comment.
P.S. Here is the requisite photo shot out the hotel room window.
And yes, I will be reading aloud every word as I type it.
Just to warn any eventual readers: This blog was never meant to be read by anyone except myself. Therefore, I am the intended audience, and I will attempt to be as tedious and boring as possible in every post, just to discourage anyone that may possibly stumble upon my blog from reading any further. This is simply to help me remember my trip, and is not in any way designed to entertain or even inform anyone else. You have been duly warned!
Today was day 2, I believe. Joel just said it is Day 1.
Today we landed in Paris, faced innumerable lineups (aka queues) and ate cat food (aka steak tartare).
So far we have met a bunch of people, and many whom we know from before and have not seen for ages. At supper I ran into Marisa Smith, who is now 23 and married.... I still have her locked in my memory as a precocious 10 year old.... Makes me feel old....
We went for a coffee around lunch time and some Frenchie bartender was making rude gestures after he saw our badges. What a loser. I invited him to the convention but I think he might have misunderstood me and thought that I was inviting him to hang out with us.
Found a nice little café just a block or so down the street; probably will become regulars there by the end of the week.
Our hotel is pretty nice, except the elevators are slooooooow.... And it's going to be a rush every day to get up and down before and after the sessions.... Well, what can you do. At least we didn't have to swim through crocodile infested waters to get here. Just nearly dying trying to cross the street through a traffic circle.
Well, that is it for today. Uploaded my pictures to Picasa, in case anyone wants to see them. But since no one even knows this blog exists, that is a pretty pointless comment.
P.S. Here is the requisite photo shot out the hotel room window.
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