I wanted to finish telling the story of how this all began so if you haven't read, skip down just one post and catch up. I think this has been an incredible journey thus far and it has barely started so I am beyond excited about what this next year of my life will be like and what the Lord has in store for me.
On my birthday, March 21, Virginie and Christophe took me over to their friends house, who was looking for an au pair, to introduce me. They live about a five minute drive and a ten minute walk from Virginie and Christophe, and I was introduced to the Fraysse's: Vincent, Rachel, Antoine, and Clemence. We spent about two hours at their house that morning talking about various subjects and getting to know one another as the children ran around the house and played. I was given a tour of the house and shown the extra bedroom that would be mine if I were to come live with them and they told me what my life would be like if I were to come be their au pair. Throughout the rest of my time in Paris I was able to meet a few more families and explore a bit more, and was definitely overwhelmed by the amount of information and the large decisions I would soon have to make. Earlier in the week I had met a guy named Andrew who is from the States and was living and working with one of the missionary families in Paris and I had kept in touch with him once we had both gotten back to Paris. He offered to to take me to church on Sunday to show me what a Christian church was like there and also introduce me to some people. I met up with Andrew on Sunday night to attend the Hillsong Church of Paris! What an incredible experience and opportunity to see the work of the Lord in such a dark place. Those people are on fire for the Lord and I cannot wait to get back and make relationships with these people! After we attended church Andrew introduced me to a few friends and then invited them to come out to dinner with us and celebrate as it was my 23rd birthday! It was such a great way to spend a birthday with people I'd never met and barely knew! The rest of my time in Paris flew by as I spent my time being a tourist.
-----This is side information but can be found a bit humorous depending on who you are :: The day before I was to leave to go meet up with the rest of my group in Switzerland (which is where we flew into and where we were going to fly out of), I was looking at train tickets on SCNF website (kind of like Southwest, but a train) and the website said very prominently in French, "going on strike from BLANK to BLANK" which covered the day I needed to travel and I HAD to be in Switzerland to catch my flight or I'd be stuck. How awesome! I then started to prepare myself for the worst day ever of trying to not only figure out what to do in the event of my train going on strike, but also do it in a foreign country where I don't understand the language, written or spoken! So the day comes where I am dropped off at the train station to take the ride to the major train station and my "metro" breaks down and everyone has to exit! For 20 minutes we stand waiting for another metro to come and pick us up. Sweet way to start off a long and most like emotionally exhausting day. So I make it to the train station and I had not printed out my train ticket for whatever reason and so I make my way to the kiosks that are all over the place and you have to insert your credit card for it to find your pass. Well, apparently my credit card has been shut off because I had not had the chance to call the United States BOA credit agency and let them know that my plane had been cancelled and to allow me to use my credit card for a few more days! Oops! (Mistake that will never be repeated) BUT the trains are on strike today so the lines to be helped are very long and there are a lot of angry French and other nationalities because they were unaware of the strike on this day. So I decide to go wait patiently in a line to try and find someone who speaks English to help me, 45 minutes later I am at the front of a line where a young French man who speaks English tries to help me with the kiosk with no such luck and then directs me to another line where they could look up my ticket and print me off one. Tick, tock, tick, tock. I had prepared myself for this, but it doesn't mean that I was not anxious and internally freaking out. AHHHHHHH!!!! I walk over to the line I was told to wait in next and it is forever long, and have I ever mentioned how the French people are not very fast in any way? At this point I had 30 minutes before my train was to depart and I had no ticket and I was in a line behind about 20 people who all had different issues that were taking forever to resolve. I wait. I wait. I wait. After waiting in line for what seemed like forever and after waking up my parents at 4am to tell them my credit card had been shut off (as if they could do anything to help that), I arrive at the counter of a lady who asks for my information, looks up my train ticket, looks at her watch and then gives me a "poor you" face, as my train had left FIVE minutes before! Did I mention the train station was on strike? If it had not been on strike I could have possibly caught the next train a half hour or an hour later but with the strike, there are not as many trains leaving or arriving at the station therefore its a FOUR hour delay before the next train is leaving to Switzerland. My, has the Lord been teaching me patience! The lady takes pitty on me and prints me out of a new ticket to my new scheduled train without charging me anything and I leave to go figure out what am I possibly going to do for the next four hours in a freezing cold, very loud train station.
Fast forward four hours later and I board my train and sit down to relax for the first time this day. The train ride is a few hours long meaning I have a few hours of down time before I arrive in Switzerlandk, only to have to figure out what to do from there!
Once I arrive in Switzerland, I knew I had to get myself from the train station to the hotel that my group was staying at that evening. I had talked to the group leader while I was at the train station and she had given me some address to some hotel and it was on me to figure out what all the scribble meant and to find a way of getting there! Woo hoo!!! Oh, and Switzerland is NOT on the Euro for those of you who are wondering. Sweet! My currency does not work there! The sun is starting to set at this point and I know I have to make a decision before too long or I"ll be stuck in nowheres ville Switzerland without dinner and without knowing where I am. After walking around for a while I finally decided on a place to eat (McDonalds) and I FINALLY decide I"m just going to get a taxi to the hotel. I jump into a taxi, PRAY that GOd would take care of me and watch over me, and hope that the taxi driver can get me to the correct hotel because its dark and late and I have no clue where I am. Oh, and we had to stop off at an ATM so I could get out Suisse Francs for me to pay him in his currency, ugh! He made small talk with me and by the end of the taxi ride had asked me to be his American Pen Pal and if he could come visit me when he's in Texas. I'm going to say, thanks, but no thanks! After a while of driving, we finally pulled up at some creepy hotel (proabably wasn't creepy but it was late and I had no idea where I was!!!) and I paid the taxi driver, sans my contact information, and jump out with my huge hot pink luggage and run inside the lobby!
THANKFULLY it was the correct hotel and my group was only 20 minutes behind me. We reunite and I could not tell you how thankful I was to see that group of people after what seemed like a VERY LONG AND VERY STRESSFUL day of strikes, lack of understanding multiple languages, broken down metros, lots of waiting and lots of Praying!
The Lord has definitely taken care of me and watched over me each step of the way! A day like that would have driven me insane, to the point of a breakdown, had it not been for Him, holding me together and reminding me He's taking care of me! That day was funny pretty soon after it happened, and I was reminded that these could be quite common days if I move to France, as they go on strike pretty frequently!!! haha. Oh, the French!!!
So this story is not even close to being over so I will try and continue to catch everyone up to where I am before I leave for my trip! And there is so much more to talk about, like my moving party that was beyond amazing and the packing experience which is more stressful at times than studying for test in a subject I could care less about! ahhh!
Cheers to almost being done with this waiting period and feeling condident in going where I am going to do what I have been called to do!!!! LOVE!!!
