Quoi de neuf?

So....it's already been three weeks since I left Salt Lake. Wow, that went by fast. So here's a quick recap of what I've been up to. I took a red-eye flight from SLC to JFK airport in New York, where I had a twelve hour layover. Luckily my friend Kim, who lives in Connecticut, was able to meet up with me in New York. I hadn't seen her since last fall when she was doing an internship in Salt Lake. We went to Times Square and to several other places, which really helped pass the time until my flight. From New York I flew to Dublin, and then from Dublin to Paris.

My plane was an hour and a half late getting into Paris, but luckily Olivia waited for me. I was worried that it would be awkward being around her again after a year of only talking on the phone, but things worked out better than I could have hoped. We picked up right where we had left off a year ago, comfortable and at ease with one another. Our first three hours together again were spent in the Paris metro lugging around my three fifty-pound suitcases. For just under two weeks we stayed at Olivia's dad's house in St. Germain en Laye, a suburb about 40 minutes northwest of Paris. We went to most of the places you think of when you think of Paris: the Louvre, Musee d'Orsay, the Tuilleries, Montmartre, etc. We didn't, however, go the the Eiffel Tower. We also went to a chateau in Normandy, as well as the famous chateau in Versailles. The weekend of the 14th (Bastille Day) the two MTW missionary interns for this summer came up to Paris and we hung out with them for a few days.

At Olivia's dad's house we spent a lot of time cooking, cleaning, eating, and playing with her two cats, Cleo and Bibi. Bibi is hands down the strangest cat I've ever met. Imagine a cat, a pig, and a pirate all mixed together and you can begin to get a picture of Bibi. He's a 14 year old Siamese cat who is missing several teeth, has the worst breath you've ever smelled, and has a penchant for sneezing in your face and scratching your head at one o'clock in the morning.

We headed back to Marseille last Wednesday. We were actually going to catch a train back last Tuesday night, but we missed the train by 20 minutes because traffic was really backed up. As an aside, I just want to say that traffic in Paris is INSANE!!!! We drove through the famous roundabout that goes around l'Arc de Triomphe and it was unlike anything I had ever experienced in a motor vehicle. The roundabout must be about 5 or 6 lanes wide, although it's hard to guage the exact width since THERE ARE NO LINES ON THE ROADS. None. What's more, there were cars going in about every direction imaginable, with motorbikes zipping in between them all. It's a total free-for-all. Craziness.

So I've been back in Marseille for about a week now. Olivia returned to work today, which afforded me the time to finally sit down and post on my blog. That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it. It's been good to see some old faces from last year. My friend Jacky picked us up from the train station, and we had lunch at the Pastor, Joel's house on Sunday. Throughout the summer I'll be staying at different people's houses from the church.

So there's a brief sketch of what I've been up to. I know it's kind of dry, but hey, it takes a long time for me to write these things and you've got to start somewhere, right? I wish I could post some pictures, but unfortunately in the transition from Paris to Marseille I misplaced the cable that connects my camera to the computer. I might be able to post some from Olivia's camera, but most of the good pictures are on mine.

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