les aventures continuent

As Lucie kindly reminded me yesterday, most blogs usually have more than one post... so here I go!

After finishing up an exhausting but rewarding week of English Club, fellow intern Matt and I took the bus to Aix-en-Provence on Saturday to meet up with some Vandy friends and see my future home for the upcoming fall semester. I absolutely loved the charming little city that is Aix. From the grungy, more sketchy metro stop in Marseille, it was incredibly refreshing to step off the bus and into Aix. We walked into town and met up with Nathan P. who was awesome and volunteered to be our tour guide and entertainer for the day. We did what most people seem to do in that city--walk around, eat, listen to music, and above all "chill". It definitely has a different feel than the city of Marseille: quieter, smaller, quainter, and chic-er. As much as I have truly loved getting to know Marseille and all it has to offer (which is a lot given it's the second largest city in France), I definitely think I will feel right at home in Aix this fall! (Kate, Kate, Claire, Whitney, etc... get excited!) We wandered the small streets, stopped by the Vanderbilt-in-France Center, saw some of the students' living situations and went into an art exhibit and a couple churches. It was exactly the kind of day Matt and I needed and it was great to get a feel for how things are done by the Vandy students in Aix. (I forgot my camera though, so thanks Matt, for the pictures).

Nathan, Me, & Christopher in front of one of Aix's many fountains

A group of Celtic dancers and musicians we came across.

Since Monday I have been working for the first half of each day on a restoration/physical work project with Pastor Pete and a few others. We've been working to re-paint some old shutters that have been burned at another Protestant church downtown. We had to take down and re-hang the shutters every day before we went home because they serve as the primary security measure for the church. Monday and Tuesday we cleaned, scraped, and sanded, followed by a couple of coats of paint and now they are completely revamped. (Not as good as new, but then again they were VERY old to begin with). And today we went and repainted the exterior wall and cleaned up inside the church. In the process my clumsiness came in full throttle as I managed to kick over a can of paint onto my tennis shoe which consequently Pete thought it would be a good idea to pour paint thinner over. In case you didn't know, paint thinner RUINS shoes and eats up the glue that holds the shoe together. Is there a Trak Shak anywhere around here? Don't think so. Guess that means no running for me! I forgot my camera pretty much every day, but I have a couple pictures from the 2nd or 3rd day. None of the complete project though.

Roger (Pete's son) and his friend Mark gave a hand, but wouldn't smile for a picture.

These were the windows we tackled and the bottom half of the wall is what we repainted today.

Two of eight shutters and the view from my perch all week.

Here I go getting long winded again... Sorry. Tuesday the 14th of July was Bastille Day! The national holiday here in France equivalent to the 4th of July in the US. With a box of pizza in hand I hiked up to the top of a hill with Benjamin and Matt to sit on the steps of Notre Dame de la Garde and overlook the city of Marseille, the Vieux Port, and the Mediterranean Sea. Among lots of French people and French smells we ate our pizza and waited for the "feux d'artifice" (fireworks) to begin. And they did, at 10:30, a magnificent show and some of the best fireworks I've ever seen. I tried to take pictures, but they didn't exactly turn out. Anyway, it was worth the hike and the crowd and everything, I loved celebrating France with all the Frenchies.

View of part of Marseille-there was a wildfire going on causing much more smoke/smog than usual.

The top of Notre Dame de la Garde from where I was sitting.

My view.

Feux d'artifices!

My latest adventure was yesterday afternoon after a 30 minute siesta post-painting-shutters, we went to the famous Calanques of Marseille. A "calanque" according to Wikipedia is "a geologic formation in the form of a deep valley with steep sides, typically of limestone, in part submerged by the sea. It can be considered a Mediterranean fjord." We hiked for about an hour, stopping to go up to the lookout point, and then climbing down into the Calanques, where like Wikipedia says, we found crystal blue/turquoise water surrounded by limestone cliffs. We decided to take the "shortcut" from the lookout point which involved sliding down the side of the mountain at a 45-degree angle in large-chunk gravel and walking through injurious thorn bushes. We then spent a couple hours jumping off the different points, swimming around, and hanging out on the rocks before we climbed back out (a little more difficult for sure). It was a great afternoon, I managed to make it out with just some scratches and a bleeding toe.

From the lookout, the calanque that we went swimming in.

The view on the other side of the calanque.

Me, Matt, & Jimmy. Picture courtesy of the self-timer, the rest of our group (two French/American "MKs" (missionary kids), two French girls, and 3 Spanish guys--all in high school) opted out of the hike up to the top.

In the calanque, or at the calanque? I'm confusing my prepositions in English now...

Oops, I've gone long again. I guess I could have broken that into 3 or so separate posts, but given my limited internet, this is the best I can do for now.

Prayer Requests:

1. Pray for the church here in Marseille. It is small and struggling for growth and currently looking for a new pastor.

2. Pray for the missionaries who work extremely hard and who have truly given their lives to this ministry.

3. For me, pray for more reminders of God's presence here and for a greater understanding of His Kingdom.

much love,

catherine