The initial post

04 Septembre, 2008

La Comedie et l’orage

My evenings in Montpellier thus far have been marked by long conversations on la Comedie. La Comedie is a central square in Montpellier, and is an open place with restaurants, a grocery store, a mall on one corner and an opera house on the other. The square is adorned with a fountain boasting les trois Graces, or the three Graces. My first night in Montpellier (not counting the night that we arrived) I met my roommate-to-be, Greg at la Comedie. We went out for crepes and I enjoyed my first real tastes of France while people watching and enjoying getting to know Greg, who will be a fantastic, though rather unpunctual roommate (characteristically French, bien sûr). The next two days we spent searching for apartments and tonight found us once again sitting on la Comedie, this time enjoying the view for several hours out in front of McDonalds, which, in Greg’s opinion, is the only place to get a “real hamburger” in Montpellier. I assured him that McDonalds does not serve a real hamburger, which he could not believe, and that when he comes to the United States I will take him out for a real burger.

Tonight we talked for several hours, covering everything from the Roman Catholic Church to the English words for lightning, thunder, and thunderstorm. It was a relatively sobering conversation as we talked about the barriers that many French students have towards Christianity. There are significant hurdles to our work in sharing the gospel with French students, and some things that Greg pointed out were things that we hadn’t yet really thought of. The first night we met he said to me, “I am so sad…your job is very hard here…but I know Jesus can do it.”

Tonight we had been talking for a while, and our conversation comfortably died down as we watched a man breathing fire throughout la Comedie, listened to the gypsy musicians (two accordion players and a very good violinist) play down the place and watched a few groups of people greet each other and biscous on the cheeks (the appropriate French greeting with a kiss). After a few minutes of silence Greg turned to me and said, “Now, now you are being French.” I asked him what he meant, and he explained that just sitting, not necessarily talking, just sitting and enjoying and watching was making me more French. Inwardly I was amused at the stark dichotomy it was from the life I normally live in the States.

Ministry thus far has been great. Our second full day in Montpellier found us on the Arts and Letters campus of the University of Montpellier, where we had lunch, and then spent time praying in anticipation of students arriving within the next few weeks. Erin and Claire got to talk with some students as well, and Laura met a friend of the team from last year, which was a wonderful connection to make. We will step into more full swing ministry next week as we also start language classes on Monday.

In the meantime, life is enjoyable here in Montpellier. I’m getting used to the time zone change and the very different climate (though I am sweating a lot). I’ve successfully ordered food in French now over half a dozen times and have only had to spend 1 euro to go to the bathroom thus far. Tonight I experienced my first thunderstorm (l’orage) in Montpellier, and much to my dismay discovered that the streets are not really meant to handle intense downpour, and the small rain that I was enjoying at the beginning of my walk home to the Skur’s quickly turned into just that. C’est la vie, non?

Bon soir, mes amis.

06 Septembre, 2008

Further adventures on La Comedie

The adventure to find an apartment with Greg continues. Yesterday I was waiting for him at La Comedie on the way to look at an apartment just south of town and I got to witness what appeared to be an initiation ceremony for two freshman med students. When I arrived at la Comedie, a few groups of students were also arriving, several sporting white lab coats. After a few minutes they gathered around the two men getting initiated and started to adorn them with makeup. There was lipstick, rouge, whatever that eye stuff is that colors above your eyes and some other touch up work that I couldn’t see because of the crowd around them. After they were beautified, they crowded around them and I couldn’t see for a few moments. By the time the crowd split, the two men had taken off all of their clothes except their (black) underwear and their hips were being wrapped in several layers of seran wrap in the style of a really tight miniskirt. Once sufficiently wrapped, one of the girls stepped in front of the two guys, announced something significant in French, counted down, and the two men frantically raced around the giant fountain in the middle of la Comedie. This race was quite interesting, since both men were forced to frantically try to waddle in their miniskirts while not slipping on the stones upon which they were running, one in bare feet and the other in his ankle socks.

Once they completed two rounds around the fountain, they returned to their female partners, to be quickly dressed in very ugly and skimpy dresses, headbands and given purses to match. They then had to run around the fountain again twice and return and tag their female partners, who then had to run around the fountain twice themselves. Unfortunately, the fast man was paired with the slow woman, and so the slow man ended up winning on the last lap of his partner.

Once congratulations were given to the winning team, both men had the outside of their left ankle covered in shaving cream and a portion of a few inches (or several centimeters since I am in Europe) was shaved off. Once the shaving was done, the two men washed off their ankles in the fountain, and the crowd dispersed, the initiation complete.

Then Greg met me, and we left to go look at an apartment, which we really liked. He said that med student initiation is really normal, and didn’t seem fazed whatsoever by my epic description of the event… oh well. He asked me if such things happen in the United States. I tried to explain the Greek system to him, to questionable success.