Training = death on a stick

So it’s been a while since I’ve written, largely due to the business of life. My school is great so far. The kids think I’m some sort of rock star, they crowd around me in the halls and stare at me like I’m Brad Pitt. I think someone told them I have chocolate in my pockets or something because it’s a bit crazy. I had a block class where I talked for the first hour, then the teacher took over for the second. When I came back to give her back her keys she said she spent the second hour explaining over and over why they couldn’t have me every day. They’re upset that I’m only there every other week, and apparently “it’s just not fair!” Gotta love being fought over.

I just got done with two days of the longest, most mind bogglingly redundant and arduous training sessions of all time. Two solid days of blah blah blah (but with French ‘blah’s) and little respite. This, combined with two nights consisting of no more than 5 hours of sleep each, left me nearly brain dead and ready for a break. It was fun though too, since I got to hang out with a bunch of the other assistants. My friend Jon and I joked around the whole time, entertaining ourselves and sometimes saying things loudly enough to entertain the rest.

I think we could be considered class clowns, although the teacher picked him out as the class drunk when she came over and told him to be responsible. She said “you just have that face.” It was funny. As for the rest of it, we were bored out of our minds. I began doodling, one of which I was particularly proud of. Click on the picture to see it full sized.

This one is a re-make of one I made earlier with Russ Davis. It’s not as good, but it works.

On the second day those of us who were in technical high schools were taken by the inspector of English teachers for the region up to a different room. It turned out to be 2 hours of more blah blah blah, but worse because there was no interaction. He just talked, kept talking, and talked some more. What’s worse is that he spoke no English, despite being the English inspector, and couldn’t understand us when we spoke to save his life. It was frustrating; I drew long comics of us falling asleep, shooting ourselves, and throwing ourselves out the window.

We all felt the same about this, despite the humorous ironies, it was terrible. The only nice thing was the breeze coming through the window once I opened it, the view was cool too.

I had three people stay at my place, they’re assistants from another town and they needed a spot to crash. It was fun hanging out with Chris the Canadian, Maria the Scott, and JonMark from Tennessee (who was actually involved with Young Life for the last four years).

We had fun, and almost skipped the second day of training after a long night at Jon’s apartment (not JonMark, Jon T) where we hung out with the Kiwis and one of the British assistants Adam. It was fun, but we stayed up too late and I was subjected to a second night of only 5 hours of sleep. Poor Maria suffered from the affects of her wine a bit more though, so it was extra miserable for her. When walking into the training, late, she said to us “there had better be at least one other person here who’s hung over. If not, I’m gonna be the biggest walking stereotype ever!”

Life here’s good though, it’s been fun and there’s another Rugby World Cup game on tonight. France vs. England: the first night in France it will be safer to be an American than a Brit. It should be a blast, rugby is a crazy sport. I do miss home though, all of my friends and family (both biological and church). I’ve been spoiled rotten by you guys, dang it. Now I want you back. I need to focus on being here now though, and figure out what it is God has for me in this place.

I hope it’s for good things and that I’m effective while I’m here, that I will stand for the Truth though it is by far an unpopular stance to take. Thankfully God’s got me, even if I don’t have myself at times.