Grenoble

So I’m sitting in Grenoble, in my friend Rory’s room, listening to the four guys that live here in the basement argue over where the top of Bastille is. It’s pretty funny, intermingled with talk about throwing meat and cheese together to make some concoction of food, it’s quite the conversation.

I started my trip yesterday morning at about 5:45am, needing to leave by 7am on the train. I made it, slept on the train (which was only interrupted twice by phone calls from someone who will remain nameless) and had some decent conversations. It was nice because I held up in French with a girl who could speak English well, so I was proud. The downside was that in my haste and exhaustion I left my jacket on the train… goodbye jacket.

I need it too, I finally got to Grenoble at 3:30PM and it’s cold here (the tower above being in a park next door). But not before spending a few hours in Marseille, it was sweet. I read a lot yesterday, got about 200 pages into Terry Brooks’ new book.

But eventually I did get to Grenoble. It’s beautiful up in the Alps, a nice change of scenery (no palm trees) but soooo cold! I got picked up by Rory’s roommate Melissa (there are 8 people living here) and hung out at their house for a while, meeting Amy (the house dog). I was exhausted and sat around for a while, napped a bit, and hung out with Rory.

Getting ready for the evening's festivities.

We ended up going to the Sand Bar, this bar downtown that is nearly impossible to find due to the lack of lights or anything indicating that it’s there or open. But inside the floor is covered in beach-sand, crazy. It was pretty fun, I made friends with some police officers there and talked with them forever. They just started in September, pretty green. Nice guys though, too bad they aren’t in Nice in case I ever get into trouble… not that I’d ever get into trouble! I… er… look at the pretty photos!

See? How would you know this silent, dark place was even open?

This is how you serve beer.

So we got back last night, the kabob place was closed so I was ticked, and then watched some Tom Yong Goong, great movie. They were a weeee bit drunk so they enjoyed it even more. And tonight it’s a Halloween party that is supposed to be crazy huge, so hopefully it’s fun. The only problems for me are A) it’ll be a drunk-fest and I don’t drink that much, so I’m expecting the quality of conversation to drop a bit; and B) I have to leave the house by like 5am tomorrow to catch my train for Passau.

This sucks too because it’s gonna be 17, yes SEVENTEEN HOURS of travel tomorrow! I stop in Geneva, Zurich, and Wels Austria (which I’ve never heard of). I’m already tired; I’m going to die tomorrow. So I’m gonna try and sneak away from the party by midnight and sleep, but I have the feeling that it could be difficult even if I do sneak away as there are supposed to be upwards of 50 people here. And I doubt they’ll be quiet… oi.

So, we’ll see what happens. I’m gonna take a nap now, then upload this and some pictures. Hopefully you all enjoy my pictures of my trip so far, and hopefully I get some sleep. I'll leave you with a little preview of what I'm expecting tonight to look like:

White Trash Rory

Let the craziness begin!

So a couple of crazy things have happened recently. We'll start with less crazy and move up. First, my friend Lenny is packing up and leaving town tomorrow, this is sad.

We had a going away party for her which was fun, and it sucks because she's definitely one of my favorites and is of course leaving a month into life here. That's how the cookie crumbles though.

Speaking of crumbling... well first. Second crazy thing was having two gorgeous girls skate up and hand me a flier today. Turns out they were strippers, thus the gorgeous. These things don't happen in Cheney. When someone told me I lived in the Red Light district I wasn't so sure, although the transvestites were a good clue. But speaking of crumbling:

SOMEONE LIT A CAR ON FIRE IN FRONT OF MY APARTMENT LAST NIGHT!!!


Yes, this is not a joke. Someone lit a car on fire outside my window last night (where the picture is from). Unfortunately Noah didn't wake me up sooner so I could get better pictures. But thankfully the guys who put it out got to it before the gas tank went up. I


f this is not crazy, I know not what is. Apparently it happens a lot though, like last year when the Muslim youth rioted I guess a lot of them burned cars. Scooters get it more often though I guess. Just thought you guys would like to know.


What's funny is that I don't feel unsafe at all, I feel fairly amused. It was probably the funniest thing I've seen here yet. Ah France, how I love thee.

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.