"how do you say 'uno' in english?!"

+jmj+

the day's aftermath...

I spent the day playing UNO. With like a zillion kids. Apparently the rules are a little different in France. Not very much different, but enough to get a few of my kids riled up! We weren't playing "real UNO" according to them. One of my students went so far as to say that it was actually "fake UNO"! He was joking and I thought it was pretty funny. Who knew UNO could spark so many debates, or even be an important cultural point of reference?!

For the record, UNO is a fun, educational game. They're learning colors and numbers at the same time. It's not just my excuse for jet-lagged laziness...

pax christi.

the midwest

+jmj+

F. Scott Fitzgerald, one of my favorite authors and another member of the infamous group of American expats living in Paris in the 1920's, ends his classic The Great Gatsby with a little reflection (that I love) on his own memories of the Midwest and coming home for Christmas.

When we pulled out into the winter night and the real snow, our snow, began to stretch out beside us and twinkle against the windows, and the dim lights of small Wisconsin stations moved by, a sharp wild brace came suddenly into the air. We drew in deep breaths of it as we walked back from dinner through the cold vestibules, unutterably aware of our identity with this country for one strange hour before we melted indistinguishably into it again.

That's my middle-west--not the wheat or the prairies or the lost Swede towns but the thrilling, returning trains of my youth and the street lamps and sleigh bells in the frosty dark and the shadows of holly wreaths thrown by lighted windows on the snow. I am part of that, a little solemn with the feeling of those long winters...

I am spending the year far from what I have known my whole life. A foreign country, a foreign language, and a foreign culture all surround me and, even though I am relishing it all, there is still nothing like traveling home for Christmas. In college, the two and a half hour trip north meant an end to exams and papers for the peace of Christmas with family and rest from school. This year, the 16+ hour journey meant even more to me. I came back to something that I am part of, and that is part of me--much more deeply than what France is to me. I felt that same nostalgia Fitzgerald describes in coming home. Like him, I came home west, and I also got to experience the unique wonder that is winter in the midwest. What a wonderful feeling.

pax christi.

i'm back!

+jmj+

I'm back in Evreux! And I barely remember yesterday. I was so exhausted, but I somehow fought through my fatigue to navigate myself home from the airport. A day later, I am still bone-tired, jet-lagged, and fighting through a day of school. But it is great being back in France yet again, as much as I loved being home.

My little vacation in Chicago was fabulous. Lots of family, friends, food, and Americana to hold me over for the next four months! I ate at Chipotle four times, enjoyed Starbucks and trips to Target almost everyday, spoke English pretty much exclusively, and basically just savored every little bit about America that I love, and that I miss when I'm in France. To most people, these little luxuries are hardly given a second thought. These things are so normal in American life, but they hardly exist in France. It's just different, but it's also so comforting to come home to the little things.

Here is a bit of what my two weeks at home looked like:

I didn't take nearly as many pictures as I had hoped. Instead, I have plenty of memories and mental snapshots of everything I did! Those two weeks were full of seeing my beautiful family, and the ones who feel like family :)

Though I have a lot to look forward to coming home again in May (ordinations, graduations, weddings!), I still also have four more months to live this blessed life in France!

pax christi.