Filipino cooking

So, remember waaaay back when my Relief Society in the Paris ward had a Filipino cooking class? Well, before that we had a great Thai cooking class.
Here are the pictures.


This may not look delicious (since it's raw), but the spring roll-y things we made with it were AWESOME.

Chillin' with the Sistas

While in Paris I spent a lot of time with the Sister missionaries. I volunteered to go with them to a teaching appointment one week, and it turned into a standing weekly appointment.

These are the two sisters, Sister R and Sister O, that I started working with. Then Sister O went home, and Sister H was transferred in. (Sister H is the one below eating raclette).

Here we are in front of the Church on rue Saint Merri near the Pompidou Centre.

Sister R, me, Sister O

On the night before I came home, we had one last teaching appointment with E and her two daughters.
The Sisters surprised me with an awesome dinner before we went to teach--raclette!! I had never had raclette before, so it was fun to see how it works. And it was soooooo good!

So, basically you have a raclette pan with spaces for all of these little dishes to sit in. You put a slice of cheese in the dish, slide it under the heating element, and then make a little open-faced sandwich.

This is me with E and her girls on Mother's Day at church. Love them! Miss them.

On my last night, at E's apartment. Love these girls. Aren't they just beautiful. They're little sweethearts, too. Let's just ignore how pasty I look next to their gorgeous skin.

Institute Dances in Paris...

... are basically the same as church dances in Utah.

Except in Utah practically everyone is white.




There is line dancing...

...and girls have to dance with each other if they want to swing, because there just aren't enough guys to go around.

I loved making friends at Institute. It was such a relief to know that whatever happened during the week, I could go to Institute and feel (somewhat) normal.

The best friend I made in France. He's the bomb-diggity. He's also learning English, and he understood me better in English when I faked a British accent. (I'm glad he stayed friends with me, even though I squashed his dream of serving his mission on Temple Square when I told him that mission is really only "staffed" with Sisters.)

A blurry goodbye picture. Should have turned on that flash. :)

Institute Closing Social

This past Saturday was the Institute closing social. They handed out the diplomas, we ate Mexican food (yes!), and then we danced all night. Well, until 11, because it takes everyone at least an hour to get home...

But they also had a little "portrait" area where Sylvain, one of the great Institute teachers, took pictures of everyone. I thought it was a great idea, and I loved the frame that they brought as a prop.

YSA Activity in Versailles

Les JA (YSA's) from the Paris-East stake got together about a month ago for an activity. It was fun--a singing competition (Rock Band style, but minus the band--I don't know what the games are called that just involve the singing aspect) and dinner.

It was fun--and sweaty after everyone started dancing and singing.

Great News

The investigator I have been teaching with the sister missionaries (and whose kids I've been corralling at church for the past month or so) is getting baptized!

She is getting baptized a week after I get home, on June 27, and I couldn't be happier for her.

She is from the Ivory Coast, and she is incredible. I can't even tell you what a difference I have seen in her over the last couple of months. I love that the Gospel has such a big impact on people that you can literally see the change in their faces.

I will be so sad to leave them behind. Her daughters (3 and 1) are the sweetest little girls, and the 3 year old has taken a particular liking to me. She loves to say "Amen!" at the end of prayers, talks, and testimonies during Sacrament Meeting. So cute.

P.S., this investigator is also an amazing cook. When I asked her if she uses recipes, she and another African lady who was at our last teaching appointment-turned-awesome African dinner burst out laughing. The other lady, who is in my ward, said, "Sarah, most of the people where we come from can't even read. How would they know what to do with a recipe? Cooking is just something you learn from doing it all the time."
P.P.S. Our delicious african meal included eating amazing chicken in a spicy--as in, lots of different spices, almost like a curry--sauce; fish; a carrot, tomato, and onion salad; and fried bananas with our hands! Forks are for the faint of heart... but the food was all incredible.

Strasbourg for Easter Mass and Free Hugs

On the 11th of April, Ames and I took a cab to the airport. We were running just a few minutes behind, but I thought our taxi driver would make up the difference. I don't remember if he did or not, because all I remember is that when we got there, Mom and Dad were waiting for us, all of their luggage gathered, patiently waiting for us. They had been their for an hour because their flight got in really early.

Sheesh. (Although, hooray for Delta. And, frankly, it makes me that much more likely to buy tickets on the direct flight next time I fly to Paris.)

We got our rental car, plugged in the navigation system after figuring out how to power it with no working cigarette lighter, and headed towards Strasbourg. When we arrived we just bummed around the hotel, because it was late enough that we didn't want to bother going into the downtown area to see sights.

In the morning, we went into town. Here's what we were able to enjoy:

Correct me if I'm wrong (please), but I think the style of the architecture is Art Nouveau. Please note that I'm 28 and this year is the first time my brain registered that Art Deco and Art Nouveau are different. Yep, I'm lame.


However, I must admit that I'm a big fan of Art Nouveau design. Not necessarily all of the prints of random women that you see all over the place (at least in Paris), but stained glass, woodwork, architecture, and iron work. I came across several lovely examples (assuming I've correctly recognized Art Nouveau) over Easter vacation. Some in Strasbourg as you can see, as well as an awesome building in Prague, and then a surprising Art Nouveau room in a museum in Paris I went to with Mom and Dad when we arrived back to Paris.

(The jury is still out on Art Deco, mostly because I can't seem to wrap my mind around what it is exactly. It seems like it covers a really broad spectrum.)





I digress. This lovely library isn't all we saw. (Though, before moving on, I want to point out that the script above is a series of names of French authors. I thought that was a nice touch on the exterior of the library. Here we have J[ean] de la Fontaine and [Jean] Mabillon.)

[Edit: I was having a hard time putting these together logistically, because in my head we walked farther past the library to get to the cathedral, but in Strasbourg, we parked right next to it. Turns out I have serious memory issues. Library = Reims. Cathedral = Strasbourg. Thanks, dad!]

Okay. Moving on.
The cathedral is really beautiful.







And even though it's completely irritating to visit these beautiful places and see scaffolding all over them half of the time, the results of the cleaning and restoration work are amazing.


Just look at the difference between the portion that has been cleaned and the portion that hasn't.

The interior of the cathedral was beautiful, as well. I didn't take very many pictures because they were in the middle of a gorgeous Easter Mass.

I'm not exaggerating when I say that I was barely able to contain my emotions after hearing the organ play and then listening to the Hallelujiah Chorus in that beautiful setting. And when I picked up a copy of the program, across the front of the program was this beautiful scripture from Matthew 28 (5-6):

"Fear not ye: for I know that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified. He is not here for he is risen as he said."

I think the cumulative effect of the beautiful atmosphere, the gorgeous music that celebrates the Resurrection, and Matthew's testimony was almost too much for me to take in.


Here's a little taste. (And remember, they are singing in French--so the Hallelujiah's will be nice and clear, but the rest will probably be a little more difficult to decipher.) The acoustics aren't a dream, but obviously the best acoustics were in the part of the cathedral reserved for those actually participating in the mass.

(The video absolutely doesn't do justice to the sound OR the beauty of the light that was shining through all of the stained glass. Hm. I guess you just had to be there. *Smirk*)

The town itself was very charming--especially the area just around the cathedral.

And the locals were very warm and friendly. :)

All in all, I thought it was a very worthwhile stop.

Thursday Night...

...I'll be sleeping just 10 minutes away from Disneyland Paris.

But I'm not going to Disneyland*. Oh, no. I'm going somewhere WAY better.


The Frankfurt temple!! I can't wait.
A) I love Germany
B) I love the Temple!
C) Bonus: A distribution center is right nearby... (so, you can bet I'll be stocking up)


All of the YSA's that are going on the temple trip are meeting at the church in Torcy at 8:30 Friday morning, then putting in a long day of driving before going to the temple Friday night, having a fireside, going to the temple Saturday morning, and heading back to France.

I decided that instead of pushing my luck and trying to make the train ride that morning (I have had multiple problems with the trains this very week), I would take the train Thursday after Institute and camp out overnight in a Mister Bed right by the train station and the church. I'll probably end up staying there Saturday night, too, since we'll be getting back into Torcy at 11:00. If the trains are still running from that station at that point, I might try to just get back into the city. But... we'll see.


I haven't been to the temple since January and I am really looking forward to it. Access to a (ha, A... how about EIGHT) temple within easy driving distance is definitely a bonus of the good ol' hometown, whatever it's limitations may be.

*not this weekend, at least. I'm thinking it's a day trip I'll have to make before coming home, though.

Friday, Yesterday and Today

Friday:
-I followed through with the hang-out that was arranged on Thursday at Institute. If you were going to guess what happened and you hypothesized, "He probably pressured you into dating him, wondered why you weren't interested, tried his very best to manipulate the situation (even though you're an expert at blocking such attempts) and then said things like, 'Well, I don't want to pressure you.' and 'Maybe tomorrow you'll text me and say you changed your mind.'" you'd be right.
If you thought that maybe after that I would make a promise to myself to ignore all of his texts and calls, you'd also be right.

Yesterday I:
-went to the market and bought lovely produce, but forgot to get meat so I could make stuffed tomatoes and round zucchini today. Heirloom tomatoes, just so you know, cost 2.50 each here. ouch.
-bought some cardigans
-went on a date with the Egyptio-Italian and saw a funny movie called "Le Missionaire" about an ex-con who pretends to be a priest to get away from some "old buddies" that are out to get their share of whatever money he is supposed to have (and no, it's nothing like Sister Act). Also got crepes and saw the market at Port de Clignancourt for the first time. Wow. That place is crazy.
-got home late

Today:
-I got to church on time! Early, actually.
-Told the Sister missionaries about my random boy conversations of the week. They love hearing the stories as we walk to teaching appointments and wait for church to start.
-An investigator that I've been helping the sisters teach came to church with her two daughters today (and on time! No small feat for a single mom with two kids under the age of three that has to rely on public transit)! Huge forward progress for an investigator who wasn't progressing. And while she was getting her daughters ready to go at the end of church, she was talking to them about "next week at church" like it was the most natual thing in the world. Yessssss.
-Entertained said daughters during sacrament meeting
-Also manned the nursery today during RS and Sunday School. Bilingual nursery is kind of crazy, but awesome.
-I might have downed a whole (and not tiny) tart with zucchini, tomatoes, creme fraiche and mozzarella like it was a personal pizza
-I discovered that I lost 6 pounds over the last month. Go figure. (Factoring in that tart, well... maybe 5 pounds.)

So, tomorrow it's back to school and work for 4 days and then... I'm off to Frankfurt, Germany with the YSA's for a long-weekend temple trip. Suh-weet! I haven't been to the temple since January. Can't. Wait.

Walks along the Seine, Laughing in the Rain...

Okay, so I'm not in Mama Mia, and it's not summer (and P.S., I hate the terrible rhyme in that part of the song. Just for the record, the Seine rhymes with TEN, not with RAIN).


But I did walk along the Seine today with my Egyptian friend. It was beautiful and picturesque. The conversation was... interesting, to say the very least.


We talked about love. For him, this naturally led to talking about sex. Which for me, naturally led to talking about the Church.


My stance on pre-marital sex is really a difficult concept to explain in my limited French. Specifically, it's challenging to really explain the motivation in clear enough terms. Saying I won't have sex before marriage is simple enough. It's answering the follow-up "Why?" and "What?! WHY???!!" questions that requires more vocabulary than I've got in my arsenal. In English, no problem. But in French, uh... yeah. Problems.


He has a pretty typical view of love and sex, and he was verrrrry confused and a bit surprised by my position on the matter. My inability to clearly express myself didn't help the situation, I'm sure.

After recovering from the shock, he was actually really respectful about it. He just kept asking questions to get a feel for the "boundaries," if you will. And he kept shaking his head, not understanding how I could live 28 years... without. Ha. I just told him it's easy to go without something when you don't know what you're missing.

picture from Flickr creative commons

Paris Relief Society and Ward Activities

Last Saturday (as in yesterday), my ward had a sort of "Super Saturday ."

First, the Relief Society had an activity which included some very touching testimonies and making 12 fleece blankets for a local hospital that really needs them.

This was followed by a ward luncheon (and, I'm not going to lie--it's probably the best meal I've had since I moved here).

Then we had a little ward activity where we answered 7 questions, then told the people at our table what our answers to the questions were, and then for each question they went around the room and one person from each table got to share their answer.

At my table there were...two people. Me and a really nice guy in the ward who is moving to New York City in a few weeks. So we got to know each other a little bit and then took turns sharing with the rest of the ward. :) Too bad he's one of the few people I've met in the ward and he's moving. (However, I also met a few other people--which was great!)

What I thought was really interesting about the whole game was the missionary up at the front in this picture. His role was to translate all of the questions and the answers people share, since there are English-only, French-only, and Chinese-only speakers in the ward. He speaks all three. Amazing. There are a few missionaries in that situation, and I have to say that I'm highly impressed that they can handle English, French, and Chinese all at the same time. Bravo.

Versailles

Today was Stake Conference in Versailles.

The Stake Center in Versailles isn't actually big enough to hold the whole stake. The stake center in my parents' stake isn't either, but the stake has two other buildings they can run the audio and video to so everyone can participate. Here, there isn't that luxury.

So instead, the Church rents (?? -- I'm guessing they have to pay) the Palais des Congres in Versailles right next to the Palace of Versailles.

While I was waiting for the train this morning, a woman approached me and asked me if I knew much about the train system. It turns out that she was American, and she and her friend were both headed to Stake Conference as well! They weren't familiar with the train system, and I had taken this line to Versailles a couple of times before, so we all found our way together.

What a charming pair of women. Seriously. They were so nice, and both really interesting. I found myself talking way too much (more on that later), but they were so nice I couldn't help myself. Have you ever done that? I even knew I was talking too much and in my mind I was saying, "How rude are you? Stop talking for 5 seconds, okay?" But there was apparently no stopping me.

I find myself doing this a lot when I have the chance to sit down and speak with anyone that has a relatively high level of English skills. I sometimes feel like a kinked garden hose throughout the week--I have so many thoughts, stories, and emotions to share that I can't express adequately in French. All of these unexpressed thoughts and emotions well up inside me and just have nowhere to go because of this language barrier. So when I am finally around someone who will understand everything I have to say, it's like the kink comes out of the garden hose and the poor, unsuspecting Anglophone has to sit through the onslaught.

But I digress...

Stake Conference was incredible. I loved the talks and I really felt the Spirit testifying truths to me and prompting me to make certain changes and adjustments in my life.

After Stake Conference ended these ladies invited me to tag along with them to wander through the grounds of Versailles for a bit. I've been meaning to go there for a while, and since it was such a gorgeous day today, I thought it would be the perfect day to snap some pictures.

Alas, none of us were wearing good shoes, so a quick trip to the Orangerie was all we did. But I did manage to get a few pictures snapped before my feet began to protest.

And believe me, these are nowhere near the most beautiful parts of the grounds. Nowhere. Near.

The front gate to the palace and grounds.

View of part of the palace through the front gate.

The ginormous staircase in the sky. (Also the staircase that goes down from the main level at the back of the palace down to the orangerie.)

Manicured rows of trees.

The sad and dead-looking Orangerie and part of the palace. (Remember, it is just the beginning of Spring here, so the grass is still struggling a bit.)

I want a garden like this one. Wouldn't it be fun to play Fox and Geese on a "lawn" like this?

Today I:

-got to church on time for the first time since I moved here (it's obviously been an adjustment, and the Metro runs about half as frequently on Sunday, so this week I finally got the timing right).

-sang in Sacrament Meeting with the ward choir. Don't worry that on Easter we're singing an excerpt from the Messiah that has notes higher than anyone should be able to sing.

-wore what I'm guessing every French person I encountered thought was a really "loud American" dress. (It's a black wrap dress with white swirls all over it. Maybe you've seen it, maybe not. It's definitely got a distinct pattern.) Good thing it was mostly covered by my coat. And they were possibly so shocked by my legs not being clad in opaque black tights that they missed the dress altogether.

-made another friend on the Metro. We're possibly hanging out tomorrow. I'll be sure to establish at the BEGINNING of the evening that I'm just looking to be friends. It should be a bit easier this time, because a) he speaks pretty good English and b) he lived in the US for 4 years. I'm hoping he got a little taste of what dating is like there, and won't be totally shocked if I tell him that I don't want to date him after I gave him my number. And if he is shocked, then at least we can go our separate ways in peace without all the drama.

-participated in a lesson with the sister missionaries. They're fantastic--one of them just got here like a week ago, so her French is still very minimal, but she is really passionate about the Gospel. I really feel like I can see her testimony shining in her eyes when I look at her. Their investigator (they call them "friends of the church" in French) is really sweet and has a lot of faith. She really believes in prayer and has a lot of faith in God already. I was really surprised how quickly I gained an interest in her little family. I almost felt like I was a missionary again.

-made tentative plans with this great sister in my ward to go out to dinner this Wednesday. I'm excited.

Bag Lady (and a little bit of complaining)

Today I bought a big, slouchy hobo purse that will fit my books for Institute in it. They don't fit in my regular purse (which is a surprise, since that purse is ginormo), and this one was the cheapest one I've seen around. Which, after touching it, made sense... it's made of that fake leathery fabric, but not the "high quality" kind that actually feels like leather. The kind that feels like it's trying too hard to be leather, but is really just plastic.

Regardless, it was the right size. Only it's so big that it wouldn't fit into my other purse, so I carted two huge purses all over Versailles (really only a mile and a half each way) to a church activity.

Well, to the church, anyway. I must have had the wrong time, because there was NO ONE there. And I had to pee like a pregnant lady. So I walked down an adjoining street, literally praying that there would be a restaurant somewhere that I could eat a little something in order to use the facilities.

I was in luck. Found a little Chinese food place. Ordered these nasty pork meatball-looking things and fried rice. Went back to the church to see if anyone had come yet. Nope. Got seriously annoyed and started walking back to the train station.

Oh, and did I mention that it snowed today in Paris? Yeah, so not only was I carrying my two humungo purses, but my pants were sucking up every bit of slush I walked through and the lovely soaking effect was up to my hamstrings by the time I got back to the RER station to go home.

Needless to say, I could have used my time more effectively (especially considering I gave up like 5 hours of museum pass time for this. Lame.).

And my cheeks are wind burned. Ouchy.

Okay, I'm done complaining. The one big benefit this provided is that I now know exactly how to get to the church without having to pull out my Post-It with street-by-street directions written on it.

And I know to never order those meatball things again. :)

Institute

was much more successful this week.

First of all, I got there early, so I was able to talk to a few people.
Second, I was there for "opening exercises," where they asked all of the new people (me) to stand up and introduce themselves.
Third, someone told me that every week after Institute we all meet upstairs for refreshments and "mingling."

That would have been good to know last week--but I'd rather know late than never, that's for sure.

So I made a couple of new friends tonight. There are several girls here from BYU doing a semester abroad, and they're really nice. I also met a couple of French guys who seem really nice.

I was having a good conversation with one of them, and while we were talking about the Catacombs or something one of the Institute missionaries came over and handed him a Mission Prep manual. He said he's working to go out on his mission two years from now. He needs that long to be "spiritually and financially" prepared. He asked if I had been on a mission and I said yes. We talked about missions (and mine specifically) for a second, and then the next words out of his mouth (and I'm NOT even kidding), were "So, now you're all ready to get married. Do you see anyone of interest here?"

Um. Maybe. But if I do, I'm sure not telling you. That would make me feel weird... and WAY too vulnerable to rejection. Plus, how does going on a mission mean I'm automatically ready to get married???

Anyways, he was a really nice guy, and he was a lot of fun to talk to, so I'm not going to let this one statement tarnish his good record. Plus, he was probably just talking about how marriage is probably the next big milestone I'm working towards. In which case I will put my indignation aside and say that he's probably right. Probably.

Goin' to the Chapel

The church I attend is just down a little side street from the Pompidou Center. Today I was surprised to find that there are so many American members that they actually hold two separate adult Sunday School classes--one in English and one in French. I attended the French class, and was happy to see that some other native English speakers attended as well, and were even called on by the teacher to read aloud in their less than flawless French.

My records should be transferred over within the next couple of weeks.

I'll try to snap some pictures next week. Or maybe on Thursday when I'm there for institute.

Hayleigh's Blessing - Family Pictures

Before Hayleigh's blessing on Sunday, both sides of the fam gathered outisde the church for a few pictures.

This is about as cooperative as anyone could get the boys to be.

Here are the Garners.

And I have some serious reservations about putting a super ugly picture of myself on my OWN blog (for crying out loud), but here are the Knights, too. (Thanks to Uncle Dave for taking the picture!)

And, finally, Hayleigh with her parents.

She's much more cooperative. :)