I am in Marseille, France, and honestly, i am just trying to get settled. There is no wireless internet signal that will reach my apartment, so as of right now we are working on a solution to try to get me a signal. I am hoping we can get the connectivity going soon in order to be able to research some of the things that we are working on at the consulate during my spare time, but also to skype and keep in touch with all of you that are at home :)
I will be taking a bus to and fro the consulate general, and tomorrow is the first day that i will get a chance to figure that out. Still no phone or bus pass, but everything is just taking some time to get going. Today, Plamen picked me up from my apartment and took me to work, and I met everyone, who works at the consulate general. I was disappointed because i didn't really get to do any work today, but I am excited about helping Sandrine with a project tomorrow! I know, I am weird, but it seriously stresses me out sometimes when there is nothing to work on or be busy with. God has been working on me on this, so this past semester and year, i've been able to be more flexible for Him to really move in and through me. I am praying that He be glorified here in Marseille, and reach the hearts of those that I have and will encounter. Hopefully, this will include some exciting projects to work on!
The flights over here were, to be optimistic, quite interesting-- I've never had such an experience on any flight. Well, this is only my third time on an international flight, but oooooo girl (or guy) let me tell you! On my first flight, which was 9 hours long, I did not sleep. There was a man sitting in the row behind me and one chair over, who became severely intoxicated and began to (a) smell like alcohol that my nose could detect from my seat without any effort of my own and (b) be aggressive in the way he acted and talked to the flight attendants. He actually got into more than one yelling argument right above my head, and this went on for the "lights out, sleeping" part of the flight. At one point I just began to pray that God would save souls on this plane because I thought this man may attack people, and maybe the captain who said he could purchase no more alcohol. He fell asleep for a little while later on the flight, and that's when the two boys, 10 and 7 years maybe, who were sitting next to me began to play a game without the sounds muted. They were going to the grandparents in the UK, and unaccompanied by their parents. They were moved to other seats near the front, so that they could exit first, which gave me an entire row all to myself. I laid down to get some sleep, and then they turned all of the lights on and began to serve breakfast. Mmmmm breakfast, but at that point i just wanted to lay on my muffin and sleep.
I am having to catch a wireless signal outside to post this and am getting very cold. The weather here is about 50-60 degrees F and maybe colder than that at night. Not too shabby, but still a little colder than I would prefer. The view, however, is amazing! Praise God for His creation! Pictures to come soon. Thank you for your comments, and feel free to keep them coming! I praise God for all of you and the encouragement you are to me. I hope that I will be able to encourage you and serve you in some way through these posts. I love and miss you all!
Grace
I'm glad to hear you're doing alright! Hopefully you can get adjusted to the time change and the weather change and the language change and the food change and the everything else change (like the not-having-me-in-a-bed-five-feet-away change) and get comfortably settled in Marseille! I'm praying for you. Let me know if you have any specific requests and you can be sure that I'll be reading your blog regularly. I'm looking forward to some pictures! I hope your internet and phone and bus pass all get settled easily. I love you grah-say!
ReplyDelete