A slighter longer blog from Rennes

The ferry schedules do indeed hate us......there was one from Cherbourg today, but early enough that we couldn't catch it. The next ferry leaves from Roscoff in two days. We cut our losses by finding a hostel that has....a shower....and a kitchen. We enjoyed a nice shower before heading to the market to dream up some food concoctions (thinking curry chicken with pasta maybe....) before wasting time in this internet cafe slash sauna....it is boiling in here. The kitchen at the hostel opens at 6pm.

So....Taizé. Getting there proved to not be a problem. There is a bus from the closest train stop that heads regularly to Taizé. This wasn't surprising once we found out (at our welcome) that the community welcomes between 3,000 and 6,000 visitors each week (our week was closer to the 3 grand....although the week after us was slated to be closer to 6). It really is an international affair. We were 2 of about 8 Americans there our week. There were probably 25 countries represented. Thousands of people from countries all over the world converging in Mid-Southern France to pray and live together.....kingdom stuff going on for sure. We were initially surprised by the lax nature of the place.....our schema for understanding an event like this was church camp.....you can smoke....they sell beer at the concession stand......no dress code (which lead to some scandalous outfits)....asked to come to all things....but not required. So...odd to start with those differences......but....there will always be those there for reasons other than those supported by the community.

For the first day, we felt fairly isolated....odd for being around that many people...understandable when you realize there were many languages going on......none of them English. We would soon learn that while english was the first language of very few.....it was the second language of all....so....we could communicate well in that environment. Our small group reflected on this fact briefly....and we realized that is probably a post-WWII thing...because not many parents of our fellow group members speak english.

On day 2, we were put into small groups. Our group consisted of 2 Dutch, 2 Germans, obviously two silly yankees, one Swiss, and a Serbian group leader who got pushed into the role....and was hilarious. Oh man...trying to sum up a week...this is tough....and...the French are against outside influences on their culture....so......A) there is not much english spoken hear as opposed to other european countries B) their keyboards are messed up beyond belief.....for the French reading this....adopting QWERTY (which to prove my point took me about 25 seconds to type) will not lead to the downfall of your culture....it just makes sense. The period should not need a shift key.....and you should not have so many symbols tucked away everywhere that you need an alt and an alt-gr. The @ symbol for instance is alt-gr and 0......e-mail addresses are a blast.

Done with my rant.....our group was awesome. There was a truthfulness I have never found in this environment. I might attribute it to the openness of Taizé or maybe the need to speak directly when using a second language....but......some of the conversation was simply amazing....and the mix of cultures was huge. The girl from Serbia was talking about what her family went through during the bombing.....which was carried out by.....the US a few years back. And......we could joke about it.....which is odd unless you understand Serbians joke about everything. She mentioned the bombing....we said sorry.....in a......we both realize that we could't help it way...and she just kept chatting. But...what beauty in us coming together to worship like this.......

I am not being cheap....but.....it is so hot in here....I will move on with what I can....but....I will be cutting off soon.

So....from our small group we started to team up with a group of about 6 Dutch folks that were there for the week....we ate meals together....played games to waste time....and at the end of the week always went to worship together.....they were......tons of fun.......we learned a lot about each other all week. Did you know....the Dutch think peanut butter and jelly is odd.....in the same manner we may think their cheese and jelly is odd....... They spoke great English, which made communicating easy....and fun, since their accents were super-cute....and we both found ourselves explaining different unique phrases to each other......"let the cat out of the bag" in English is "the monkey came out of the sleeve" in Dutch for example.

I won't try to skim across other details, but I will save some fuel for future blogs. Tomorrow, we will train to the cost, where we will buy our ferry ticket....then spend a night and a day waiting for said ferry to depart. Here's to being stuck in France for two extra days....but being close enough to seeing my beloved American soil and loved ones so soon that I don't too much care! As an interesting sidenote.....we were on American soil in France when we visited the American cemetary at Normandy.....the land of the cemetary was officially given to the US by France in gratitude of the US efforts to free Europe....beautiful stuff.