Lazy Sunday mornings

My favorite thing about Sunday mornings in Lyon? Not having to wake up at the crack of dawn to get ready for church! I know, that sounds horrible. Lest you think I've abandoned my faith, I need to explain -- our church in Lyon meets on Sunday afternoons.

I savor this new experience of lounging around in my PJ's, enjoying an American-sized mug of steaming hot coffee, listening to worship music. We sit in the living-slash-dining room, Greg and I. We enjoy each other's presence but silently do our own thing: I write; Greg reads. The girls are still asleep in their room next door.

The street noise below is at a minimum, reminding me of the calm of August. In France, Sundays are still set apart as a day of relaxation and rest. Shops are closed, as well as most restaurants. Even grocery stores used to be fermé on Sundays, although now you can find some that open their doors for a few hours.

Families spend Sundays together. You'll see them walking or riding bikes along the Rhône, or enjoying a leisurely picnic. This week the weather is spectacular, so I imagine the parks will be swarming with people. Hopefully I'll have a chance to get out and people-watch before we head to church.

As I mentioned earlier, our church, the International Christian Community of Lyon, meets on Sunday afternoons at 4:30. Every other week we have a traditional corporate worship service including singing followed by the sermon. On alternate weeks, we have what we call "FSP" - fellowship, study, and prayer. It's more of a small-group atmosphere, where we gather around a table and study a passage from God's Word and pray together. Afterwards we enjoy a time of fellowship and food.

I absolutely love our little church. It's nothing fancy, and that is so refreshing after all the bells-and-whistles that I experienced in most American churches. I imagine it's a lot like the early church gatherings. We meet in a dusty wooden building, not much bigger than a large shed. Wooden folding chairs serve as pews, and Greg preaches from a simple lectern rather than from a raised platform. The worship team leads a mix of old hymns and contemporary worship songs. We all sing loudly and with great joy. People from around the world - Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, and the Americas - join hearts to praise God together.

If you're in Lyon, join us! Enjoy your own lazy Sunday morning, then come to the ICCL, where you'll find a welcoming Christian "family." We're just a bunch of imperfect people who follow the Perfect One.

A week in the life

Life seems to be settling down a bit. My new routines are still far from "routine," but I'm beginning to figure out the rhythms of life in Lyon. I'm still very much a stranger in a strange land, however, I'm starting to be comfortable with being uncomfortable.

Although there is a lot going on in my life here, lately I haven't felt like there's anything particularly interesting to write about. But I realize that if I don't capture the present "normal," the memory of these early weeks in Lyon will soon fade away. So, at the risk of boring my readers, I'll just recap the week for the sake of posterity.

Sunday - Slept in...what a blissful thing it is to have worship services in the afternoon instead of first thing in the morning! Last Sunday was our church's annual kick-off BBQ fellowship. Although it rained, we brought the picnic indoors and had a great time of fellowship. Our church is an English speaking international church, and at the present time includes families from such far-flung places as Japan, Pakistan, England, Korea, and Australia, in addition to France and the U.S.

Monday - The girls both go to school late on Mondays. It's the only day they get to take their commute on the metro together. I'm thankful - it makes Sunday evenings a lot more relaxed, knowing the girls can stay up a bit later because they can sleep an extra hour or two in the morning. I'm going to enjoy this while it lasts! After they left for school, Greg and I went for a run, starting alongside the Rhone and eventually winding through the parc de la tete d'or.

Tuesday - Greg and I had our appointment with the OFII (Office Français de l'Immigration et de l'Intégration). I was really nervous that we wouldn't have all the necessary paperwork, but thankfully all went well, and now we have this nice official stamp in our passports that allow us to remain in France legally for another 10 months. Next July, we'll have to go through the song-and-dance again at the Préfecture. The worst part of this ordeal was having to get a chest X-ray during the medical examination (I guess they are looking for signs of tuberculosis). The French aren't as modest as we Americans tend to be, so there were no robes provided. Awkward!!

Wednesday - I signed us up for French lessons with Lyon Bleu, a company located only 5 blocks away from our apartment. We start Monday morning, and I can't wait! Although I've made a bit of progress on my own, I'm tired of being stuck at the beginner level, and I long to understand more of what I'm hearing around me.
Wednesdays are early release days for middle schoolers here, and Lindsey invited her new Japanese friend over to spend the afternoon. It was fun hearing them giggle as they played with Barbies. I love that my preteen still enjoys playing with her toys!

Thursday - Lunch with a friend from church, followed by a ministry team meeting, then hosting a gentleman for dinner made for a full day. Our dinner guest was a man from Angola whom Greg met last April at the ICCL. We've kept in touch over the past few months, and I was so glad that he looked us up during his business trip to Lyon. He is a man of great faith, and his joy in the Lord is truly contagious!

Friday - So far it's been another busy day on the social front: coffee with one friend and lunch with another. I really enjoy being able to take time to sit down with women over leisurely cups of coffee and hear their stories. Now I need to go for another run and work off the calories!

La Rentree

Last week, we found ourselves in the midst of a French phenomenon: la rentree. In a nutshell, this phrase means the "re-entry" into the normal routines of school and career after August's vacation season. But after eight years of small-town homeschooling, we found our introduction to the French education system to be anything but normal!

My daughters are enrolled in a very unique school. It's a French public school that includes a large international section...actually, it has a total of nine international sections including Japanese, Italian, German, Polish, Spanish, Portuguese, Arabic, Chinese, and the largest by far, English. The goal of the school is to take students of different nationalities and integrate them as rapidly as possible into the French education system. How do they accomplish this? For students like my daughters, who know very little of the French language, it's not an easy task. They have a very customized schedule comprised of French lessons, specialized math (back to the basics, but all in French), and a few courses in English (Literature, Language, History and Geography). Lindsey, who is in "college" (don't be impressed, it's just their term for middle school) also has P.E., art, and music. These classes are integrated with kids from France as well as all the other international departments, and are of course taught entirely in French. Lori's "lycée"(high school) curriculum doesn't include these electives, but she does have to take another foreign language, so she's learning Spanish as well as French!

Lori & Lindsey's new school: 5 stories, over 2,000 students, and 10 different languages

The hardest thing for us to get used to in this school is the crazy schedules. No two weekdays are alike. Some days they have French for two hours back to back, other days they don't have French at all. The same goes for Math, English classes, and electives. The classes aren't even held at the same time from one day to the next. Even lunchtime doesn't follow a regular pattern: it might be at 11:50 one day, 12:45 the next day, and 1:40 on other days. This is normal for French students across the country, and I'm assured by veteran parents that they do eventually get used to it. But I'm not yet convinced.

The most challenging part is all the "holes" in their schedules. Until our daughters achieve a level of French fluency, they are held back from a full class load. For example, they won't attend science classes until their French teacher thinks they are ready to understand what's going on in class (the school doesn't offer science in English). So, instead of science they just have a study hall period. Usually it's not a big deal, but on Fridays, Lori has a class at 8:00 and then nothing until 3:30! Luckily for her, lycee kids can leave campus, so she gets to come home between classes.

I admit, I cried one day last week trying to figure out the itineraries and all the French paperwork which was sent home and had to be signed. I actually set up a white board in the living room to try to make sense of it all. But despite the wacky schedules and the cold, utilitarian building, I love this school. It's exciting to see the girls making friends with kids from Ireland and Japan and Haiti and Brazil. The administrators and teachers are firm, yet immensely helpful. The English department staff is awesome, and the Anglophone classes offer outlets for creativity that can't be found in a typical French school. I'm thrilled that the girls will be learning tons of French in an immersion setting, which they wouldn't have the opportunity to do if we'd enrolled them in the expensive private international school down the road.

I'm also glad that the girls are treated like capable, mature students. They definitely aren't babied. There's no hand-holding; they have to be responsible for themselves from the moment they walk out the door. They ride public transportation to and from school, and when they arrive, they have to consult their schedules and navigate through the five-story building (among 2,000 other students) to find the correct classrooms. They have to listen to instructions in French, and when they don't understand, they are on their own to find someone who can help. In the long run, I believe that this system will serve them well in life. So although "la rentree" was chaotic, well, so is life at times. They'll be prepared!