The first month

We've been here for almost a month now. It took me a while to get used to all the people all over the place when in Paris but now it doesn't bother me the way it used to. We have our own little coffee place and I've come to enjoy running around in Paris. I haven't practiced french as much as I would have hoped but the longer we're here the more contacts we get and the more opportunities I get to practice.

I've started playing the guitar in church now. It seems like I'll be doing that until we leave. It's nice to be involved. I still find the sermons very hard to follow and I get very tired trying to listen but it's just a matter of time.  

We found an Irish shop where we found lots of lovely Irish products. One thing that we just had to get was Barry's tea.

We found a power outlet at one of the food places in Paris.
This is very rare around here apparently.

 We spent most of the weekend in Paris and had a great time.

Hannah had a meeting with the young adults so I joined her. We discussed how we would do things and how often and things like that. Every fortnight we're going to meet up and do something together. The meetings are going to be in French so that's where I'm going to get most of my practice.

Taking a food brake after all the planning

We found this in the metro. If you get tired from walking in all those
stairs you can just sit down and take a break. Isn't this just lovely? 

On Saturday we had a meeting with the guys in the picture to the left. They're from YWAM (Youth With A Mission) Paris and we talked about their DTS (Discipleship Training School) program. For those of you who don't know it's basically that during the first half you get some training in Paris and the second half is a missionary trip to south east Asia. We had some concerns about finances and things like that but after the meeting all our concerns disappeared. The school is quite expensive and in total it will cost us about 5000€ each. We don't have all the money at the moment but we hope to raise enough to pay for the entire program. 

After the meeting we took a look at
the view before going back home  

Going through the songs before the service

Happy Hannah on the train

T and I did some male bonding when putting together his new desk.
Ta was there to get some of the sweets T had.

The new French coffee press I bought to replace the one I broke

With the DTS and the wedding and everything there's a lot that has to be done and taken care of in addition to everything we already have on our plates. This September has been very rich in experiences and I expect October to offer just as much, if not more. 

A little update

So a lot has happened since I last had the chance and the energy to write. Anyway I've been out with the chaps a few times this past week. I've gotten to know them a bit better and see more of who they are. I've really appreciated the little walks. There have been a lot of revelations about family life and discipline. I've met the challenge of getting them up and ready in time for school. Getting them to clean up after themselves and putting them to bed in time. 

Hannah has been here quite a few times and helped me out and we've gotten more of an idea about how things would work in the future. I would say we won't have any big problems in that department. I think it's been really healthy for us to get an insight into having the whole thing about having children and taking care of them together.

T and O are out with the dog

O on her way to the farm to
look at the animals

I'd say I've settled in a lot more this past week. Things are getting easier and I'm getting a grip on what I'm doing, both inside and outside of the family. Saturday turned out to be a very difficult day for me for some reason. I suppose it was finally weekend and I got to get away for a bit and I hadn't really got to rest. Rest is still something I don't seem to get enough of. I still haven't found a way to recharge properly. After I drop off O at school I'm free to do what I want. Most of that time I spend at home since I don't really know what else to do. I usually listen to a sermon on my computer and then read the Bible for a bit and pray for strength. I can tell it makes a big difference but I still need to get out more. I'd like to go into Paris more but I don't feel like I really have the time.

After arriving in Paris we went to our favourite coffee place and sat down. Anytime we go into Paris we start off by going there. It doesn't look like much but they have the best coffee we have found so far. The crêpes are also very good. 

All the museums were free this weekend so we finished our meal and went to a nearby modern arts museum. I really didn't like it, not at all. I found some of the "artwork" to be very disturbing and a lot of it just wasn't nice. One of the things they displayed was a woman carving words in her legs with a knife. In the end I just wanted to get out of there and do something else.

  Later on we went to Le Louvre and looked at the Mona Lisa. I think the painting was a bit too small and you didn't get to go close enough to actually appreciate it. Hannah and I both thought that there was a lot of other pieces of art that were a lot more impressive. I really should have taken more pictures but I suppose we'll go back some other time when they have free entry and check out all the other things. A friend of mine gave some tip as to what we could go and see. We went a bit late and only stayed for a short while. Not nearly long enough to look at all the art. 

We went to the latin quarter to eat after having looked at all the art. Before deciding what do to and where to go next we saw how the dark clouds closed in on us quickly. Soon it started to drizzle and then the rain came pouring down. Luckily I had my jacked. Hannah didn't have one so I gave her mine. We ate and then decided to go home. We went home early since we needed to get up early the following day.

At 07:20 the alarm went off and we had to get up and get ready. We had breakfast and I got to drink coffee out of a bowl again. We caught the bus to the station and hoped we'd get there in time for the train. Sadly the red light was what kept us from catching the train we wanted. It was of little consequence since there was another train coming in a few minutes, one of the things that are really good with the public transportation around here. 

We arrived at the church and prayed with the others before the meeting started. I didn't really understand much of the prayers but I sat there patiently waiting for the meeting to start. I thought I heard my name every now and then so I guess they were praying for Hannah and me. 

The meeting started and I sat there trying to follow what was going on. It didn't take me long to decide to just stop trying to understand and I checked out the Bible passages and got an idea of what was going on. I was asked by the pastors if I was willing to play the guitar on some of the meetings. I said I could do it and now it seems I'm starting now next Sunday. 

We got really hungry so after the meeting we went back to the Latin Quarter and got some food. On the picture to the left you can see a happy Hannah eating. It was quite expensive and the portions were quite small. Hannah suggested that we could get a dessert after to fill our stomachs. We both thought it would be best to get it from somewhere else so we went back to our coffee place. Soon they won't even have to ask what we want. Because of the weather all the customers were inside in the little room so it was quite cramped. It didn't matter though because we had a really great time anyway. On the picture to the right Hannah is trying to hide from my camera. I think she got shy when I'm always taking pictures of her. 

Today we wanted to go to the Eiffel Tower. Hannah had never gone all the way to the top so I decided that we had to go all the way up. We had to queue for quite a while so we realised we wouldn't have time to go to Hillsong. I had wanted to go but I thought going to the top of the Eiffel Tower was more important this time. 

Waiting to go up

We took the elevator and it took ages before we could get to the top. First you take and elevator to the second floor where you have to wait for the next elevator that will take you to the top. There were a lot more people than I had anticipated. The elevators were so full you really got squashed. In front of us was this other couple and Hannah thought it felt like we were stalking them since we were following them all the time. When we got to the top of the tower we didn't need to follow them anymore and we forgot all about them. There were a lot of people at the top which I didn't like. It made what I had in mind a lot bit more difficult.

The view was very nice and you could see all of Paris. Hannah showed me where all the different things were. We had planned on going to this street where everything is really expensive and look. I keep forgetting the name of the street. She also showed me where Notre Damme was among other things.

 It was quite windy at the top on one side so it got quite cold after a while. Hannah wanted to leave but I wasn't ready to leave yet. I stalled for a bit and asked about the different things she was showing me. I was waiting for people to move away a bit so I'd have the space I needed.

I felt that it was time. Everything was going according to plan. I told Hannah how I felt and what I wanted. I could see the anticipation in her eyes when I started telling her all these things. I got the ring out of my pocket and went down on one knee and asked her to marry me.

I knew this was her dream. I just knew that I had to do it at the top of the Eiffel Tower. Just being close to it wouldn't do.

The 21st of September Hannah said yes. I am a happy man.

When we get back to Finland at christmas we're probably going to try to have some kind of an engagement party. I think we'll have one in Österbotten and one down south. I'll get back to you about the specifics.

New friends and new experiences

After having spent the day in Paris we went and stayed in Antony. I got to meet Christiane who only spoke french. We got some food before we went off to bed. The following morning was fairly slow. We got up late and we ate lunch with Christiane and her friend who spoke some English. Most of the conversation went in French so I had a hard time keeping up. Eventually I just stopped listening.

It was a nice day so Hannah and I went out for a walk to the park and spend a few hours there. It almost felt like summer. We started to get hungry and I was in the mood for crêpes so we went into the center of Antony to look for a place we could eat.

Hannah feeding the ducks

While looking for a place to eat we found a strange vending machine outside the pharmacy. There you could get anything from painkillers to pregnancy tests. I thought it was weird when I first saw it but soon realised how practical it really was. If there's anything you need from the pharmacy and they're closed you can just get what you want from the vending machine.

Anyway it took ages before we could get any food since the places we looked at opened late. At that point I had gotten really grumpy because when the one place was closed and we went to the next it was closed as well. So we went back to the first place and looked at the menu while we waited for them to open.

 When we had finished our food we went to a grocery store to get something for the picnic that was to take place the following day. We were in a bit of a hurry since it was almost closing time. Moving on from the store we went to see the wine and cheese festival in town. There was a lot of people but we didn't really see much since we mostly just went in and out. 

We went over to the bus stop and found a car parked in the middle of the way. This was the second time that day that I had found a car that was terribly parked. While looked for a food place we found a car parked on the pedestrian crossing. We waited for the bus that had to stop in the middle of the road due to the car and we went home. We looked for a movie to watch and Christane came home. We ended up putting on Troy but Hannah didn't really want to watch it so we turned it off and put it back. Before we went to bed Hannah wrote in her diary.

In the morning we got up early so we would have time for breakfast and a shower before we left. That morning I ended up drinking coffee out of a little bowl instead of a cup. I was quite surprised when she took my bowl and put coffee in it but I didn't complain. When we arrived at the church we we're greeted by some people who were going to pray before the meeting began. Hannah and I joined them but before we started I got to meet one of the american pastors. It was a relief I got to speak some English.

The text translates into A hear for Paris

Before we started praying everyone said what was going on in their lives and if there was anything we could pray about. I listened to everyone explain their situation in French and I kind of got an idea about what they were saying but I missed out on a lot of details. Finally it was my turn to tell them a bit about my situation so I tried to use the French I had and explained my situation and what I wanted them to pray about. They understood what I meant which was a relief and then we got to praying. I thought everyone prayed for a very long time. Normally I'd be used to people praying longer prayers than me but this time I just wanted it to end quickly. I suppose me not understanding half of what they prayed has something to do with that as well.

The whole meeting was in French and it was hard to keep up so eventually I just stopped listening and started reading the Bible for myself instead. Whenever they had a passage up on the screen I'd look for that passage in my Bible so I could follow what they were on about.

Some of our new friends

 After the meeting was done they served some drinks and biscuits and stuff. Then I got the chance to speak with some of the English speakers. I met some of the other young people and met two others who had also just come here who didn't speak any French yet either. We exchanged numbers. There were also French speaking young adults that we got to know but I never exchanged any numbers with them.

After church we all went off to a nearby park and had out picnic. Hannah and I went to a bakery first to get something more for the picnic. Luckily there were others who thought they'd get something as well so they joined us. We all went to the park at the same time. We had a very nice time. I got to speak a bit more with everyone from church which was very nice. Some of the others were planning on going to Hillsong Paris later on in the evening and asked us if we were coming too. I wasn't too sure at the time if I wanted to go or not. I decided that I wanted to go off alone with Hannah for a bit before making a decision. I needed to recharge a bit before the meeting in any case.

We said goodbye for now and went to our coffee place and got that good coffee that we can't seem to find anywhere else. On our way there we heard a couple fighting. They were in their apartment with the window open so everyone could hear them shouting and throwing things around them. Luckily it didn't bother us when we had our coffee and smoothie.

Suddenly we heard a group of people singing nearby. I recognised the song so we left the money on the table and went to look at the group. It was a gospel group who were giving out flyers for the concert they're having. We stood and listened to them while they sang which really made my day. When they finished we went off to the metro to move on. I was thinking about maybe going home instead of going to Hillsong but I couldn't get a hold of P so I decided to go with Hannah. See I take the train to Poissy and there is no busses on Sundays so I had to rely on P to pick me up.

We went to Hillsong and met up with our new friends. When we got in there and found some seats for ourselves and then I started to relax again which was a bit strange considering the place being packed with people. The songs were all in French but there were English subtitles so I recognised the songs and could understand what they were singing. The whole meeting was in French but there was an English translation so that was a relief. The preacher talked about different aspects to guilt which was quite interesting.

After the meeting we went outside and said goodbye. Before we left we prayed together which felt completely natural. One of the others left and we went in to find and English Bible for the friend that stayed. When she got her Bible she went on home and Hannah and I continued to look for one of the French Bibles they were handing out. We ran around for a bit before finding one for me. They were giving them out for free so I just thought I had to take the opportunity to get one.

We were both a bit hungry so we went to a crêpe place just outside the Hillsong place. There I phoned P and decided on when she'd come pick me up and everything. Hannah didn't finish her crêpe so I ate the last of it. It was a chicken crêpe and I felt like I was in heaven. It was on a completely different level than any of the ones I had tasted so far. Next time I'm definitely getting one of them.

We went to the metro and we had to go our separate ways. To be honest I was a bit sad at that moment and I didn't want to say goodbye so I missed one of the trains in order to stay with Hannah for a little while longer. She cheered me up and we said our goodbye and  I got on the train.

So this week started off easy. The car was going to the garage so Penny took O to school before going off with the car so I got to stay home. I took care of the dishes and cleaned up after breakfast like every other morning and I just took it easy to recover from all the adventures. Later on I picked O up from school and made her some lunch. O went upstairs and changed to some lighter clothes since it was quite warm. After lunch and everything we went back to school and I took it easy again. Hannah told me she was going to come visit me that day even though that previously wasn't the plan. When O and I were on our way back home we stopped at the busstop for a little while to wait for Hannah to arrive which took maybe two or three minutes. It seems like O has grown fond of Hannah as well because every now and then she asks if Hannah is coming over.

Like the day before I didn't need to drop Olivia off at school so the same procedure as the day before. Only this time she was having lunch in school so I spent the day taking care of myself. Hannah came over yesterday after her job interviews. She couldn't stay for long this time which was a shame but I'm happy she turned up at all. She helped with O's homework which is a relief since there's not much I can do when it comes to the french homework. O is a smart girl and I'm really impressed by how quickly and well she knows her homework. We spent sometime outside and also we did some drawing.

Hannah drew some animals and a Pokémon and O drew a whole lot of things on here big piece of paper. I drew a globe.

Hannah went home and I continued with O and eventually started with supper. Later on a little girl came over and spent a few hours here since her parents were off on some dancing. I put the children to bed and watched some tv with O's friend. I tried to communicate with her with the French I know. It wasn't perfect and I had a few blanks in my sentences but it worked anyway.

Eventually P came home and I helped her bring in the stuff from the car. The parents came and picked up their child and P and I sat down and had a little chat. I gave her an update about how things are going. I told her about how I like being here and that I want to continue doing this and everything. There's really nothing else I'd rather do right now. I really believe I should be here right now. Things were a bit rough in the beginning when I hadn't gotten the hang of things yet but now I feel a lot more confident in my role here and I'm getting more relaxed. Things are getting easier everyday and I'm learning a lot.

This is a great adventure.

A day in Paris

The day started off with me getting O ready for school. I drove her to school and P to the bus stop. I didn't do much when I got home but I took it easy. The dog had done his business inside so I had to clean that up. I opened up the door to let some fresh air in hoping that the stench would leave. 

At lunch I went to pick O up again and I made lunch and then we went off to the international school. We left fairly early so I could guarantee a parking spot. When we got there we went to the park beside the school and played around till the gates to the school opened.

Outside the gates stood a Pakistani woman to whom I spoke. She was in the phone and I recognised the language. When she was done I asked her if she was from India and she explained that she was from Pakistan and she spoke Urdu. I told her about my dad and we talked a bit about how long we've been here and so on. 

When the gates opened we went in and waited for the teacher. I found the classroom and the teacher and everything worked out smoothly for a change. I dropped her off and sat down in the car and waited for thr cars to leave so I could get out. I when I got home I took a shower and got ready to go meet Hannah in Paris. 

This was the first time I got to use my pass navigo. The whole trip to Paris went smoothly. We went to a coffee place and had great coffee and I got a crêpe. After having sat there for a while we decided to go off and see a bit of Paris. We went into a few different shops and just looked around. At one point we went into this shop that turned out to be a "sophisticated sex shop". The shop was so open and everything so you wouldn't have thought it was a sex shop until you got in. 

Later on we went to see the Eiffel Tower. We sat there for quite a while waiting for it to become dark so we could see the tower lit up. While we waited we went to this carousel. 

At nine o'clock there was this lightshow. The Eiffel Tower started flashing all over the place. To be honest I was a bit disappointed. I had expected more when Hannah told me about it. 

Hannah also gave me a brief history lesson about why they built the Eiffel Tower in the first place. In the end I don't really get what all the hype is about. 

We went home to Hannah's place in Antony after the lightshow was done and there I met Christiane. She seems nice but only speaks French so communication was a bit difficult. We had something to eat and then we went off to bed. 

Week one

So these last few days have been hectic. There has been a lot of new things coming up and new places to drive to. It's exhausting when there's a lot of new things going on all the time.

Anyway O and I are like best friends now. The other day we were playing with the dominos and we ended up making a few different things. Here on the pictures above you can see that we made the Eiffel tower and a man that's sitting driving a car with a hat and a scarf. We had a really nice day that day. O has also started going to this international school where there are classes in all kinds of different languages. There's even a Swedish section. There was a mixup which made getting her to class and everything got a lot more complicated but eventually everything got settled.

In the morning we found this fellow in the sink

Hannah is enjoying the nice hot weather

Hannah came to visit me yesterday and helped me out with everything. It's nice having her around. The meatballs were appreciated. The bus came from the wrong direction which made Hannah miss the bus so she had to come back since it was the last bus that passed. She ended up helping me tidying up after supper and helped me get the lads to bed. P was going to come home late since there was this meeting in the international school. We went and picked her up and dropped Hannah off at the train station.

Preparing meatballs and mashed potatoes

O is helping us out with the dinner and she's making some vinaigrette for the salad

Since I didn't really know where these new places were I decided to try and find them beforehand during my free hours. In the end I ended up filling the entire day and I didn't get any free time until P got back home. I was a bit unhappy with the outcome since I wanted to do some reading so I came up with the brilliant idea to bring the bible with me when I went to pick up O from school. Since there are so many students in the school and all the parents have to pick them up you need to be there in good time so you can find a parking space. While I sat parked, waiting for the gates to open, I did some more reading. 

 

I decided to read the Bible while I was waiting

All the parents picking up their children

After we got home I made some lunch and tried to make sense of where it was I was supposed to go with O next. P had sent me some descriptions which helped me get a grip of where I was going. I drove her to her dancing class and went back home. It felt like I only got in through the door before I had to go pick her up again. I grabbed something quick to eat and asked T if he wanted to come with me and pick up O. He wasn't doing anything else so he decided to come with me. After we picked up O we decided to try and locate where O was going to have her sculpture class. We found the right road but we just weren't sure about where on that road it was. We headed back home before we found it and thought we'd call P and see if she knew. Shortly after arriving home Hannah showed up. I called P and with her help I knew where to go. We got there and found the place and waited for them to start. The time went by and we started to wonder whether or not it was on today. There was a number on the door with some information. Hannah called the number and found out that the class doesn't start until October which meant I had stressed for no reason.

Hannah and O spent some time in the garden while I took care of the washing and some housework. When we got in the door T headed out to get his haircut and Ta had gone over to the neighbour. Later on I tuned T's guitar and played for a little while. I'm going to start teaching him soon. The rest of the day went smoothly.

It has never been so apparent to me before that I am a foreigner. I've been in Finland for so long I don't really think of myself as a foreigner too much and I'm still able to get things done there with little difficulty. Here it's a lot more challenging. My french is not that good yet and I'm having a hard time communicating with people so it's difficult to get things done. It's hard to be independent when you can't really do anything. I've been a foreigner most of my life but it's never felt like this before. Suddenly you get an understanding of how hard it must be for refugees.

My time here has also given me a bit of insight into parenthood. I always knew that parenthood isn't all that easy but now I have a greater understanding. There's always a lot you need to think of. I've never really cared to check the weather until now. It's a bit fun when people assume I'm the girls father and I explain to them that I'm just the Au Pair. I suppose they don't really consider that since nearly all au pairs are female.

In my time here it has become more clear how important my faith in God means to me. Things have been a bit tough and draining but it helps to know that God is with me. I feel that it's more necessary for me now when I'm out in the world basically all alone, with the exception of Hannah. I think we both feel the same way about this. It's kind of the only stability we have right now. I think it's in situations like these you just start to pray more and rely on God more than you would when you're among friends and family and you know you're safe.

It's amazing how much your life can change in a very short while.

Settling in

 So these past few days have been intense. It has really been a lot to take in. There's always something going on and the traffic here is a lot more stressful than I'm used to. I haven't really gotten out to explore Orgeval properly yet and I haven't really been speaking any French yet. 

Saturday we went to sign up the chaps for activities. Everyone is in this big hall and there are tables with people sitting there. Above the tables are signs so you know what activity they're offering. There were a lot of people there. After this we went back home to grab some dinner.

After dinner I was to go into the center of Paris and meet Hannah. The plan was for me to get my pass navigo so I can travel as much as I like within certain zones. Sadly the offices were closed which means we'll have to do it sometime this week. Anyway I got a weekend ticket and I was off. 

Hannah was already there waiting for me. There was people everywhere again. We got out of the station and we just walked. I had brought my jacket just in case but France is a lot warmer than I had anticipated.

The park

We went to this little park in the middle of everything and sat down. My jacket was of use after all. We were there for a while trying to recover from the overload of people. After taking a few deep breaths we started to think about what to do next and where to go. So we crossed the river Seine in search for food.

We walked around a bit and saw lots of people everywhere. There was this artist on the street who was drawing things and selling them. He was making portraits and he was actually quite talented. We were tempted to get him to draw us but we didn't have any proper way of transporting it so we decided to do it later.

Hannah at the river Seine

 

Hannah and I continued into this place where the streets were filled with different restaurants. There was lots to choose from but we settled for french cuisine. It was a nice little place where we got three courses. I ordered their homemade burger and it must be one of the best burgers I have ever had. We sat there for quite a while and had a great time. 

After this we decided to go over to a park and then continue on to the Eiffel tower. We went down to the metro and realised that there was something wrong with the ticket. We took it to the information desk and told them and they gave me a new one. We went to the other park and sat there for a few minutes. It was a pity that the park was closing and everyone had to go out. I never realised that a park is a place that you would close. 

Since the park closed we went off and found a little open restaurant and had a glass of wine. We checked the timetables to see when we had to leave. After a nice time at the restaurant we headed to the metro so we could catch the train. Again there was something wrong with the ticked and the information booth was closed so we had to find a different metro station. There we told them the problem and they gave us a new one. Hannah figured there must be a problem with the system since that ticket is supposed to work all weekend with all types of transport. Anyway since we had to walk more than expected we missed the train I had planned on taking so I got onto the next one. We had to skip the Eiffel tower since there simply wasn't any time. 

Today I haven't been doing much. I had planned on going into Paris to church but I decided to prioritise rest. If I'm to survive another week I couldn't go stressing myself out. So I stayed home and slept in late and waited for Hannah to arrive. I went to pick her up from Poissy. We watched the Holy Ghost movie that was streaming for free. After having watched the movie we decided to get something to eat. We arrived at the pizza place only to realise that it was Sunday and nothing is opened on Sundays. To our disappointment we walked back home and got something there instead. Before we knew it it was time to drive Hannah to the train station in Poissy. 

It just feels like my mission here is a lot bigger than I had realised. I see a lot more than I had expected. This wasn't the most pleasant realisation. This is what I came for and this is what I want to do, but it's not going to be easy. At least I can be happy that I'm not alone in this. 

The picture says it all