updates on housing and my knee

So...I came home Friday night after cramming my head full of architectural terms pertaining to cathedrals and chateaus in class. (That vocabulary will be the death of me.) However, I do find it interesting to be able now to hold an intelligent and informed conversation about the differences between abbeys, cathedrals, and churches, and what each part of the architecture symbolizes or how each part functions. I’m also becoming more familiar with the unique styles belonging to roman, gothic, baroque, and neo-roman eras. Anyway, I hadn’t eaten dinner yet, but I couldn’t let my mind rest until I’d talked to Jacqueline about moving. I finally gathered up the courage to go talk to her, thinking that, after all, she and I had been developing a rapport, and she might at least be understanding of my reasoning if I explained well that I didn’t have a problem with her, just the distance/safety.

Nope.

Definitely not the outcome I was hoping for.

As soon as I’d finished trying to explain, her face turned stony and she stopped making eye contact with me, opting to address the TV across the room instead. Then for the next five minutes, if I heard it once, I heard it ten times: “I’ll just have to go up to the university myself on Monday. This just won’t do. I kept that room for you. The university told me I would have two students, and I have to have two students. It simply won’t work any other way. I have to go up to the university on Monday to talk to them.” I tried my best to explain that I was grateful for how she’d taken care of me, and my main reason for needing to move was safety. To that she responded with another monologue about how none of her other students have ever had any trouble with the busses, and there shouldn’t be any problem for me. After all, she said, there are busses in the evening so you don’t have to walk. I tried to explain again what I’ve told her before: that there is only one bus per hour after 9pm that can bring me back to my stop, and I’ve tried twice to take it -- and it didn’t stop for me either time. I explained that I can’t take that kind of risk all the time. Her response was, “Well, they have to stop! And if you aren’t there on time, just walk with your friends or wait at the bus stop for the hour until the next one.” I just couldn’t find a gentle way to make her understand the fact that it doesn’t matter if the busses are supposed to stop; what matters is whether they DO or not. And, I don’t have friends who can wait for me at the stop all the time, especially if they’re trying to stay safe themselves, and no one else goes my direction anyway. What’s more, I’d like to see HER sit at the bus stop for an hour when it’s 10:30pm and 35 degrees outside. (Actually, I don’t literally want to see that - I just want her to actually comprehend what I’m talking about.) :P I think she’s living in her own world, and I can’t get in. What I realized is that she doesn’t *want* to understand. She just wants my rent, and she wants things to unfold the way they’re *supposed* to unfold, according to her neat, tidy, perfect little plan. Just like every door has to be closed, every pan situated correctly, every window just so, and the cleaning has to be done like clockwork. Mom likened her to the old woman in Pollyanna. :P Personally, I feel like Anne of Green Gables, except I haven’t found the sweet side of Marilla yet. I know it’s there...somewhere...but I feel like God’s saying He wants me somewhere else. Even if I move, though, I think I could stay in contact. I hope that we can continue to have a relationship. Maybe I can visit her to help tend her garden every now and then. I was looking forward to that.

Anyway, I did visit the house that is closest to the university today. The owner was extremely nice, and she didn’t seem like an austere, rule-driven kind of taskmaster when it came to keeping house and taking care of renters. She even told me that she does laundry for her guests for a small fee - much less than the 10+ euros I would pay at the laundromat! The rent is just a bit higher than what I pay now, but the price and frequency of the meals would be flexible. The neighborhood is charming. The skylight in the bedroom offers a view of a local cathedral. The bedroom even has its own microwave and mini-fridge, lots of storage space, a bigger bed, and lots of room to move around. And...an adjustable radiator! HEAT!!! Anyway, I’m thinking that it sounds like a great option, but I would appreciate prayer that God would make it super clear what I should do. It’s not being held for me, so if He doesn’t hold it for me until Monday, I guess I’ll know that he meant “no.” The owners of the other house are out of town until Monday, so I can’t pay them a visit yet, and Jacqueline can’t have her “talk” with the university officials until then anyway. So, Monday will be the big day.

Oh, and I did pay a visit to the doctor this morning. It was surprisingly pleasant and not at all unnerving. (I felt kind of like a little kid going to the doctor for the first time. :P A language barrier can make any experience seem new, unfamiliar, and scary.) She told me that it seems like I have a bruised bone, which is why it has been causing me pain for so long. It will still take several weeks for it to heal completely. She gave a prescription for some cream and pain relievers, though. The crazy thing is that the visit only cost me 22 euros, and the prescriptions were only about 7 euros together. Crazy, these French people are. Anyway, at least now I know that I don’t have pieces of bone floating around, or torn cartilage, or something awful like that. Bone bruises are painful, but they heal eventually, and I can still walk on it without doing damage. As Caitlin told me, God must have thought I needed an extra challenge here in France, so he gave me a handicap for this level. Is it sad that I then started comparing my life to Halo? “Yeah, I shouldn’t have gone for the triple kill on that heroic campaign - you know, last semester. God’s making me play France on legendary now.” :P I suppose I could also make some Mario references...like, it sure would be nice to find some star power or some mushrooms right now. I like the green ones, but the red ones are good too.

Anyway, I’m pretty exhausted after all of that, plus an hour of wandering around trying to find Kendra's house (which looks totally different in the daylight), an afternoon of vacation planning and then a wonderful dinner with said Kendra. ;) We had a fantastically long dinner, complete with some deep and encouraging conversation. :) It made me happy. That happiness was somewhat diminished by my hour-long wait for a bus, and then my 20 minute wait IN that unheated bus at the next terminal, though. (Don’t ask me why it stops for 20 minutes...right after you get on.) In any case, I was glad for a hot shower when I got home, and now I’m quite content snuggled down under my covers where it’s warm. And I’m looking forward to church tomorrow!! :D

Much love! Bisous!