Well, day three in France came and went. Today was a bit more laid back than the first two, so I was able to focus more on some of the small details that are contrary from back home, starting with our hotel itself. It has an electric gate with a keypad. There is a keypad at the door as well. The lights outside and in the lobby are all motion-activated, so there’s having to constantly flip switches in the dark. In the bathroom, the toilet water goes straight down with a bang, not around the bowl like our toilets. Oh, and by the way, it’s called “une salle de bain” (the room of the bath).
When the guys and I went to lunch, I noticed a few other dissimilar things on the way to the restaurant. For one thing, there’s never any heavy traffic. The reason for that is this: lots of people walk, or take the buses and trains, so not many automobiles cruise the streets. Another thing I observed was the cars themselves. Besides a few Fords and VW’s, the majority of their cars are one of three French brand, not at all like America. When we arrived at the restaurant, another anomaly caught my eye. The place was a buffet, but we only had one plate each, not one for each trip to the food bar. I bet they save a lot of dishwashing time that way.
After eating, Brad, Allen, Ab, Dad and I returned to Life Agape (the French version of Campus Crusade for Christ) to finish working on their stuff. Since I’m not a geek–yet– I got to help with another part of Life Agape’s ministry. Every year they send out Christian calendars to thousands of people, and they needed help addressing those letters, so that’s what I got to do. It was enjoyable, and I learned the French words for street (rue) and dead end (impasse). And at the end of the day, even with all of the differences I noticed, that’s where one thing is the same between America and France: both have a passion and a burden for reaching people for Christ, no matter what. And maybe, because of that, we aren’t so different after all.
(Note: the following picture is from a local Subway restaurant at the mall ‘Evry Deux.” This was the bread selection we had available for our sandwiches.)
