1st Sunday en Paris

Sacrament meeting was out in Versailles today because it was stake conference. Michelle and I woke up at 7:30 giving us plenty of time to get ready and travel to Versailles by 10:00. We would have left on time, but we got caught up talking with our host mother. We had to hurry to the metro and go to the RER where we would take a train to Versailles. We had to buy a ticket, and we didn’t completely understand how… thankfully we ran into some Americans who had gone to Versailles the day before. They helped us to get on the right train. Once we got out there, we ran into other girls from the group. Then we ran into some Sister Missionaries at the train station and they took us to the right place.

Church was in French, so we didn’t understand much. For the first song the primary went to the stand and sang I love to see the Temple. It made me so happy! I love that song, and I really want to learn it in French. There were two speakers who spoke in French, so that helped me to not fall asleep! Once the meetings were over, I ran around to try and find one of my missionary friends. I asked an Elder if they knew him and he said that he was out of Bruges. So I don’t know if I will be able to see him. We went to go to the Versailles gardens and the chateau, but because it was free there were so many people there! Michelle and I decided to go home and have a nice restful Sunday.

When we got home we changed our clothes and then went out to get lunch. We went to a little Asian restaurant right around the corner. It wasn’t too bad, we’ll probably go back because it is so close to home. Next Sunday we’ll have food at our apartment so we don’t have to eat out again. We went back home and started to blog, when Madame Percin came and asked us if we would have Thé with her and her son. We told her we weren’t thirsty cause we didn’t know if we could drink the tea or not. We met her 19 year old son who was very cool.

Finally someone speaking English to us!! His mom kept telling him to speak in French to us, but thankfully he kept telling her to stop talking. I felt so much more comfortable having him speak English. We talked about music, and he played the piano for us. He was very, very good and it made me really happy to sit and hear my favorite instrument. Michelle plays the piano also. He asked her to play, but all she had memorized were LDS Hymns… so she played a few church hymns! Because I mentioned that I sing, they made me sing for them. Kinda raspy with my cough, and because I haven’t been keeping up on my voice.

Then the main question finally came out. Manu (Our host brother) asked if we would like to go out to get some coffee or some beer. So, we told him we didn’t drink. Then he said, “Oh no. Don’t tell me you guys are Mormon.” We looked at him as if we had a surprise for him and said, “Yep! We sure are!” He swore and then it was kinda awkward. We asked him if it made us less cool and he said it didn’t. We ended up talking to him just like normal again after that.

He got us some amazing lemonade and we sat in his room and talked about art and poetry. He said that he works at a bar and that we will have to go in sometime and order something without alcohol. We’ll think about that one. Madam Percin went to her masque … so Manu cooked us dinner, and it was AMAZING! He is a really, really good cook. We had Filet Mignon with some delicious fancy sauce, and a salad with really yummy vinaigrette. As a side we had raw bell peppers soaked in balsamic vinegar. You should all try that, it is really good! For dessert we had cheese on bread. We could have ate all of the cheese but we decided to save some for later.

Once we cleaned up our dinner, we got on our computers to skype, blog and figure out where our classes are tomorrow! I am so nervous to start school tomorrow! Cross your fingers for me! As for our living conditions; I feel so much better having met her son and also her daughter who had dinner with us. She was really nice. She reminded me of Vanessa Johnson. She used to work at the Louvre, but at a different museum in a Louvre. Did anyone know that there is more than one museum in the building of the Louvre?? Who knew? Anyways… I feel a lot more at ease living here. I need to go to bed early tonight to go to my first day of school.

Bonne nuit!