Sharing humor

Mmmmmmmmhm. So for the past few months my French friend Camille would talk about this tv show called Grey's Anatomy. Since she is studying to be a doctor she really likes this show and since it is from the U.S. She would always ask me if I heard of it or watched it, but since I do not usually watch tv I had never watched it even though many of my friends did. But a few days ago one of my friends gave me the first season to watch, and as I am watching it right now I am on episode 4. It is quite entertaining, interesting, but also a little sad. I can see why she loves it so. I think it is rather intriguing how even though we are across the sea, we both can enjoy the same tv and movies. Fun to share so many aspects in our lives together.

French Sister

Last weekend I went to Los Vegas for my choir’s mini tour, where we sang concerts at a school and different churches. On my Facebook though I had written how we had passed about 10 little chapels in a row and all I needed was a man to marry me (because it’s what people do in Vegas apparently). Camille, my French friend, commented telling me that I should meet a French man and marry him, so that I could move to France and be with her. She really does make me laugh, but I know that she truly is one of my best friends.

               We call each other sister: I her American sister, and she my French sister. It still is really wonderful to me that one can be so deeply connected to another, even across the continent. She brings such a smile to my face, and I do miss her greatly. Hopefully soon I shall be able to visit her again.

               We talked today. She has been extremely busy with studying to be a doctor, her classes very hard and taking up all of her time. She joked a little today about how she is not in an English class anymore and is afraid she will lose her English speaking skills. I just told her I will get very good at French so we can still talk.

               I would love to be in France right now. At the café, drinking an orange hot cocoa, laughing with her and friends as I try to pronounce French words properly. It would be lovely to be back at the Normandy beach listening to the waves wash over the smooth stones that make up the beach instead of sand, such a smooth noise that can lull one to sleep. Being able to pull cherries straight off the trees we walk by and stain our fingers from the juices. Their culture is so wonderful, I may not completely agree with the government over there, but culture wise I adore it, the people really aren’t as rude as we perceive them to be. Truthfully, compared to Oklahoma, California is full of not so friendly people, but I guess it is just something about the Midwest.

               Well. Bonne nuit!

TOMs Shoes. A Day Without

TOMs

An organization dedicated to donating shoes to children all across the world who do not own shoes.

“In 2006, American traveler Blake Mycoskie befriended children in Argentina and found they had no shoes to protect their feet. Wanting to help, he created TOMS Shoes, a company that would match every pair of shoes purchased with a pair of new shoes given to a child in need. One for One. Blake returned to Argentina with a group of family, friends and staff later that year with 10,000 pairs of shoes made possible by TOMS customers.”[1]

What would it be like to grow up without shoes? What most people do not know is how many children grow up without ever owning a pair of shoes. Day to day walking around barefoot: cuts, bruising and diseases easily transmitted from the soil the children walk on without any form of protection.

Imagine:

•A leading cause of disease in developing countries is soil-transmitted diseases, which can penetrate the skin through bare feet. Wearing shoes can help prevent these diseases, and the long-term physical and cognitive harm they cause.[2]

•Wearing shoes also prevents feet from getting cuts and sores. Not only are these injuries painful, they also are dangerous when wounds become infected.[3]

•Many times children can't attend school barefoot because shoes are a required part of their uniform. If they don't have shoes, they don't go to school. If they don't receive an education, they don't have the opportunity to realize their potential.[4]

               So if you happen to have some extra money, or want to buy someone a gift, a pair of TOMs shoes would be a gift worth giving, one not only for the person you love, but for a child in need.

               April 5^th, 2011 is a day without shoes. It is a day where people who support the cause take off their shoes to raise awareness of how much no shoes impact so many children’s lives.

               I am hoping you will join me in raising awareness. God calls us to disciple around the not just the nation, but the world. We need to reach out to those across the world, and what better way than to share our love and support with other countries, showing how much we love their children and want them to live healthy lives with the opportunities of education. Help me get the word out about TOMs shoes, and even the day without shoes.

Only 59 days away. How many people can you tell by then?

---

[1] http://www.toms.com/our-movement/movement-one-for-one

[2] toms

[3] toms

[4] toms

Camille's chaussures

Lately Camille my French friend has been obsessed with ute high healed shoes, but she always wants me approval and will text and facebook me to look at her new shoes. She gets so very excited, which is extremely precious. I do believe the American culture has had quite an impact on her. Even the way she speaks English and the slang terms she learned from me are so cute because of the way she uses them.

It is always wonderful having a best friend who lives in a completely different culture.

Last week in the mail I received a package from her in the mail that consisted of my Christmas present. It is a French pocketwatch-necklace. Apparently she has one just like it, so everytime I wear it I think of her. Everyone adores it, which makes me happy because Camille is such a brilliant gift giver.

I do adore her.

More later. Love love.

Test Time in France

My best friend in Amiens, France went to college this year just as I did. But my little genius of a friend wants to be a famous doctor, or at least jokes about it, but Camille really does want to be a doctor. Over break she kept texting me completely freaked out because before Christmas break she and all of her class had to take this huge test that decided their future, and the results were coming out the first week of the New Year. I asked her about the details of her program to see how it differs from our own doctor and nursing programs here in the USA.

In France, in Medical studies, the first year is common to several things: doctor, midwife, dentist and physiotherapist (and also pharmacist but only in a few colleges and just for the first year).

The first semester was from September to December (without break at all), Camille had : physics and chemistry, cellular biology, embryology, histology, math and her big test was early December (the French word is Concours) over all these subjects, this was only multiple-choice question paper (QCM), and it took 2 days.

And in the middle of January, we had a big 'grading' (like a list) with the students in the program, over a thousand, from the 1st to the last people, and 15% of the end of this list was out of this year, they failed the semester, and cannot come back to medicine next year. Camille and the people she works with, were in the first 100 people, so, they succeeded the semester well. This made her very happy, and her friends and she partied.

I remember the week climbing up to the day they heard the news. She and her friends kept going out to the movies and such every night to distract them because they were all so very nervous.

Then, the test results let them follow the second semester (with anatomy -a lot, things on medicines, physiology). And they’ll have another test in May, and its result. Their mark will be the average of both, and only the 197 first will follow for the two years.

And after, there is five years of medicine studies, then the 6th year : a big big big test for all French students of medicine together, then a list, and function of their place, they can choose the way they'll go (like : surgery, emergency, doctor... etc.).

So our medicines are somewhat similar but the school is really intense. Camille is almost always working and studying all day long. But I know she will continue doing great and will be the famous doctor one day just as she jokes about.

Until next time...

A Weapon A Voice

War.

War is a word that creates such hostility and pain in one’s heart.

War destroys lives, destroys freedoms, and destroys hope.

But most people in the world just sit back and feel like if it does not directly relate to them that it is not their problem. Most people feel like they cannot do anything to help, so they stay in their bubble of a world and hope that nothing pops it.

What is really sad is most people do not even know when wars are going on in other countries. Most people for instance know about the War in Congo.

There have been two wars in Congo dealing with the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Millions of people killed because of the conflicts. Children stolen and forced to fight. Famines and diseases spread. All because other nations see the Mineral Wealth in the soil. What many people see is “a great big pile of riches that some black people are inconveniently living on.” People may think that this does not relate to them but truthfully there is a train of blood that leads directly to us and our electronics.

People need to start taking a stand over this issue because it does lead to all of us. I personally already have, and that is through the new organization: Falling Whistles. Falling Whistles is an organization dedicated to helping the cause of peace in Congo. To save the children’s lives that are hurt and unfairly treated.

Falling Whistles is the representation of how the small children stolen to fight in the battles of the war who are too small to carry guns are armed with a whistle: A whistle to blow in front of the enemy and act as a shield for those with guns behind them. So their weapon is to become our voice. To go online and read the story and buy a whistle to help fight for peace and carry it around our neck near our hearts. So that people will ask about it and we can inform them of what it means to be a whistle blower for peace. That is the first step in the four step plan to find peace.

ONE: educate

TWO: disseminate

THREE: congregate

FOUR: advocate

These four steps will hopefully lead to the rehabilitating of the children in Congo. Help restore their lives to something close to peaceful.

Not only do we need to step up to the plate and support the cause to have children rehabilitated, but also need to petition the government to make them only buy conflict free electronics. Businesses have been doing well with no longer selling blood diamonds, so why can they not do the same with electronics made from the conflict minerals from Congo?

After going onto the site- http://www.fallingwhistles.com/tour/ - look up the Free World Reader and start the process of becoming educated in the war and the happenings with the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Spread the word. Maybe with enough people our cause will reach the people in Congo and allow us to find peace at last within the hatred, the pain, the fear. Let us find hope. Let us find our VOICE.

Midterm France Love

Two years ago I started developing my French speaking skills at my high school.  I was taking French language classes and soon became the Vice-President of the French club. Towards Christmas time my teacher began talking about bringing foreign exchange students from our sister city of Amiens, France.  I of course became excited about this, and after talking my parents into it, helped my teacher make the plans.  We partnered with the **Alliance Francaise de Tulsa.  We got the papers in from the students coming and were able to choose which person(s) we wanted.  I looked through them all with my friend Kelsey, she really wanted a boy because she thought it would be funny, and I was looking for a compatible girl.  Turns out God helped me choose the right one.  Come April when they came I met my new best friend.  We grew to love each other and called each other sisters.  We kept in contact, and my senior year of high school it was our turn to be the foreign exchange students to their home in Amiens, but because of the swine flu epidemic our plans were canceled.  This upset my Camille and me because we so badly missed one another, so she talked to her parents who decided they very much wanted to meet me, and they invited me over to their home during the summer.  It took a lot of convincing with my parents, but finally I got them to agree to it, and then organize the whole thing.  Luckily since I was just going to be staying with Camille’s family, all I had to pay for was the plane ticket and any souvenirs I wanted, food and housing her family graciously took care of for me. 

                Amiens, France is small town with a school where many students from a variety of small farm towns go to.  Camille lived out in the country, about thirty minutes from Amiens.  Let me just say if you have ever seen the recent making of the moving Pride and Prejudice and the scenery in that movie, then you will know how beautiful the countryside of France is.  It took my breath away, the rolling hillsides, many corn fields, so many wheat fields, small roads, livestock roaming around, and absolute bliss.  The French culture is beautiful, especially how much they love good food.  “Food is one of the great passions of the French people; French cooking is highly refined and involves careful preparation, attention to detail, and the use of fresh ingredients; it varies by region and is heavily influenced by what is grown locally,” (*Kwintessential).  The first night I arrived they prepared this huge meal of different courses of a great variety of foods, most of them from their own garden.  Home grown vegetables and fruits are so very delectable.  Camille’s grandparents would bring over freshly picked raspberries from their trees, now those were my favorite.  I also adored how no matter if you were well acquainted with the people, or just somewhat in knowing of them, they all would kiss each other on the cheek.  It takes away from the awkward pressures of if you should shake a person’s hand, or hug them, or just wave.  It is a really nice greeting that I really wish us Americans would do without people believing it was awkward.  And trust me, they do because I do sometimes greet and say goodbye to my close friends in such manner.  It is my hope to someday find a nice husband who has a good job that can support our family in case the books I hopefully will begin producing do not sell so well.  I say this because I very much desire to move to the countryside of France and be a novelist.  That is the romantic side of me coming out, but it is the truth.  I have much more to express about my love for France, but that will be soon to come. So au revoir et bonne nuit!

*http://www.kwintessential.co.uk/resources/global-etiquette/france-country-profile.html
**http://www.facebook.com/posted.php?id=156760202527&start=20&hash=2f8bcc45dad77c3ab1ca3ee23bb64a92