Celebrating the Dance of Love: Burning Cars, "C'est normal." (?!)

In which other country can you wake up in a chateau and go to bed later after seeing two cars ablaze outside your foyer?! First the cars: so I'm in the computer lab with the other American girl in the foyer and we hear a rumble. Looking at each other, I suggested it could be a rockslide from one of the three mountain ranges surrounding Grenoble. When we heard a second strange noise, we went to the window and discussed the possibility of Grenoble being bombed by another country. Deciding that no one would want to bomb Grenoble, we returned to our seats to hear a few pops. Sharon made fun of me saying, "I can tell you're not from the city. We hear gunshots all the time in Oakland (CA)." Done with the computer, I walked into the hallway to find five girls at the window and a huge fire outside.

About sixty feet from our foyer, a car was on fire! A French girl tried to explain calmly, "C'est normal!" and I ran upstairs to get Nannan and show her. Watching from a third story bathroom window, another French girl explained that when two people get in a dispute, one will set the

other's car on fire. Am I glad my students at Southern Vance HS never heard of this possibility for conflict resolution (or continuation)!! To the defense of the firemen, they were already pumping water onto the car which had set another on fire because of the wind before I realized what was going on. By the way, the firetruck was probably only about 10 or 12 feet long, two perfect squares no wider than a car. Notice the size of the truck in comparison to the men standing in it!

Next, the chateau: The AD reunion for the volunteers in the southeast of France was in Lyon this weekend

and my favorite part, besides enjoying the company of the German boys who speak English and also recently experienced similar struggles with the language and cultural differences, was sleeping in a beautiful chateau at Valpré, a Catholic retreat center. There were exactly six doors between the front step and my bed... we're talking open a door to find a square room only large enough to open the next door. Overall, I think Lyon is beautiful and clean and I enjoyed seeing familar faces of other volunteers I had met at the beginning of September.

Of course, the forever inconclusive update about my VISA: the consulate (of what, I don't know) was called this afternoon to see why I had been given a student VISA when I'm not a student. Apparently, no one knows and they haven't decided to change my VISA. Thus, the church council is going to discuss it tonight to see whether I should try to get accepted into a university for my VISA or if there is any other way around this problem. From what I understand, it's not looking great for me to be allowed to stay but I also don't know what would happen if I became an illegal alien/volunteer. I understand Canada is currently blocking people from entering their country based upon old records and I hope that something like this wouldn't be a problem later in life. Truly, I wish I knew what was going to happen so I could rush off to Paris to retrieve Noah Nathaniel and try to visit Anneleen, Mattias and Nikolas before I'm deported.