Third Wheel

First, check out Jacob's last post: http://jakeandjessi.blogspot.com/2007/10/now-i-livenot-i-but-christ-who-lives-in.html Jake and Jessi are old friends who got married and moved to Zambia as missionaries as soon as they graduated. Honestly, if I could be a third wheel, I would! I really appreciate his reminder to live to the fullest in Christ.

This past week I started getting compliments about my improved French. Five of them to be exact. ;-) Truly, I'm looking forward to being able to communicate with less intense focus. Literally right now, when I speak, I'm mentally envisioning the grammar charts (visual learner) and sentence formats...

Tomorrow morning I'll find out if I can extend my VISA and stay for the expected 9 more months. At this moment (believe it or not), I want to stay. The feeling of constant discovery when learning this language through immersion is a little exciting. Perhaps tomorrow night, if I am able to stay, I may regain the gloomy "I'm going to be here for a long time..." feeling, but then I'll reread Jacob's blog entry and refocus.

Optimism: In Grenoble, I like
- opportunity to stay in contact with family and friends through email and very rare phone calls
- my bed (usually on my optimism list)
- girl friends from China, Poland, Estonia (!), Canada, Spain, Belguim and California at the foyer
- watching Bollywood films and having Sharon, my Canadian-Indian friend, explain the inside jokes
- my new bicycle and the cool breeze on my face
- the English-French Christian radio station
- the opportunity to truly appreciate books in a language I can read
- Mr. Derek's Bonhoeffer gift
- the beautiful Alps
- Félix, my only male French friend, who gave me peanut butter (talk about a good friend)
- the couple of families that have been quite helpful and kind (it's amazing how dependant a person is when he doesn't speak the language!)
- the shower down the hall that actually holds the shower head preventing the awkward, "where do I put this thing?" moments

:-) Early to bed so I'll be out of the foyer at 7:30am to take the tram all over town to hand in my documents for the VISA...