Heliger Strochsack!

Well, now that i can´t get into internet as often as possible I´ll try to tell as much as I can! So much to tell... excuse me if i kind of throw out everything here... can´t get them well-organized.

Perhaps I seemed to be silent for the last two weeks. That´s because I was in a small village somewhere between Dijion and Chalon sur Soane in France. There´s a Catholic community called Taize which kind of welcomes people of different nationalities and religions. Arriving as an individual, I felt a bit of isolated in this community at first. One thing I found it strange - is that wherever I went in Taize, I heard more German and spoke more English than French ! The answer to this mystery is that the first week when I was there was a holiday in South of Germany. So you can imagine bunches of Germans were flocking into this place... a Finnish guy that I met when working joked it as a "German invasion!" But it´s not that bad...I made more German friends and I picked up more German words- enough for me to get by in Germany!

........


Saying farewell frequently whilst traveling does NOT make it easier for me. Indeed, after two weeks in Taize, I found it really hard to leave. I like this place not only because of tranqility of life and beautiful landscape, but also because of the connection with people I made here. I like the way that I can get to know people at different levels and at my own pace. I enjoyed those friends I made by random conversations and when helping with practical works. I´m grateful for their sharing much of their selves with me. A lot of their stories and thoughts are striking to me and in many ways I think all these are the special gifts I received during this journey.

I chose to go in silence after a week in groups. I was completely freaked out the night before and I kept thinking " oh man I´m gonna have to zip my mouth and save all the words until the silence week´s over!" But the first day in silence passed incredibly well! The time spent taking a walk around the village, sitting in the sun or sleeping under trees and by the lake was just terrific! Isn´t it just great to take time and allow yourself to be embraced by the nature?

In silence I found myself more able to confront myself and reflect on things that i normally have no time or space for. I didn´t intent to think or meditate on certain things. In fact, I found things just fall into their own places. Indeed, it was a time when i came to hear my real inner thoughts and came to understand myself better. Often I find people(including me) can´t really hear their inner voice because they keep themselves so occupied to such an extent- they lose the capability to seek it. I think listening to this voice is vital to us because it gives us direction of where to head to and the strength to move on throughout our lives.

Another thing I enjoy this week of silence is the little but intimate connection with people. I was amazed to see how people communicate without much talking. I guess that´s because without words people have to be more sensitive to the needs of others and more expressive about their care and concern for others in different ways. I´m glad that Johanna and Yuri have been a generuos giver of hugs and smiles thru out that week. Yea... sometimes wordless communication can be even be more powerful.

Tears shed. Kissed and hugged goodbye. Time to move on.

Barcelona next.

Post entry: the heading of this entry is one of the many German phrases I learned during this week. It doesn´t have any specific meaning, but it is used to express exclamation. I thought Taize would be the most boring part of my journey before I came here, but it turned out to be one of the best places I´ve been. What better word can I use to conclude my stay here than an exclamation of Heliger Strochsack(don´t actaully remember the spellimg... but this is close i guess...haha) !

Paris est maginifique !

Last day in Paris. I can't imagine the day just flew away when I'm here. The weather was gorgeous for the first few days but it was overcast yesterday. I intended to visit the verseille chateau, which is around 45 mins from central Paris, today. But it rained this morning and I'll see if the weather is getting better later today.

I LOVE Paris. It's the most beautiful city I've seen by far. It's just lovely. There's plenty to do here and days here are never boring. Somehow I want to stay here for longer.

Now that I've got used to traveling alone and I pretty much enjoy it! I meet people and it's pretty interesting to talk a bit to each of them.

My host here is a 40-something man, father of a son and two daughters. Adrin, who is his son and is studying in a smaller city close to the border of Germany, is very nice. After spending years there, he confessed that Paris is not a place for him. That morning when we were crossing the street, he told me how different the way of life here in Paris is from his city,

' In Germany when there is green light you dont have to look at the street 'cause cars stop. But here, they dont stop! No discipline! That's a problem!'

I laughed so hard- not only because of the way he said it (I'm not trying to be mean... but just think about his English with strong German accent and he looked SO serious!), but also because it was the first time I heard a French talking much like a German. Haha ... I think something inside his blood has become German(!) after years of schooling in a city close to Germany. LOL.

No discipline !

And he looked rather uptight ... just like a typical German I've met before ... hehe... well, I know I shouldn't stereotype them... *rolls eyes*

My host, Pierre, is an awesome person! We were talking for a while the first night I arrived. Conversing in English, he suddenly asked, ' 你會講國語?' (Do you speak Mandarin?)

I looked at him, startled. My eyes were widely opened.

Then he went on saying, '我會講一點點...(I can speak a bit...)'

I dont remember what he said after that... It actually took me like a few sentences before I came to believe OH YEA HE IS SPEAKING MANDARIN!

Oh ,my gosh a french speaking in Mandarin !!!

Later I found that he had studied Mandarin here for 3years and then he went to Taiwan to study for another year. This morning I asked him if he knows the Chinese characters on his daughter's bag.

'幸運都 (the lucky one),' He answered, pointing out that was simplified Chinese right away.

Wow. Cool. It turned out that he is a french who can speak Mandarin and read both simplified and traditional Chinese. What a French!

I can hear the Big Ben ringing!

Two days ago I farewell my beloved Toronto and all my friends. Now here I am - in London! Wow. No doubt I'm excited to be here. It's a WHOLE lot different from the North American culture that I'm used to. Getting off the bus without saying thank you to the drivers, absence of Tim Hortons on the streets, always well-dressed people, more architechal buildings, and of course the British accent! Everything seemed to be so weird and strange for me in the first place. But now that i've been here for nearly two days things get way better. Still - it takes some time to get used to everything. I still have trouble reminding myself not going downstairs when I see SUBWAY. That subway never gets me home but to the street right across. Or if not, I get frustrated when people don't understand me, or when I don't understand them. :-/

But all these just won't prevent me from enjoying myself in London! Never!I'm lucky to have pleasant weather. It was sunny yesterday and we only have a few showers this afternoon... not too bad!

I'm not sure if I can update my blog regularly from now on. But I'll definitely do so as far as I'm able to. And if you wanna keep in touch with me during these 3 months, you're most welcome to email me (I love hearing from anyone of you and i promise to reply ;-) ).

Okay, this is a really short update but i hope at least you'll know where on earth I'm now and what I'm doing lately.

Hop to catch you back later!

A quick update

Finally I moved out from Bethune two days ago. It took me nearly two days to clear up my room and pack everything. As I was throwing out everything, I realized I’ve got so much useless and silly stuff, which made me question why I brought them along with me in the first place. Clothes that I knew I would never wear, books that I knew I would never read, cell phone that I knew I would not use probably, and other little thingy that I knew I would never use or even notice. After a whole morning of struggles, I’ve decided to throw some of them away. Why bother spending few bucks shipping back stuff that you know you would never use? It just isn’t worth it!

I moved into Satoko’s place yesterday. These guys Jeff, Dennis, and Takashi are just awesome! Moving in wasn’t such a hassle as I expected. Two trips and all our stuff were right there. It just took us an afternoon to unpack everything. We got up at 8 (which was unusually early) to wait for their coming as they said they would come by early in the morning. It was 9:30am and still there was no sign that they were coming. Then Satoko got the phone call from them. Having told that they would arrive at around 10, we went grab some coffee. 10. Still didn’t hear from them… few minutes later we were told that they forgot the way and got lost… =.=”

10 sth. Finally they were here!!! And guess what? They’ve got 2 cars!!! We were just surprised. My friend and I were looking at each other, probably thinking the very same thing- guys you’re awesome! I love you!!! So they helped us to move all the stuff into the car and then unload them. Two trips and we were done!

This afternoon I just met up Can and Nway before I left. It was so much fun talking to Nway. She’s such a cute girl. She’s just back from London. Ugh- she said the British accent kills her! Every time when she’s in England, it takes her FOREVER to get used to the accent ‘cause whenever she ordered for food in restaurants, people could immediately spot her American accent and said they didn’t understand American English. Gosh- I hope I can get by with my English there… Still British English proves to be a bit challenging for me to understand. It may take me quite a while. I hope they wont be too harsh toward my rather North American English... *rolls eyes*

I’ve got bunches of stuff that I wanted to talk about. But now my mind just goes blank as I tried to recall what I’ve been doing and my feelings along the way. The only thing I can tell is- now I start to panic! Having no idea of where I’m staying few days later, I realize that it takes up far more effort, hard-work, and energy to plan a trip myself. Now I feel I’m left with my own devices and I’m completely freaked out! But I know panicking gets me to nowhere and all I need is to stay cool. Decision made. There’s no way for me to turn it back and things are going on as the way they are, better or worse.

Close your eyes, take a deep breath, practice your rusty French, get a pair of durable sneakers, and get into good shape- there’s a WHOLE lot ahead of me this summer~