From Paris, with love - Week 1, Day 1

Tuesday, 29 March
I can’t believe it. I’ve been here for over 12 hours now, and I still can’t believe that I’m in Paris. Paris. When Pam says “Paris” she shudders. I guess I would shudder too if this was my first time leaving home. But it’s not. Still, the thought of me talking, mingling and living amongst Parisians for the next 10 weeks is almost overwhelming. It is excitement, trepidation and a wide-eyed wonder tinged with a steely resolve to “make it” in Paris all rolled into one.

Make it? What?
Today, as I was on the plane waiting to take off from Amsterdam (a delay, what else?) I wrote in my journal about some of my expectations. In brief, I think this term in Europe is going to bring about lots of growth.

Bursting Out of the bubble
There’s something about being away from the easy comforts of Carleton that is scary but at the same time liberating. In the past 12 hours or so of being in Paris, I have paid 50euro (divided by 2 thanks to Pam) to survive a taxi ride that saw the Cambodian driver peaking at 130 km/h on the way from Charles de Gaulle to the narrow streets of Paris. I’ve had my first sin-laden genuine French chocolate éclair (not only is it covered in chocolate, the insides ooze creamy chocolate filling too). I’ve discovered that pamplemousse means grapefruit after I bought it unknowingly from the Monoprix a block from CUPA. I’ve discovered that CUPA means Center for University Programs Abroad and is an apartment converted into a study center. While struggling against the effects of jetlag on the lawns of the Luxembourg Gardens, I’ve done the quintessential Parisian activity: people watching. I’ve been “tourist” and took pictures for tourists. I’ve taken the bus with my host mother, Guillaumette, from the 6th arrondissement to the 16th. I have tasted my first French home-cooked meal – initially disappointed that it looked like all we were having was a potato-creamy-type bake, but later overjoyed to find out that that was but the first course! (We had three types of cheese – my favorite was this strong goat milk cheese!) I have watched French TV with my host parents, not understanding half of what was going on, but determined to stay awake. And I have been told that I have a good accent!!  And this is only the first day.

My Parisian home
From my room at 18, avenue de Versailles, I can hear the traffic passing by 7 floors below. Every now and then I hear an ambulance wail by. It’s getting late, but the city is still awake. I, on the other hand, am ready to head to my French dreamland. So as I lay on my bed, wishing that the three available wireless networks were not encrypted so that I can send this instead of Microsoft Word-ing it, I consider myself blessed. Blessed to have this opportunity to study and live here in Paris. Blessed to have had a wonderful day and many more of the same to come. And blessed to have you praying for me.

So, à la prochaine, bonne nuit de Paris.

at the msp airport with pam

last greasy american meal

take off..

it was night 

it was day

and then france

soccer stadium!!

foretaste of heaven??

carls let loose in the luxembourg gardens

how do you improve on perfection? add a josh :) haha

view from my classroom at CUPA

my room: there is a sink my closet!!

palais du luxembourg 


viez from my room at night

Spring break at Nashville, Tennessee

Welcome to Music City

Thursday, 17th March
I arrived at the Nashville Airport a little ahead of schedule. Charles Curtis met me at the baggage claim. It was great to see him again! This man of God has input so much into my life and was instrumental in raising me up as a worship leader (that's another story for another day). But, yes, after a more-stressful-than-the-average winter term, and with plans for Paris, tax forms, writing portfolio and a thousand other things hanging over my head, I was definitely looking forward to a respite at Nashville. Armed with close to no knowledge of Nashville or its surroundings, I was ready for a great weekend!

Good Ol' Southern Ribs
First stop was Famous Daves for dinner. Yum. Jane and Peter came to meet us there, and it was a blessing to see them all again! Great food (ribs.. mmm...) and even greater fellowship. I was blessed! Then we headed back to the Curtis home in Franklin, TN. This is the view outside their home. Beautiful southern homes, no?

Here's a quick tour of the beautiful home I got to stay at: 419 Forrest Park Circle. Used to be the home of Jonathan Pierce, recording artist and apparently interior designer. Oh yes, this blog will be sprinkled with celebrity sightings, or at the very least... near celebrity sightings!

The Curtis home. What a blessing to stay with them.

These next couple of pictures are really for my mom and dad, because I know how much they would have loved to be here. In August maybe? It's only 13 hours drive. :)

Living room. That was the couch on which I sat with Zoe (aha! who is this Zoe you may ask. well, read on...) and watched The Village. It was a great movie. But Zoe got kind of bored and fell asleep on top of me...

Meet Zoe! :)

And meet Zoe's home... built by Charles and Peter.

Look at that deck! And the weather was perfect. It was like 60-70 for most of the time I was there. Ahh... and when I flew back to Minnesota, all I could see was snow... boo.

Ok last house tour picture and we'll move on. This is where I slept. In the study. Good times.


Friday, 18th March
I tried very hard to remember what I did on Friday, but I can't seem to recall. I know that I slept in and at night went to watch "Million Dollar Baby" with Charles and Jane, and then had a great meal at Chili's. Hmm. Anyway.

Saturday, 19th March
In the AM, I went with Charles and Jane to their leadership training / vision sharing meeting for their outreach groups. That was definitely a God thing because we've been praying and planning for this at Carleton this whole past term. And I was tremendously encouraged and inspired by what I heard there. Plus I have some material! :)

After that, drove to Vanderbilt to meet with William John Heerman. It was great to meet with Bill again after such a long time! He's doing well - going to Thailand on a mission trip with his church in the summer. I'm excited for him. We had lunch with the Curtises at Panera (YUM!) and then Bill took me to his place. Nice crib. And had a quick tour of Vanderbilt. More like the medical section of Vanderbilt. :)

Kirkland Hall and the clock tower. Vanderbilt is pretty pretty!

Bill and I.

After that, Julia (Macy's friend) came to pick me up. This next section is devoid of photographs because for some reason, my camera decided to die on me. So yeah, I do have pictures - they're with Julia. I will post them as soon as I get them. ANYWAY.

Went with Julia to the Parthenon, then we went to Opryland, the Grand Ole Opry, the Museum of Country Music and Opry Mills. And then dinner at the Bluebird Cafe which was a phenomenal experience. Watching four songwriters - excellent songwriters - sing their songs in rounds. Oh my gosh! Nashville is full of talented musicians. I never knew an acoustic guitar could be played in such a way. Pictures to come!!

Sunday, 20th March
A personal record for Josh: THREE services in a day! Went with Charles to the 8:15 service at Bethel World Outreach Center. Peter said "It's an Oreo church. i love it". I loved it too. It was multiethnic, dynamic and very alive. Apparently lots of famous people go there too... :)

For example... guy leading worship on the left... Jason Perry, ex-member of Plus One. I wouldn't have known! :) I remember looking at him and thinking "Hmm.. seems familiar"

They had a great choir too. Sang lots of Israel Houghton songs. And the musicians made everything sound so effortless... met a couple of really cool people. Oh the day before, I met Javier - who played drums on Jaci Velasquez's albums, produced one of her albums and even co-wrote some songs... like You Don't Miss A Thing on the Crystal Clear record. How's that Fran, eh? :) Saw where Michael W. Smith records. Saw where Pete Furler (Newsboys) lives. It was fun to feel like a paparazzo for a bit.

11:15 service was full house. More vibrant! Then home for lunch. Yum. I slept a long time in the afternoon... church is tiring! :) And Anna came home for a bit. She had been involved in an accident, she's doing fine praise God for his protection, and is now on spring break in Florida! That night, we went to a "high class eating establishment in Franklin"... folks, let me introduce you to... WAFFLE HOUSE. Haha. Here it is. No holds barred unabashed greasy goodness.

Me trying to decide how best to clog my arteries... will it be grits, hash browns or bacon? Hmm.. I KNOW!

Why not ALL OF THE ABOVE?? :)

Oops. I forgot to mention. That night I went to the "U" church at Global Cafe. Their church runs this cafe and the "U" church meets upstairs. It was SO POWERFUL. Worship could have gone on longer - we only sang three songs - but oh how powerful. Sang "Again I say rejoice", "Friend" and "Deepest part of me" (which i love!). And David Houston preached one of the most powerful messages I've heard. Powerful not in the sense of shouting and antics. in fact, he was gentle. But powerful because of the truth in it, and the timing of it for a fatherless generation. Ministry time was powerful. So many people got prayed for. This is GlobalCafe.


Monday, 21st March
Last day at Nashville. Went on a walking tour with Charles and Peter at downtown Nashville. It's really quite discouraging - a lot of homeless folk (wannabe musicians maybe?) and a lot of businesses that had closed down. But here are a couple of snapshots anyway. Main street.



Lunchtime at Hard Rock Cafe.

Inside...

We had the greatest waiter.. Chris! :D He was hilarious. Quite the character.

Oooo...

Feeling satisfied... ahh...

Peter and me.

More snapshots of downtown Nashville...

And...

the honky tonks...

Printers Alley...

The Gaylord Entertainment Center...

And the Global Cafe... right in the heart of downtown.

After downtown, on the way home, we drove into Woodway - a very affluent community. I went house shopping. :) Yup. Once I make my 1 million US dollars from my debut album as Christian Artist of the Year, I will buy a house here. If I can afford it. :)

Beautiful homes..

Reason why Pastor Albert should move to Nashville and be a pastor here: This used to be the senior pastor of Bethel's house! :) Well, he used to play pro football. So maybe Pastor Albert should do that too! :)

Someone famous used to live here. I forget who. Shucks. I need to ask Charles again.


Well that pretty much sums up my trip to Nashville. I really love the place. Just the intensity of musicians, the atmosphere, mmm... the opportunities. Being there has made me think about a lot of things, about developing the talents God has given me, and about recording... will process these thoughts and journal about them at a later date. But for now, I'm back in Minnesota. Chilling at Erica's home till next Monday... when I'm off to PARIS! Oh my gosh.

I leave you with a famous picture. 10 big fat kisses to the first person who can tell me what is "famous" about these bridges.. here's a clue: Christian music!! :) Write to me!!!! And a HUGE thank you to the Curtises for being the best hosts in the world - I was truly blessed. You guys are awesome. Good night. 

P.S. Oh and guess what? I bought a new digital camera! YAY!

100% Christian

Got this from bestestbud's blog. Oh, it feels so great to have time to do this kind of thing. Okay. Time for tennis. Just had a huge lunch at chapatis with Chieko... Indian buffet. Yum.

You scored as Christianity. Your views are most similar to those of Christianity. Do more research on Christianity and possibly consider being baptized and accepting Jesus, if you aren't already Christian. Christianity is the second of the Abrahamic faiths; it follows Judaism and is followed by Islam. It differs in its belief of Jesus, as not a prophet nor historical figure, but as God in human form. The Holy Trinity is the concept that God takes three forms: the Father, the Son (Jesus), and the Holy Ghost (sometimes called Holy Spirit). Jesus taught the idea of instead of seeking revenge, one should love his or her neighbors and enemies. Christians believe that Jesus died on the cross to save humankind and forgive people's sins. Christianity 100% Judaism 33% Islam 25% Hinduism 17% Paganism 8% agnosticism 0% Satanism 0% atheism 0% Buddhism 0% Which religion is the right one for you? (new version) created with QuizFarm.com

Everyone's going... going... gone.

Tuesday, 2:00pm. Residence halls and houses close.

It's certainly a strange feeling to be at Carleton after everyone has gone. Well, not everyone. That would be exaggerating. But the campus seems so deserted. I went to the snack bar today... and it was CLOSED! Wow.

I'm not complaining though. I am staying at the Hvass's until Thursday. Gary and Deb are just wonderful, wonderful people, and it's a blessing to be able to stay here and fellowship with them. I did however come in to the house at 4am this morning because by the time I had cleared out of my house it was almost 3am. And then I went to Rashika and Edaeni's to say goodbye. They were leaving at 4am to catch a morning flight to NY. Oh Sun Country Airlines. Gotta love it.

So today I had a minor shock. I ran into Erica on the way to the Cave where Exit is recording its latest album! Yeah. But anyway, Erica was kind enough to offer to clear out my locker at the rec (because this old man forgot to do it, and had no time today), but she told me my tennis racquet wasn't there! Apparently, they had cleared out all lockers on Friday and my racquet went missing. So we made the trek over to the Rec center, praying... praying... met the lady, who was not all that pleasant, but because I go often enough, and interacted with her before, and the grace of God, she took me to where they had all the stuff they had gotten from lockers and said she'd look again. So we went through the whole pile of stuff, and praise God, my racquet was at the BOTTOM of the pile! Yeah. :)

Anyway, that made me late for Exit recording session. I think I like Macs - garage band is a cool program! But anyway we worked on that for most of the day. And later in the evening, we went to The Ordway to audition! Yeah. There's a professional a cappella group performing there and they were auditioning groups to be the opening act! So we got invited to sing. It was more intense than I thought it would be. Having had only 3 hours of sleep the night before (I went to bed close to 5, and was supposed to meet Micah at 8 for breakfast - that didn't happen of course, I was late! haha), I took a nap on the way there, and when I woke up, half-dazed... we had to get security passes, sign waivers so that they could use images they capture for publicity (yeah going to be famous! haha), and then we were brought into a room to wait. They had water for us, and there were huge windows. Like one of those "dance academy" type things that you watch in movies. Anyway, it was all very professional, and I was impressed. But no time to be nervous, we were the first to sing. We sang two of the songs we sang at ICCA, including Accidentally in Love, and then they asked if we had any more. So we sang the third song we sang at ICCA. It was... a good experience I think. I wonder how it all fits in to God's plan..

So my friends in the Christian community (headed by Erica and Emily), threw a "surprise" party for Pam and I to send us off to Paris. It wasn't much of a surprise because Erica and Emily are the Christian community's worst liars. Which is probably a good thing. But it was a great time of fellowship. I definitely felt very loved. And Sam commented "I was struck by how much the community looks up to the both of you". And it hit me too. What a humbling experience and at the same time, an honor, to be serving the body of Christ here at Carleton. And to top it all off, Erica and Emily put together scrapbooks scattered with French symbol stickers, and everyone (well a lot of people) wrote messages for us in there. The weird part was how I was feeling. You know that homesick feeling you get when you leave home? I was feeling that. But this isn't home. And then I remembered what I had written in my CCST paper - it was a quotation: Home is not a place, it is people. And that is so true. To a certain extent anyway. So I'll miss you guys at Carleton. Especially the graduating seniors!

Yesterday was also Erica's birthday. Unlike her, I am a better liar and thus managed to pull off a surprise party for her. Last minute intervention from Mrs Kusunoki provided me a likely story! :) Happy Birthday, Erica.

Okay that's it from me for now. I need a shower! Oh thank God for time to blog.

Random rambles... schizophrenic saunters

Christmas carols make me feel sentimental. Something about the Christmas song. And have yourself a merry little christmas. Sigh. I think it's the chord progression. If I ever made a CD I would definitely want a lounge piece in it.

God is moving in powerful ways here. Spiritual warfare is taking place. And I'm excited. Last night, spent 3 1/2 hours in intercession and worship with Pam and Soo Mie. That was SO POWERFUL. So many things to say about this... but...

I have French finals tomorrow. Ahhh. But I scrunched the class. So I'm not too stressed out over it.

Speaking of France... PARIS! 17 days and counting!!

But first, there's spring break. Going to go to Nashville, TN. Staying with Charles Curtis. Looking forward to it. Before that I'll be spending two days at the Hvass's. They are such awesome people. And Gary offered to drive me to the airport. All I did was present my request to God... and He took care of it for me. He's so cool that way. God. And Gary too.

And Deb. Can't forget the women. That's something I've learnt from Erica. Hahaha.

Wow it's 2:38 already. Soo Mie made an scrumptilicious dinner for us. Should have taken photos. Soo Mie is awesome. I'm going to miss her so much! She made mashed potatoes, corn.. stuff, vegetables and oh-so-yummy baked chicken! And the fellowship was so great too. I was even unintentionally punny!

Sam is reading from Webster's Dictionary (which by the way is RACIST. for the "chopsticks" entry they have the most stereotypical image of an Asian with a rice bowl and a pair of chopsticks as an illustration. 1984. "not the greatest year for asian-americans" haha.) He reads some obscure word.. no one knows the meaning except...

Chrissie: It's a type of rock
Sam: It IS a type of rock. How did you know?
Chrissie: I'm a geology major
Josh: (in awe) Chrissie, you ROCK!

Yeah. Ok whatever. :) It was great though. Just sitting around, talking about nothing in particular, listening to music... John Mayer haha... the night before finals.

Finals. Ah, finals. This time around it's not as stressful. Just the one final. Scrunched at that! Can't wait for it to be over though. The Craigs are having Pam and I over for dinner. Yum! They are such great people too. And i love their two boys.

Kids. Coach Brand (?) our house advisor came over with his wife and two 13-month old boys, Caden and Pierce. So I was struck with how alike their big blue eyes were... and then both of them turned to look at me and I was like "THEY ARE THE SAME!!" Yeah, turns out they were twins. Haha.

Paris. Oh Paris. And Berlin. And Geneva.. or Switzerland at least. And the French Alps. Chambery... to visit Janvier and Claudine! And Barcelona. And England. And Ireland. Oh.... :) Can't wait.

But for now, it's back to my butt book. Sigh.

Rescue

I'm swamped. With work. With responsibilities. With meetings. With emails to send. With clutter. With obligations.

I'm tired. Of not having time for God. Or myself. Or to just chill. Of Cognitive Science. Of classes that swamp me with work. Of not getting enough sleep.

I need. God. I haven't been spending time with Him. And the first "red flag" for me is always irritability. I get annoyed with people around me. I react without grace. God I need you. To be in you. Then I am a new creation.

I know. That He will get me through to Thursday. That this is not the end of the world. That I'm definitely in a valley place now. That people are praying for me. That I thank God for that. That He will guide my every step if I commit my ways to Him.

So I do that now. I commit my ways to You. I give You my life again.

i need You Jesus
to come to my rescue
where else can i go?
there's no other name by which i am saved
capture me with grace
i will follow you

Definitely not nerdy, you are probably cool

So I took the nerd test that Joel took. Haha. The results... *drumroll*




Oh well, the fact that I took the test probably disproves the results.

Oh my gosh. Thank God it's Friday! I made it through this week. And I'm feeling much better. Trying to take care of my voice. Heavy singing weekend coming up.

Oh yes, so my "totally wiping out" story... So we were in the cities last weekend. And after having dessert at Zeno's we were in the parking lot, about to leave. While Sam was in the bathroom, we took Christine's keys out of his pocket to trick him. So Erica asks: "Sam, don't you have Christine's keys?". Pam forgets that we're playing Sam, and she blurts "No he doesn't..." and then catches herself.

Of course, I wasn't going to let that slide, so I proceed to kick snow at Pam. Except, when I try to kick the snow, I inadvertently wipe out. Think those cartoon shows where people skid on a banana peel? Yeah, that was me. So one moment I was standing, the next I was horizontal on the parking lot! Thank God there was snow to cushion my fall. I then proceeded to make snow angels... and said: I meant to do that.

Ahh. Famous last words. :)

TGIF!