Last days of "Freedom" and the First Day of School!!

Towards the end of this blog entry, we'll share about our kids' school which began yesterday. But, for now, we'll cover the "last days of freedom."

This past Saturday we moved into our temporary apartment. We'll be in this place for 2 weeks and will then move into our permanent home on Saturday, September 12th. Believe me when I say, the excitement to move into our own home is growing exponentially each and every day! But, for now we are thankful for this little "dive" that we are calling home for a short time. Here are a few photos for you to see this place:

This kitchen does not have a stove, and as you can sorta see, it's pretty cramped with the washer in there and all! But, we're making do and very thankful to have laundry in the place.

Here's the living room:

Lena is sleeping on one of the couches, Ryan on the other, Todd is on the floor on a mattress, and just around the corner from the big TV is a very little side room with a bed for Mark and I. Just big enough for all of us to spread out and sleep. I wish I could put a scratch-n-sniff sticker into this blog to let you SMELL this place! Ha! (Think musty and smokey.)

And now for the glorious bathroom:


Everything needs fixed and a good scrub-down. It brings back memories of our house in White Bear Lake before we fixed it up!

Sunday we headed off to church a bit early (honestly we were escaping our tiny apartment for the fresh open air!) and happened to witness this:

We had taken the long way to church past the Palace where the President of France lives and saw the changing of the guard take place. The kids were enthralled! Very cool.

After church we set out to see more of Paris. We went to the Place de la Bastille. This is the place where the French Revolution began. There was a prison here which the people stormed (freeing prisoners held unjustly) and then headed to Versailles to capture the king and queen. This monument behind Todd is the place where the prison stood, and thus the place where many demonstrations and celebrations of freedom take place here in Paris. It's a very famous Place here. (By the way, a "Place" is a large square or circle where various roads come together.)

Todd honestly didn't seem all that impressed, but someday he'll understand! The building behind this monument is an Opera building the French people really don't like all that much - too modern looking for these folks.

Now, here's Ryan in front of some important dude. Believe me when I say, Paris has LOTS and LOTS of important dudes hanging around. :-)

We then wandered the area around this Place de la Bastille and found ourselves in the Place Des Vosges, which the tourist map we have says is "one of the most beautiful squares in Paris, once the site of duels and many historic Parisian events." It really is beautiful!



This is King Louis the 14th, I believe.

We have learned that it is NOT ok to just walk or sit on the grass in most places in Paris. If you are picnicing, you sit on a bench in most parks. But, this square allowed people on the grass and there were TONS of people enjoying the warm afternoon sun. It was fun to see.

We then went to the Musee Carnavalet, a free museum about the history of Paris. They would not allow photos in the museum, so I don't have many. But, I couldn't resist taking a photo of the walls in one room. They were GOLD! Oh, so fancy!

Each of the rooms was decorated with furnishings of the different kings of France. Pretty spectacular honestly.

They had absolutely fabulous gardens in the courtyards. Here are Lena and Ryan in front of one garden.

Monday we went to the school where I (Jill) am going to be taking French language courses and registered for the Fall semester! Yeah! I will begin classes on September 28th. Just perfect... because it will give us time to get settled into our apartment, get used to the schedule with the kids' school, and get acclimated to the grocery stores near our new home before I go off to school.

Tuesday we finally got to meet the director at the kids' school and pick up a supply list. Tuesday and Wednesday we spent shopping and getting ready for the big day - the first day of school!

The kids were super excited, and as you can imagine, nervous as well. We had been praying about this day for months and months! All of the wondering about what school will be like in France is about to come to an end!

I took photos of the kids as they were going into school. I was the ONLY person taking photos. I wanted to yell, "I have a blog!" But, no one would have understood me. Nonetheless, I am glad that I have these photos to share with you.

Here's the school - it's big! The name of the school is Jean de la Fontaine. (Apparently Jean de la Fontaine was a writer who wrote something like Aesop's Fables in the French literature repertoire.)

Here's the French moto over the door along with the name of the city where we be living. (We're in a city just outside of the city of Paris...just one metro stop beyond the city limits.)

All 3 of our children are in school ALL DAY. We had registered Todd for Maternelle (preschool) and had thought that it would be half days for 4 days of the week. But, we found out on the first day that it is all day for him! He was excited that he gets to be in school for as long as Lena and Ryan.

The school schedule is as follows: Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday from 9 a.m. to Noon for the morning session, then from 1:30 to 4:30 for the afternoon session. No school on Wednesdays. And we are told there will be LOTS of homework.

Here's a picture of the cafeteria for the preschoolers. (The elementary one looks the same, just bigger tables and chairs.) We're told the food is really, really good. There's no bringing bag lunches though. It's either eat the school food and stay there for the hour and a half, or go home for lunch. We opted to pick our kids up for lunch each day.

This is the play yard behind the building. If I were a kid, I would love to play here!


There's a fence that divides the preschoolers from the elementary school children.

The first day went pretty well. Todd said the day was "long". It's to be expected that it would feel long when you cannot understand anything your teacher has said! But, he's suddenly been asking "how do you say .....(whatever is on his mind)....in French, Dad" alot! I can tell he'll learn French very quickly.

Ryan found another new boy and some boys from America, too that he's been playing with. (Although he said both of the kids from America have forgotten their English.) He was disappointed that they only had 20 minutes of Math on the first day. I have a feeling he won't be disappointed for very long. :-)

Lena has a very fun guy for a teacher. He had them fill out forms about themselves and then each student got up to "present" themselves. He was super surprised that Lena's Dad is a Pastor (this is the easiest way for us to explain our occupation) and he approached Mark at the Noon hour to ask a lot of questions about many things. Lena has already found girls that she really enjoys hanging out with, too.

So, all-in-all, the first day went really well and we are so very thankful for the place where God has us.

We are continually amazed at how God has provided for our every need. We are just a week away from being HOME and our kids are in school and I'm registered for language school and our shipment has arrived and will be delivered 2 days after we move in and our team is meeting weekly and things are truly coming into shape in our lives. HE is GOOD!