Dawn Xiana Moon: Melodic folk pop infused with passion and honesty. From Chicago.

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Saturday, May 31, 2003

Les Pensées des Toilettes

Paris functions very differently than any major American city; one of the most obvious ways is bathrooms. You have to plan carefully, or you'll end up paying money to use the restroom--there are what look like Porta-Johns along the side of most streets, but you have to pay to get in--and/or they'll be dirty. Even more troubling, restrooms are scarce to be found in many places. Sometimes they even lack toilet paper (apparently this is not unusual). Thank goodness for hotels and McDonalds; they're always free.

On a random side note, I've gotten to use my French quite a bit in conversations with everyone from students to people working at food stalls. It's definitely getting better, although it's still much harder to express myself; I was told before I came (by people at home) at the French will often speak back to you in English when they hear your (American) accent in French, but I haven't found that to be the case. There's so backlash against Americans here, at least not more than any other country I've visited, and people have sometimes seemed bemused but have always replied in French. Now if only I could get that accent down....

^ Top | 10:31 AM | | |

Thursday, May 29, 2003

Les Français

So I've finally found an internet cafe (un cybercafé) that is 1. cheap and 2. allows me to switch to a British keyboard on the computer screen, which means that I can't look at the keys (which I rarely do anyway) but I can type normally and still end up with something coherent onscreen. It's a little different than the American keyboard--the @ sign is in a different spot--but its so much better than the French version (for me anyway, l'americaine stupide que je suis).

That said, being in Paris is amazing. The architecture is beautiful (though I can't say that for most of the modern buildings); Patrick would go nuts, I'm sure. You perhaps wouldn't think it, but the French have a very different culture than Americans, and not just in the superficial "they eat a lot of cheese and drink a lot of wine" ways. When I first flew into the city on Sunday, traffic was backed up for miles. Why? Une manifestation--or for those of us who speak English, a strike. Apparently you're not truly French unless you've been on stike at some point. Needless to say, this happens often. That day I was told that in France I should forget one word: "efficiency". It doesn't exist here. The customer is not always right and people take their time. But it means that you're welcome to sit and talk for a long time in a cafe and that no one will hurry you out of a restaurant. Politics are more integral to French life than American; we're considered moderate--both parties--in comparison. On the political spectrum you have, starting on the right, the people who want to bring back the monarchy, the people who want to kick out all of the immigrants, and then you move into the moderates and where most of the American population lies. Then on the left you have various groups going all the way to the communists and even further (what can be further left than communism?) the Troskists. People here love to debate, love to argue politics. Separation of church and state as we understand it does not exist; it made national news that Bush declared a day of prayer in connection with Iraq. The idea of Congress praying before a session is completely foreign. You do not talk about religion or faith or God--it would lead to divisions in unity. In practice, it means that they are essentially anti-God; the vast majority of the country claims to be Catholic but only 5% are practicing. Catholicism has left a bad taste in the mouths of the French; everything here has a historical context, and its historical context is that of close ties with the monarchy, the Crusades, and abuses in the church. You'll also find that the French value their writers far more than we do (which I can definitely appreciate). They're an intensely literary people--writers are often interviewed, and people actually listen to what they have to say. When a writer dies, it's as though a huge public figure--a president for us, perhaps--has died. Thus there are bookstores everywhere and they're well-read.

Moving away from specifically French culture, we've started to spend time in the universities, where we will be most of the summer. Two days ago I was with my friend Megan, who was one of the kids planning to go to China, who speaks a little French and a tiny bit of Mandarin; at dinner we met a girl from Taiwan and her friend who were studying for their masters degrees in music. They were fluent in Mandarin and knew a fair amount of French (they've lived here for two years) and a little English, so we ended up in conversation around the table in three languages, mostly meeting in French with pieces of the other languages thrown in for clarity. Just yesterday I was sitting with Yenna, who's also from our group, trying to practicing speaking in French; we were about to leave the cafeteria when a French guy sat down and started talking to us (which isn't common; they're a very private people). He'd been taking Tae Kwan Do so he knew a couple of words in Korean--Yenna's Korean--and had studied English for 8 years, though he was more comfortable in French. Thus we spoke in French most of the conversation with a bit of English thrown in here and there. It's been really helpful for my own French skills, and fun to try communicating in a variety of tongues.

You have to be careful in Paris--there are thieves everywhere, and they're really good. Apparently it's safer than a lot of American cities, but just now as I was sitting in the internet cafe (literally a few minutes ago) I saw someone caught stealing. The guy who saw what was going on yelled in English, "Whose bag is this? Whose bag is this?" and chased the thief out of the cafe; he came back in, warning everyone that thieves here are "like magic." Someone on the Metro was trying to open my bag and I didn't even notice; luckily my friend Chase realized what was going on and shoved the guy away. So one should definitely be on guard.

I've definitely learned a number of things by being here and my French has improved as well. I bought a French Bible the other day and plan to do all of my reading from here on in French, which will also help. If I haven't heard from you yet, drop me an email or leave a comment--even if I don't get back to you right away it's good to hear from everyone at home.

^ Top | 6:03 AM | | |

Monday, May 26, 2003

Je suis à Paris

Greetings from Paris! Wow. I have so much I want to write but I'm having the hardest time navigating this French keyboard--half of the letters and symbols are in different spots, which makes typing difficult (and if Elise is reading this: I asked if they had an American keyboard, but apparently this place doesn't have them so I'm stuck with hunt and peck). For example, if I type this sentence normally it would look like this: for exq,ple; If I type this sentence nor,qlly it zould look like this. Just enough letters are in different places and all of the symbols are in other places.

Anyway, it's incredible being here (we're six hours ahead of EST). I've met everyone on my project so far and many of them don't speak French, so I've done everything from teaching others how to count to giving a crash course in prounciation to ordering crepes for someone as we explored town yesterday. Apparently it's entirely possible to get around Paris without knowing the language, but it definitely helps. And my accent is already getting better; I'm keeping my fingers crossed for being able to sound halfway decent by the time I come home.

God has definitely been answering prayers, sometimes in crazy ways. The staff from Campus Crusade here had been praying for more people to come to Paris for the summer and work with them; a few weeks ago they only had three students signed up to come. Then SARS hit and two groups that were supposed to go to China had to cancel their plans; this city has students from all over the world, including 30,000 from China, so they regrouped and ended up here. Now there are around 55 of us rather than just the orignal three.

I only had two weeks to raise support for my trip; I left the US having raised only a fifth of what I need to be here and essentially emptied my bank account for the rest. I figure it's God's trip so the money is his problem, and I've never seen him fail to provide somehow. I was talking about this yesterday as we were eating dinner and a guy named Jesse just pulled a check out of his pocket and handed it to me saying that he'd brought it along in case anyone hadn't been able to finish their fundraising. I was in shock. Just before I left I was telling my friend Shen, whom I've actually only met once since he lives in Australia and had just started emailing again a couple of days before, about my trip and out of the blue he told me that he wanted to help pay for my trip and sent me money through Paypal. It's seeing stuff like this that brings home the fact that God is faithful and that he does work through his people. I've felt his presence so clearly here, realizing that I'm totally relying on him for everything--finances especially since I quite literally had to pay for rent through my credit card because I just don't have the cash--but also I feel like this month is the culmination of years of preparation in language and heart for working with Europeans and more recent lessons, like everything I understood for the first time at Chapter Camp two weeks ago. God is alive and busy.

^ Top | 7:01 AM | | |

Friday, May 23, 2003

Leaving for Paris

It's funny how I don't allow myself to really get excited before taking trips until I actually get wherever I'm going. I'm usually bogged down instead with all of the logistical things that need to get done before leaving--bills to pay, errands to run, people to call, emails to send, last minute supplies to buy--and can't focus on what's ahead. So much stuff to do... my flight leaves tomorrow at 5pm. Can you believe it? France. I just added a couple more links and organized the links section, and in doing so discovered that there's a swing dancing website out of Paris. Maybe I'll meet some kids who want to go dancing....

^ Top | 11:19 PM | | |

Wednesday, May 21, 2003

Reading

One of the simple pleasures to which I've recently been reintroduced is reading out loud. As an actress and writer, you'd think this would have occurred to me sooner, but better late than never, or so the saying goes. I had to attend two fiction readings for my creative writing class this winter, and though hearing Rick Moody read from his work was interesting, it was less his vocal presence than his writing itself that held my attention (not that he was bad--he wasn't)--Jonis Agee's reading was nothing particularly special. However, poets have long been fans of reading aloud (incidentally, so has my “literary circle” or whatever you want to call them), and during the week I was with IV in the UP (hope you're following the acronyms) I heard excerpts from none other than Winnie the Pooh and The Chronicles of Narnia. All of this is a long-winded way of saying that one of the projects of this summer, which has already commenced, is a reading of The Princess Bride. We’ve made it to Chapter Two, but the rest will have to wait until I return from Paris. For now, it’s off to swing dancing.

^ Top | 7:36 PM | | |

Tuesday, May 20, 2003

Quick Thoughts

Starting with a quick link: a highly entertaining blog entry from my roommate Tait. So why hasn't the rest of the house gotten into the whole blog culture?

Answer to prayer in a highly unexpected way: A couple of days ago--last Thursday--my friend Ryan called me and asked if I knew anyone who was trying to sublet a room. She and her sister had sublet their apartment out for the summer and she needed a place to stay beginning on Saturday; since she only needed a place to stay for a month and I'm leaving for France this weekend, she's going to take my room and I'm not losing out on my entire rent for the month I'm gone. So that was a definite answer to prayer about finances. Cool eh?

This past Saturday was the first of the weddings this summer--for me, anyway. I currently know 21 couples who are getting or have gotten married in 2003/04 (though when I tried to count the other day I could only remember 15 names--I know I'm forgetting some). If that isn't scary, I don't know what is. The wedding, which was for my friends Seth and Theresa, who have been dating practically their entire lives (5 1/2 years), was fun even though thanks to traffic and my inability to figure out exactly where the church was located, I was a half hour late. But I managed to make it in time for the vows, which is the important part. However, the DJ at their reception was horrible. Tips for future DJs: 1. Don't play large blocks of the same kinds of songs. Learn how to mix it up--in other words, playing the "Hokey Pokey," "Chicken Dance," "YMCA," etc. in a row gets annoying, especially if you follow that with another group of (mostly bad) fast songs and then a set of slow songs and end everything there. 2. If people request a chance of pace, don't tell them that you'll play what they ask later and not do it. 3. Learn how to mix in a few songs written in the last five or ten years. 4. Little kids at weddings will dance to anything if they feel so inclined. You don't have to try to cater to them the entire night.

I saw Matrix Reloaded that night after the wedding--a mini-review is soon to come.

Que la force soit avec toi.

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Monday, May 19, 2003

What's up with that Paris thing?

I promised I'd give you the scoop on "my trip to Paris on May 24," so here it is: ever since going to Urbana, a student conference in 2000, I’ve been researching the possibilities for going to France; after studying French for three years in high school and the equivalent of six terms in college, it's always seemed like a natural place to go. Europe is spiritually hungry--I witnessed that firsthand two years ago on a mission trip to Scotland—and only 0.6% of the French population believe in Christ. So from May 24 through June 29--in other words, I'm leaving this Saturday!--I’ll be working with Scott and Mentanna Campbell, who have been serving with the International Mission Board for four years. A group of students from Campus Crusade will also be working with us as part of a summer project to reach out to students in the Paris area; our job is essentially to meet and form relationships with students. To that end, we’ll be part of a weekly English discussion group, conversing at sports nights, picnics, outings, and planning our own events as a team. Additionally, we’ll be undergoing training in things like ministering to Muslims, postmodernism, and cross-cultural ministry.

The crazy part is that all of this came together a few weeks ago and the paperwork only went through when I was at camp with InterVarsity. I've had a week to raise the $2598.00 I need for travel, food, housing, etc. and I've got 10% of it so far. So for those of you who are Christians, if you would pray for the trip and the support-raising process that would be awesome... and hey, if you'd be willing to support me yourself let me know and I'll give you my mailing address. In any case, God will provide and I'm really looking forward to going. I should still be able to check my email and post entries on a regular basis while I'm there, so I'm sure you'll hear all about my trip. :-)

^ Top | 12:41 AM | | |

Thursday, May 15, 2003

Moving

Randomness has finally been integrated into my site! Major thanks to Tait for (as usual) offering his assistance. Take a look around--there are still major updates (like music and images) to come, but this is our new home. Well, I don't have anything more coherent to say for tonight, so as the Man in Black says, "Rest well, and dream of large women." (Anyone who just got a confused look on their face needs to watch The Princess Bride again.)

^ Top | 1:12 AM | | |

Tuesday, May 13, 2003

Language

Ever notice how some things are better in other languages? I've seen Spirited Away in French, English, and Japanese now (yay for DVDs!), and I have to say that the English dub was the worst of all. Chihiro, the main character, is incredibly annoying in English, annoying in the beginning but better when she's in the "spirit world" in Japanese, and not annoying at all in French. I realize this is due to the various actresses rather than the languages they speak, but it's interesting to notice how much that changes the movie. Spirited Away just isn't as engaging in English as it is in the other two dubs. Boo Disney, who somehow managed to spend millions of dollars on the English voiceovers and forgot to give the movie any kind of support. If you haven't seen it yet, rent the DVD and watch it in Japanese or French with English subtitles; it won this year's Oscar for animation (with good reason!). Think: all of your favorite children's books rolled into one movie and made even better.

I've been watching a fair number of movies in French over the last week or so in preparation for my trip to Paris on May 24 (more on that later). Currently I've also seen Star Trek: Insurrection, X-Men, and part of Star Wars: Episode II. Star Wars was definitely better in French--and I suspect this is due to the rhythms of the language, not just the actors--the actors aren't as monotone, one of my major problems with the film as usual. Jar Jar is hilarious in French (seriously, you have to hear it) and the dub even manages to keep Yoda's inverted sentence structure. Not bad. A viewing of A.I. will commence tonight... in a few minutes, in fact. [runs to the TV]

^ Top | 9:01 PM | | |

Monday, May 12, 2003

Movies and the Search for Meaning

From the State: Sci-fi offerings prey on our fears but offer a sort of religious hope, too. "The 'Terminator' trilogy is a retelling of the annunciation, conception and life of Jesus had he been born in 1984 and the Romans were cyborgs from the future. The 'Matrix' series, with its messianic hero struggling to free himself from the machine-made world of illusion, mixes metaphors of Christianity, Buddhism and techno-liberation."

Interesting--I never thought about the Terminator series that way, although the various religions and worldviews that make up The Matrix are easy to spot. Another film mentioned in the article is X2, the new X-Men flick, which plays up Nightcrawler's faith; he quotes Psalm 23 and the Lord's Prayer. Go and see it if you haven't already--surprisingly for an action movie, it has enough thematic material that it's worth analyzing.

^ Top | 7:32 PM | | |

Thursday, May 08, 2003

Creative Stuff

Another vignette from the story that I've been posting pieces from:

One morning during Mei’s second year at Indiana University she was sitting at her desk inspecting the scribbled scraps of paper piled just underneath the corner of her computer monitor—her method for keeping track of notes to herself—when she came across a napkin reminder. She needed to ask Marc if he’d give her a ride to her parents’ house for dinner; it’d only be a twenty-five-minute drive and he was welcome to stay for some real food. Unimpressed by the failed enticements of another meal in the cafeteria, he gladly agreed. The combination Chinese/Japanese dinner was as wonderful as expected, but what Mei would remember for years was her mother’s comment as she was stepping out the door. Marc was already in the car and she was giving her father a hug when her mother frowned and said, “You said he’s same age as you but graduating in a term?” Mei nodded. “Then, my girl, you should be ashamed of yourself. You’re two years behind.”

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Tuesday, May 06, 2003

I'm Back!

Well, I’m finally back and I have a ton to say… let’s see how much of this actually makes it onto the blog.

Ever look back at the past—whether a few weeks, months, or years—and beat yourself up over what you could have should have would have done? That’s where I was before I left for the InterVarsity retreat; I’d been screwing myself up academically and I knew it—and suddenly, all of my chances to “do better next semester” were gone. I thought about what I’d done with my four years here and wondered at the amount of time I wasted, time wasted not just with classes but in forming relationships, in music, fiction, you name it. Needless to say, I was in a sorry state. But you wouldn’t have known, because I’m Dawn—I’m invincible. At least that’s what I keep pretending.

Enter Cedar Campus. I did not want to be there—I’d actually only gone because Tait persuaded me that I should get away and spend some time in prayer before the “next stage of my life” or something similar and my brother was going to go—we’ve finally started to develop a close relationship (I’ve been waiting for this for years) and I figured it’d be good to hang out with him for a week. It seemed like the worst time possible to leave Ann Arbor—I had a lot of stuff to take care of, like raising support for my trip to France. The first few days I was feeling incredibly introverted (unusual for me, I know), but I did spend a lot of time with God, both just being in his presence and in conversation with him. The time was well worth it.

Throughout the week, God beat two points into my head… and when I say beat, I mean they were everywhere—the novel I was reading (I thought it was your average Asian-influenced literary fiction, but it turns out the author is herself a Christian—that was a surprise), the hymns and songs we sung, the speaker for the week, what I was reading in the Bible, nightly room discussions, conversations with friends—you get the picture. After a few days of constant pounding, what he was saying finally started to sink in.

1. His love is unconditional. This is practically cliché in Christian circles, but that makes it no less true. I often think and act as though God’s love is based on performance (i.e. he’ll care more about me if I’m a really good singer instead of a mediocre one) but it’s just not true. He wouldn’t love me any more or less if I were the President of the United States or a mere janitor. I have worth because I am his, because he thinks I am beautiful, that the very essence of me is worth caring about. In a sense, this idea is simple. Yet if I allow this truth to penetrate the very core of my being, the way I live, the way I think, I can’t help but be completely changed. It’s freeing.

2. We were not made to be self-sufficient. Too often I pretend as though I don’t need anyone—I have problems trusting people, trusting God. And yet we were made to support each other. I myself have done nothing; even my faith, which I so often think is entirely dependent on me, is actually a gift from God himself. Grace. Kind of goes along with the first point.

Funny how the basic truths of the Christian faith are so difficult to grasp on a deeper level, to the point where they actually change how we live. But with God’s help, we can.

^ Top | 10:10 PM | | |