Finally Here

Well, “My Life in Marseille” is finally in Marseille. I arrived here nearly a week ago. Thankfully I was able to move directly into my new apartment. I have a roommate who has already been here a year with the same program. He’s an interesting guy and I think we’ll get along well. I’ve also been able to meet the rest of my team. My first night here we had dinner together and tonight we’ll have house church. Saturday we played Ultimate Frisbee at a local park with some French guys (actually one was Spanish and another Italian, but the rest were French).

I’ve been busy all week getting my apt set up. My roommate also just moved in from his other apartment so we’ve been cleaning out his old place, buying new supplies and groceries, arranging furniture, getting gas turned on, hot water fixed, internet working, and so on and so on. We have a washing machine (which flooded our bathroom the first time we used it), but we have to air dry our clothes, which is typical here. There’s no air conditioning and it’s been pretty warm here, so we leave our fans on and the windows wide open. My room didn’t come with a closet (again, typical here) so I had to buy a wardrobe or armoire yesterday and then spent 3 hours assembling it. For that much effort it should take me to Narnia! I also set up a bank account and enrolled in language school.

I’ve been learning how to get around the city. I know how to get to several teammates apartments, some stores, and my language school. We walk a lot, but we also take the buses and the metro. There’s also system in Marseille called le velo with stations scattered around the city where you can rent a bicycle and drop it off when you’re done. It’s pretty cool. The city is full of small cars, motorcycles, and people walking the streets. There are a lot of stores and cafes surrounding my place, as well as other apartment buildings. The city is spread out and most buildings aren’t very tall. The streets are very dirty, but it’s really a beautiful place. It’s 10-15 min to the coast of the Mediterranean from my place and there are gorgeous mountains to either side.

The next few days will be filled with more technical stuff. Sunday our team is going to Madrid for 5 days for an area wide meeting. The week after I return from Spain there’s a huge jazz festival in town that I’m pretty stoked about! Then on the 26^th I begin language school. I’ll take an intensive 4 week course first, then in Sept I’ll start a longer course where I spend less time in class.

I had a very nice two weeks between orientation and arriving here that included rest, a lot of packing, selling my car, and some great catching up with family and friends. I’m so glad for the all the people God has blessed my life with in the US and I’ll miss you all. I can’t thank you enough for all your love and support! Keep in touch!

-rsl

some pics of my new apt: