Happyness!

Well, this post will deal with a few things, all to update you on recent developments...

Firstly, we've found our church! It is the French parish of "La Sainte Trinite," meeting in the Crypt of the much larger Russian Cathedral of Alexandre Nevsky. Church in a crypt? Yes, but it isn't "spooky" by any means, more of just an absolutely gorgeous underground chapel. We went on Sunday with high hopes and shaky nerves, hoping that our experience this Sunday would be better than last. We were not disappointed!! The service was very nice, and by the end, the church was full! Full of a nice, healthy, diverse community, even some adorable children. At the end of the service, the Priest greeted everyone with "Christ is Risen" in various languages, and was met with full, hearty responses! We were happy that we could participate in this. Suddenly though, one of the choir members yelled across the parish "Christ is Risen" in an African dialect, and the Africans (standing right next to us) shouted back "Truly He is Risen"!! Apparently, the Priest had forgotten this particular greeting! When we went to venerate the cross, the Priest remembered me from when I went up for Communion. He asked (in English) our names, where we were from, what was our jurisdiction, why we were here...and he said "You are very welcome here!" We were so happy to hear that. We proceeded to look at all the beautiful fresco icons of the walls, when an older man came up to talk to me about one of them. He was very friendly, spoke very good English, and invited us to coffee hour! By this point, we were "giddy" at having found someone who was friendly, English-speaking, and inviting! What a blessing! With new confidence, we walked over to the coffee hour...

The kind man, who later introduced himself as Phillippe Alexandre, came and found us and made sure that we had coffee. He wanted to know all about what we were doing here, why we had come, would we be coming back to the church again? He told the people standing around that we were nice Americans, here for nine months! "Nine months?" That seemed like a long "visit," so many more people began talking to us about it. Phillippe Alexandre's 14 year-old son, Antoine, was also very friendly, although he kept asking if we know Michael Jackson, and later pretended to think that Andrew was Michael Jackson...very odd, but funny!

The Priest is Fr. Alexi, and his wife is named Anne. Anne speaks very good English, and is also very kind. Father told us that there is a young adult group here that meets every month--joy for us! He asked where I work, and when I said "Disneyland," he jokingly continued "What, are you Minnie there? Daisy?" When I said, "No, Cendrillon!" [Cinderella] he was caught totally off guard! Everyone was supportive of Andrew's efforts to learn French..."Well, you speak English today, but tomorrow, you say words in French!" We went home so very happy, and finally felt "at home"!

Secondly, I am officially Cinderella and Princess Aurora! Hip hip hooray!! The gowns I get to wear are so very beautiful! I think I have the best job ever: I get to be a beautiful princess, every little girl's dream, and play dress up all day! :-) We start going into the park on Thursday, which can't seem to come quickly enough. In the meantime, we're learning all about being our characters, their habits, mannerisms, signatures, expressions. This week we'll also be taught how to do our "Princess makeup" and learn our positions for the parade--I CAN'T WAIT!! I really hope I get to be a princess at least fairly often.

Thirdly, we had a marvelous time celebrating my birthday. I didn't feel like it was my birthday, except that I found out that I got to be a princess and wear a beautiful dress, but other than that it was a pretty ordinary day (though being a princess is old news for me...ha). I was a little sad coming home, I thought "This is probably the only time I will ever have a birthday in Paris, but it doesn't feel like my birthday at all!" To help me feel better, Andrew took me out for a lovely dinner on the Ile St. Louis, just us two. It much improved my mood, and it was lovely to just enjoy his company!

Andrew took this very artistic shot of me on the Ile St. Louis. This area is so cool!
The spire in the background actually belongs to a boy's school!

We went to this really cute (and slightly touristy) restaurant with Medieval decor. Inside, you thought the place was going to just collapse at any moment...not sure if it was just meant to feel this way, or if it actually, um, was this way. We had a delicious 3-course + kir and wine supper! The best course by far was the salad course, which was a warm salade de chevre (goat cheese salad). This was no "ordinary" goat cheese. It was SO fabulous!! We sort of half-thought of asking the waiter if we could just have another round of it for dinner...and dessert! That's how good it was!

Us in front of the cute lil' restaurant with the AMAZING salad!! Mmmm!

So that was my happy birthday! Happier because it seems to be my birthday week: Sun. church, Mon. I got to be a princess, Tues. got home and our broken (we thought!) computer was working (thanks to my husband's dedicated crusade to find a new Mac powercord!) Who knows what tomorrow will bring in my birthday week!?

My handsome husband...awww!