Taize finishes, off to Holland

The view that I'm looking at across the canal.

April 16th-20th , 2008
I am now sitting in front of our hotel in Amsterdam. I’m sitting right next to a canal. If I leaned slightly to the right,I would fall in. We were lucky to find a hotel for five nights. Queen’s Day is coming up so hotels are very full.
Taize finished. Lots of hugs and sad good-byes. Wow. I don’t know how to explain the experience I had at the Taize community. You really have to go and live it yourself to understand the power of this place. After a week, my mind was much calmer, all my little physical ailments disappeared and I felt amazingly happy. I didn’t want to leave. I can see why they have a rule for adults that they can only attend one week a year. Youth can go as many times as they want. It was great to see so many young people, mostly Europeans, taking time out of their lives to spend a week in Taize!
The best part of the week was of course “Common Prayer” which was held three times a day. This is what people come for. The service consists almost entirely of singing. These are short pieces especially composed for Taize. You repeat them over and over again like a chant or meditation. These songs become a part of you. I was singing them throughout the day and kept singing them after the week was over. I bought a CD of the songs and I hope to start my own meditation every morning. Imagine 1000 people singing these beautiful chants. In the summer months there are up to 6,000 people in one week. I would love to hear that. A huge church has been built to hold all these people. Depending on how many people are there they can open and close walls to more rooms. By the end of the week we had to open one wall in the back. There were walls on the side as well which we didn’t need to open. We had Common Prayer at 8:15, 12:20 and 8:30. Most people sit on the floor. There are chairs for older people. As the people are coming in the bothers start coming in and sit in a designated area in the center. They range in age from early 20s to late 90s. A large part of them are quite young. There are about 80 brothers I believe. Several are traveling at any given time so there were about 50 the week I was there. They wear white robes. One brother leads the singing. He gets the song started and then adds a descant on most songs. So many of the people attending are musical so it’s a glorious sound. The night service was my favorite time. The service would end but the singing would continue for another 45 minutes or so. I sometimes stayed until the very end when there were no more than 20 people remaining. It seemed as if the best singers were staying until the end so it was a glorious experience.

the church

The next best thing about the week was the discussion group. Every morning at 10 brother Pedro came to the adult tent and gave us a short 40 minute or so talk. The theme this week was creation. At the end of his talk he would pose 5 or 6 questions for us to discuss in our groups. Our group got really close and we all looked forward to great, lively, open discussions. By the end of the week, we were good friends. If any of you are reading this. I MISS YOU! There was a lot of free time for your own meditation and thinking. I often took long walks, or just sat in a field and prayed. The meals were very simple but I never was hungry. You could always get seconds. There was a little canteen that was open a couple times a day as well. And there was a coffee machine which I visited frequently in the morning. One of my goals was to not drink coffee this week but that just didn’t work out! A couple times during the week I got the chance to drive around the area with people who had cars. A very friendly couple from Estonia, a German young man, Jonathan and myself had a lovely afternoon exploring the small villages around Taize. It’s hard to believe such small villages still exist. Does the young generation actually stick around?
I think about Taize everyday. (It’s now May 11th as I write this.) I think it will stay with me for a very long time if not forever. I would encourage anyone to take a week off and experience this amazing, spiritual place on the little hill in Burgundy.
This entry is getting long so I will continue tomorrow.

our discussion group

brother Pedro talking to the adults

cleaning the breakfast dishes with Wiebe

More pictures to come...

First day of Taize

April 13th, 2008
I’m sitting on a heavy, rod-iron folding chair looking out at Burgundy. Lush green grass, a perfect stream with grazing cows (those white ones again), rolling hills with vineyards. The sky is huge. After Tokyo where there is such little sky to be seen, it’s a relief to see so much openness.
There are dark threatening clouds, fluffy, while clouds and patches of blue that the sun finds now and then to brighten up the world. I’m in Taize, France. Brother Roger started this community after WWII to provice a hiding place for Jewish people. He had a strong desire to help the world become a more peaceful and loving place. He couldn’t understand why humans had to have so much conflict; especially Christians. He established a community in which reconciliation and peace would be made concrete day by day.
We took a bus this morning at 9:10 from Macon station. We were sure we would see other Taize people but not until we stopped at the TGV station on the way did we finally pick up one other person going to Taize. We found out later most people go with a group and have their own bus. As soon as we got off the bus at Taize we quickly befriended the young woman who was riding with us. The entire place was silent. It was Sunday and everyone was at common prayer. Claudine, our new friend, was a very relaxed, fun and high spirited 25 year old from Australia. She’ll be fun to get to know this week.
We were very early so we put our luggage in tent P and took a walk through the countryside-actually in and around the village of Taize. Everywhere I looked was a perfect watercolor painting. Each house perfectly taken care of. Lace curtains in the windows, seemingly perfectly placed wild flowers in the yard. Not a sign or an advertisement anywhere. Even now as I look at the hills from my chair I see no commercialism. We walked back to the community site and I decided to take a look in the church where they were having the service. They were having silent prayer as I walked in. Over a thousand people and you could hear a pin drop. Then they started singing. It was so moving. At that moment I know I had come to the right place.
Behind me are 30 blue and orange tents where the youth sleep. Since we are in the 30 plus group we got to have a room.
I worry a bit about being so quiet this week. I lead such a busy life that it’s hard to stop my brain from moving so fast. That must be the reason I’m here. A chance of a lifetime to share with people from all over the world and to rest my brain. Let's back up a bit...
Yesterday we got to Macon train station. Grabbed the first taxi we saw. A nice man who spoke no English was our taxi driver. Suddenly my French reappeared. When there is no choice but French then I’m not shy about speaking. We had a nice conversation all the way to the hotel which he chose for us. It was very nice. A recording of a croaking frog and a statue of a black bell hop greeted us at the door. We were checked in and in our rooms in record time. The only information they asked for was my first name and our phone number in Tokyo. So there we were in Macon, a town we had never heard of. We went out to explore and find something to eat. The Taize information on line said we needed to bring our own sheets and towels so we thought they would be easy to pick up in town as so many Taize people stay there. Boy, were we wrong. There was not a towel or a sheet to be had in the entire downtown area. It took a lot of acting just to explain what a sheet was. I had no idea what it was in French. I know now it’s “drap”.
It’s getting cold now sitting on my rod-iron chair. Not quite enough blue patches to warn me up. I bought a book about Brother Roger, the founder of the Taize community and am going to find a warm place and read that now. Brother Roger was tragically stabbed to death in 2005 during a common prayer. A mentally ill woman killed him. There were thousands and thousands of worshipers that witnessed this. Hard to fathom something as awful as that. I visited his very modest grave in the little church yard in taize.

The view of Burgundy from my rod-iron chair

Our bell hop who greeted us in Macon

(don't think you could get away with this in the US!)

meeting Claudine upon arriving at the Taize Community

The view of the village of Taize taken from the foot of the hill.

The community is just behind the village.

The grave of Brother Roger.

His soul lives on!

Random pictures of Paris

Notre Dame

In front of Versaille Palace

Gardens in front of the Louvre Museum


At the Louvre

A woman having a tough life

Have no idea what this is!

The Louvre

Give Kyl a big hand!

Dancing near Deux Magots

Near our hotel in le marais

Notre Dame early one morning

entrance to le louvre

a lamp (bet you're glad to see this one!)

forgot the name of this bridge

Paris turned black and white all of a sudden

Off to Taize, Burgundy

Kyl in Macon, France

April 12, 2008
Took a beautiful walk. How can one city be so full of beauty? If you lived there do you even notice it? Got packed. They let us leave our heavy bags at the hotel for two weeks. There is no way we could carry those suitcases around with us. Especially since one of them is about to fall apart.
Didn’t buy tickets until we got to the the station (Gare de Lyon) which was a mistake as they only had 1st class tickets left so we had to spend more money than we wanted. First class is not much nicer so it really is a waste of money. We had plenty of time at the station so we had breakfast before departure.- croissant, tortine, coffee, jus d’orange for about $12.00.
We are headed to the town of Macon. It is in the Burgundy wine region. This is the closest big town to Taize where we will be for a week at a retreat. I’m a little anxious about Taize. I have no idea what to expect. Am I too nervous of a person to actually slow down and meditate for 7 days? What is this entire year about? Will I waste this year? What will I get out of it? Who cares if I learn Italian? Where does that get me?
Will I do all the reading and studying that I want to? It’s a scary thing having a year to do exactly what you want to. Most importantly, I want to grow spiritually. Have more direction in my life. Be less selfish.
Looking out the TGV window-clouds, some very dark ones. The countryside is lovely. Lots of newly sprouted green fields. I wonder what is growing? Lots of fields of bright yellow flowers as well. The very simple villages are scattered here and there. White cows grazing in the fields. It all seems so untouched by human hands.

Our hotel in Paris

April 12, 2008
Here we go! I couldn’t believe it was actually happening. We were off for a year in Firenze, Italy. TUSCANY! Sun, rolling hills, vineyards, Chianti, olives, sun-dried tomatoes, and of course, Italian men in tight pants! It still didn’t seem real as we wouldn’t be there for another month or so but it was real-we were off!
I couldn’t believe we actually got packed and only had 44 lbs. a suitcase. 44 lbs. is all we are allowed flying to Europe. We get spoiled flying to the US where you get 50 lbs AND two suitcases! We had almost 44 lbs of books alone EACH so we came with very little to wear. (Little did we know we weren’t going to be able to afford to go shopping once we got there.)
We did a quick transfer in Korea and than got on our 12 hour flight to Paris. We got to Paris and quickly got in a taxi and was headed to our hotel in “Le Marais” neighborhood of “The City of Lights.” We had eight pieces of luggage including, camera and equipment, PC, carry-on, shoulder bag and the list goes on. We were constantly counting to see if we had eight pieces. We made it to our hotel with all eight, thankfully. We were on the third floor (which means the fourth floor to Americans.) which also means carrying our eight pieces of luggage up a very narrow winding staircase until my shoulders were ready to fall off. Oh, the drama.
It was cold and rainy in Paris. We spend four days seeing some sights, resting a lot. Jonathan, however, would never say we rested a lot but I felt we did. Poor Paris gets such a bad reputation for being such a rude city. Well, I beg to differ. I found the Parisians to be out of the way friendly and helpful and the majority of service people spoke English quite well. I’m embarrassed to admit that I minored in French and was so shy about using it. When we later went to Macon a city in Burgandy where no one spoke English I got to redeem myself a bit.
I enjoyed my mornings the most in Paris. Because of jetlag I was wide awake by 5 or 6 so I took wonderful walks around the city at this time. We didn’t bring coats as we thought Paris would be warm AND because we couldn’t have the weight on our flight so I basically froze on these walks. We did finally break down and get coats but not for several days. My favorite walk was around the Louvre museum. At 6 am there is not one other person around. I had that amazing museum all to myself. There is an inner courtyard you can walk into. It is huge. The mind can hardly grasp the scale of this building. I did a Julie Andrews spin and stared singing. It really was a glorious feeling. Then I walked toward the entrance where the controversial, glass pyramid was built. I I I I continued down to the gardens which stretch forever in front of the Louvre. Literally, not a soul to be seen. It’s a strange feeling to be at such a famous place all alone. But by this time I couldn’t wait for it to be 8 am so I could have breakfast and warm up. I finally did that right behind the museum in a little restaurant. I had the typical breakfast of a croissant, marmalade and café crème. Life was good. I then called my horse and buggy and I was taken back to my hotel…

How do Japanese bars and Italians bars differ?

I’m finally starting my blog after a month of traveling. I just didn’t take the time to figure out how I use this on WIFI. I’m so bad with all this technical stuff! I’m sitting in a café just down the block from where we live in Firenze. It’s called Moyo. We don’t have internet access in our apartment yet. Our real estate office said that we will soon but in Italian time that could mean six months. Where do I begin? We traveled for three weeks before we got here but I will get to that later. We are now in Florence which already sounds foreign to my ears as it is called Firenze in Italian.
It’s really a bad day to start this blog because we are having a really bad day. At this very moment on May 8th, 2008 Jonathan and I are in a state of “What have we done?” We both are taking Italian lessons at a school called "La Scuola Leonardo da Vinci” Jonathan is not thrilled to be in Italian class but he has agreed to take a month of lessons just so he can have survival Italian. He hates being put on the spot. Well, it happened to day. He was put on the spot for about an eternity!! In real life it was more like ten minutes but to him it seemed like an eternity. He is in the beginning class. So, you would assume that would mean starting from the beginning. Well, after four days of basically just conjugating verbs and not speaking at all, the teacher went on a huge tangent talking about pubs and bars and the difference between these. The teacher whose name I can’t remember but I know her because she interviewed me for my placement test which is still another story which I will get to later, then went up to Jonathan and asked him how Italian bars and Japanese bars differ. He first looked to students on either side of him and pleaded for help. Remember Jonathan has yet to say a full sentence in this language of love. The teacher kept going and going and even started speaking louder. Jonathan is now panicked! Then this bitch starts mocking him to the point that the sweet, older American woman sitting next to him starts rubbing his back. What does this professoressa expect? The only word Jonathan knows in Italian is “pasta”. She expects him to explain how bars in Japan and Italy differ? He couldn’t explain it in English. We haven’t even been to a bar in Italy! Anyway, he has two teachers. His first teacher is kind and actually teaches. He will continue taking her classes and then go home and skip the second class. Now, let me tell you my experience with this “bitch”. We don’t know her name so “bitch” is as good as any. The first day of school I took a placement test because I had studied Italian on my own in Tokyo. I wasn’t worried at all about it as I didn’t care if I was placed in the lowest class. I’ve basically studied most of the grammar but have such little speaking practice that I really didn’t mind having lots of review. Well, I’m afraid I did really well on the written test. It wasn’t that hard. Then I was quickly moved to another room where I met the “bitch”, a rather pretty woman of about 50. Looked right at me and said “Buon Giorno!” Before I could say the same she was looking across the room talking in a very loud voice to one of her colleagues. She totally ignored me for at least a minute. I was a little nervous now as I was speaking Italian for the first time in my life. She had a stack of the placement tests next to her. Well, she was looking at one of the tests while she was interviewing me or "ignoring" me is a better word. I thought it was strange that it wasn't my test but I didn't question. She asked me another question and continued to ignore my answer. Finally, I got frustrated and told her it was not my test. "Questo non e il mio esame." She finally starts correcting my test. I panic because I notice that I got almost everything correct. We did eventually have somewhat of an interview but then practically in the middle of a sentence I was whisked off to my elementary level FOUR class. EEK! I walked into the class which had already started and the teacher started firing questions at me. I literally screamed and thank goodness the class laughed! I'll get to my class later.
So Jonathan's day starts really badly. Here is what else we are going through. (I'm going to sound really negative but I think we are just going through some culture shock. ):
Claustrophobia -the streets are narrow! the sidewalks VERY narrow. We have to walk in a line. Cars and vespas go 1000 kilometers an hour.
We must be spoiled with the wonderful food in Tokyo. We don't find the food that great here. (I think we just haven't found the good places yet.)
Service in restaurants seems to us rude. (Again a cultural thing.) There is no such thing as "The customer is always right." When you walk into a restaurant you are ignored forever. At first we thought we were doing something wrong. They do inventually get to your table. Once they get there they are basically nice but no extra effort is made to make us happy.
There have been a million tourists a day. We live right next to the one of the main attractions so there are hoards groups of tourists. I tend to hit these big groups head on on one of these VERY narrow sidewalks and they are just mindlessly following their guide not paying any attention to anything or anyone.
Don't you all just feel so sorry for us? I'm sure there are tears welling up in your eyes.
You know, the waiter at this restaurant is the sweetest person I've met so far. Maybe there is hope. I'm going to end for now. We have had so many wonderful experiences this trip and I'm going to share these with you. See you. All for now!

We met my colleagues under ARUTA at the East Exit of Shinjuku, the busiest staion in the world. It definately was the busiest Saturday night. I don't go there very often like I used to. I fogot how crowded Tokyo really is. The only way to deal with it is to walk at a relatively slow pace and not be in a hurry. Otherwise, you will want to hit everyone in your way. My train line that I take to work every day is relatively sane. At least, it's not so croweded that I can't breathe.

Before we met the gang at 7:00, we went to the Roppongi Hills cafe to read and study and then went to Tipness, a popular sports club in Tokyo, to work out.


Here are somethings we saw on the way to ALTA:


Senzoku Station-the station nearest our apartment.

Here are some ads we saw on the train. The first one says "Which one is strange?" It's a campaign against smoking on the platform. I don't quite get it. The other one is and ad for "Jet Splash", a breath freshner.

Orange elephant means pharmacy. Japan loves using animated characters for everything from pharmacies to bank cards. I love having a bank card with Disney characters on it. Can I really trust them with my money?

Roppongi Hills Cafe / Bookstore

We met at Alta at 7 as I said. Harriet, Jon and Lessie where there when we got there. Mik and Cassie weren't there yet. They arrived soon after we did. Everyone was in a great mood! We hadn't met Mik's girlfriend. She's 180 cm tall and gorgeous. Well, so is Mik so I wasn't surprised. I'd actually seen her picture on Facebook. In fact I've seen 100 pictures of her on Facebook. It's a little creepy I think that I can see a person's life without ever having met them.

Mik and Cassie

We went to a wonderful restaurant called "Cookin'". We had reservations for 7:30 pm. There were 8 of us and we ordered enough food for it to cost 5,000 yen a head. That's almost $50.

We ate, we drank.

Eveyone

Ghosts dancing at Dragon Men in Shinjuku.

We went to Dragon Men where we drank some more and started dancing after midnight. We turned into ghosts at midnight.