Life in Albertville.

Hello Everyone! =)
Welcome to Albertville!
Albertville is located in the Savoie region in Southern France in the French Alps.
I thought I'd give a tour on life here and the things that keep us busy. So feel free to come along and see where I live, work and play preparing for Gabon. I'll let you know now there A LOT of photos, so feel free to skim as little or as much as you'd like =)

Entrance to the center off of the small road: chemin des Galibouds

Entering the center

The family building

Classrooms and Singles' housing

Recycling bins, you can be fined in France for not recycling!

Main entrance to the school and where I live

Secured entry: keeping the singles safe at night

Mail boxes!

The "celibataires'" hallway- (aka singles', not celebrity or celibate hallway as some have guessed ;-)

Common kitchen

Cooking with 6 girls in this kitchen is always an adventure- but we enjoy it =)

Pantry for 6 of us.

Common living area

DVD player plays both region 1 and region 2 dvd's - so helpful!

Pulley system for the wood shutters outside our windows (see below)

The shutters are adjustable to let in some light or to be completely shut, it's amazing how much warmer it is with the shutters down, especially with the single paned windows. 

Communal bathroom

French throne

Shower

My room =)

Making use of limited space

So these walls between rooms alternate storage between the rooms. My room is right next to the common area and kitchen, so I have a storage closet and a sink in a closet on my side, and on the between is the mint green wall, which is the pantry in the common area on the other side of the wall. It struck me as kind of funny at first, but it's efficient!

More use of storage...

My funny little sink in a closet =)

It's been really helpful, especially not having a private bath.

The view out my window - God's magnificience in the Alps.

Conference room

We have a devotional and prayer in this room every morning at 8:40 before class. Each student must lead a devotional in French at some point throughout the semester.  On Fridays we have a time of worship together (again in French =) I've enjoyed getting involved playing violin on the worship team.

Our classroom

There are five classes of French at the school. I've been put with a class that started last September, so it was difficult to jump into the middle of a class at first, but now I'm really enjoying it growing a lot in my French. 

Madame Anne

We do a variety of reading, writing, grammar, listening, speaking exercises, and of course, no English is allowed in class. We try to keep English to a minimum outside of class too. Living with 2 girls from Germany, a girl from Holland, a girl from Britain and a couple girls from the States makes it easier, as French is our common language.

 

Don't know what we'd do with out the mural ;-)

We have class from 8:40-11:15 and 1:45-4:15 Mon, Tues, Thursday, Friday. No class on Wednesday and long lunch breaks which mirrors the cultural school schedule in France nationwide.

the laboratoire

The laboratoire is one method we use to practice our pronunciation. We respond back to oral exercises on the computer, and Madame Anne sits at a master computer where she can link in to listen to each of us individually and give us feedback. It's definitely not a student's favorite place in the world, but I think it does help. Side note: the school is getting new computers!  

National Crepe Day!

Learning to make crepes on a Friday afternoon- a great way to end a week of French class! 

SCHOOL FIELD TRIP: skiing in the French Alps! 

***************************************
I had never gone skiing before, but what better place to learn! I didn't do anything spectacular- rocked the bunny hill all day =), but I got over being afraid of sliding around on snow on skis and actually had fun. I look forward to learning more in the future.

CONFLANS

*************************************

 On the weekends it's fun to visit places for the day near by in the region. One Sunday the girls and I made the 30 min walk up to Conflans. Conflans is a medieval city on the slopes overlooking Albertville. There was hardly anyone around and nothing was open because it was Sunday, so we had a wonderful time exploring the old "city" and soaking in the panoramic views. Come along with us and enjoy Conflan...=)

The bridge between Albertville and the road to Conflan

OLYMPIC FACILITIES

***************************************

Two of our grocery stores, Lidl (similar to Aldi) and Carrefore (sim to Kroger) are within a 15 min walk (one-way) from the center. There is a store called Geant (sim to Target) that is a 30 min walk one way from the center. I walked there one Wednesday just for a good walk and to visit the bigger store. These are the views I passed along the way. The Olympic facilities still remain from the 1992 Winter Olympics which were held in Albertville. Last week they celebrated their 20th anniversary. 

The old vacant house next to the school- doesn't look like something straight out of a novel or a movie? The school is considering purchasing it to expand their housing availability.

The church we attend, around the corner from school

 I've enjoyed getting involved in the nursery and have started playing violin on the worship team. We have one service, 10-11:45. The church celebrates communion every Sunday. I am learning to connect with God and hear from Him in a language that is not my own.

 

 

The sanctuary

The nursery

ANNECY

************************************************************************

A couple of weekends ago, the girls and I took a Saturday and frolicked around the nearby town of Annecy. It is about a 45 min drive from school, so we enjoyed getting out and about enjoying the old architecture, market and the contrast with the modern-day mall located in the "modern" part of town. We also enjoyed some French baking =)

Carey- with the C&MA to Mali

Library and theatre in Albertville

The old church in Albertville

....and home sweet home again back in Albertville.

As I write this, I am sitting in our living room, snow is
falling outside our window, Jodi is in the kitchen trying to make chocolate chip cookies with French ingredients and
measurements- always an adventure =) And I am sitting on
the couch with Renate (a teenage girl from Germany who is
here for the year practicing her French), and introducing her
to her very first viewing of the Sound of Music! =)
Always something new.....

Hope and pray you are all doing well!

Love From Albertville,

           ~ Amanda

Bonjour from Albertville, France!!!

Bonjour Everyone! 

On January 1st 2012 I was seated on a plane with a one way ticket to France!
After all the preparations the day had finally come!

The month leading up to leaving Dayton was a whirlwind of organizing, storing and packing. With my departure date moved from July to January, I was in crunch time. I don't think moving overseas is ever very pretty, and this was certainly no exception. So excuse the mess =) but I thought you'd all enjoy a window into some of the prep to move overseas.

Heavy duty trunks to make the trip...

Vacuum packing...a mover's best friend =)

 

Each cubic foot costs $10 to ship to Gabon, and each of these trunks is a little over 4 cubic feet.

 

 

The night before we packed up the moving truck, we had one final day to move out of my apartment and finish packing up the trunks and furniture for the shipment.

8pm and bringing in all the stuff moved from my apt.

The last 10% of the trunks took the longest to pack up. All those night shifts at the hospital came in handy...went to bed at 7:00 AM. The packing truck came at 9. 
 

3am....and overwhelmed...

 But the sun came up and so did the truck. It was time to pack it all up. Thankfully I had my volunteer packing crew to help pull everything together last minute.

Rob, the morning of.

Rob, doing a great job bolting bundles of hangers and a picture frame to bottom of the desk, then wrapping it up for shipment!

Megan and Jenn typing up the lists last minute...thank you girls! =)

Every item had to be listed with a cost estimate.

Loading up!

Maybe it'll all get done afterall...

Becky, packer extraordinaire.  

Thank goodness for duct tape. Holding the trunks shut so we can seal them up for shipping. 

Finally, the shipment's ready for Gabon!!

 We made it! Then, on 2 hours of sleep, Christopher and I made the 4 hour drive to Cleveland to drop the shipment off at the warehouse. 

My wonderful last minute packing crew.

I thought the rhino was appropriate...=)

Dropping off the shipment at the warehouse...

My bed and furniture all packed down for shipping.

Last trip to Walmart.....hopefully I've remembered everything!

   

Arrival at the Syracuse, NY Airport...the day has come!

Saying "goodbyes"

A final prayer together as a family...

Here we go!

Praise the Lord for how He has provided and brought me this far! 
Thank you all for your prayer and support as I've transitioned this first step overseas: language school in Albertville France. More pictures and updates to come.
In the mean time, pray I have a mind like a sponge =)

Thanks for joining me on this adventure, as I follow God's leading to Gabon.


Love from France,
    ~Amanda

God At Work!: CHICK-FIL-A

On November 16th we had our Chick-fil-A fundraiser. I was overwhelmed by the love and support of the hundreds who came from Beavercreek, Dayton and the surrounding area.

Chick-fil-A reported it was the biggest missions fundraiser they've seen, bringing in over $1,400 in food sales translating to over $200 in support to get me that much closer to Gabon!

A big thank you to:

Hillside Chapel

Faircreek Church

Church of the Nazarene

and all the individuals who camped out, brought friends, ate both lunch and dinner, had staff meetings, passed out flyers, youth group gatherings, young adult meetings, brought a big group of people last minute at 10pm to help out and just plain got the word out, THANK YOU!

THANK YOU Chick-fil-A!

Praise the Lord! I am one step closer to Gabon!

Thank you for praying!
Love,
             ~Amanda

God at Work!: Hillside Chapel

On Friday, November 11th, 

Hillside Chapel gathered for an evening of international food, fellowship and displays of missionaries from around the world. I stood in front of my display for Gabon, the fellowship hall bursting around me with color, familiar faces and the aroma of delicious food. It was surreal somehow, after 12 years of following God's call to the mission field, to be standing as one of the "missionaries" for the evening, in front of my little table for Gabon. 

I did not yet know what was in store for me that evening, but as I entered the sanctuary for the
evening service, I was overjoyed to be met by my extended family and many of my friends in the Dayton area. The service began and I still did not yet know what lay ahead.

Coming into that evening, I was at about 7% of my monthly support.
A January 1st departure was not looking promising.
The C&MA national office was aware and was waiting with me to see what God would do this final weekend before making a decision of whether or not a January departure was realistic.

That night at Hillside, after sharing how God has and is leading me to teach nursing in Gabon, our Pastor, Chuck Moore came out to announce that they had been planning this evening as a surprise for quite sometime, and that to date, over $21,000 had been raised by Hillside Chapel!
I could hardly believe my ears, to think that my church family had raised so much and been planning this for so long, their love was overwhelming.
As if that wasn't enough, that night an offering was taken,
another $12,000 was given, in addition to many generous monthly and yearly pledges.

A total of over $33,000 was given!
God had brought me from 7% to 75% in one night.
I was leaving in January.

I remain amazed at God's hand at work in every step of this process.
I am honored to be partners with my family at Hillside in reaching the people of Gabon.
I am reminded that it is God who calls,
God who equips those He sends,
and God who will bring those yet unreached to Himself.

Praise God for His hand at work through the faithful love and obedience of the church family at Hillside and the many other individuals who have so sacrificially given.

Praise the Lord!


Still going to the Jungle =),
       ~Amanda