Taizé, part II

... I left the Taizé story with me eating a chocolate croissant before hopping on a train. I hopped on the train and rode until my stop, where I got off with a large group of people from South Africa. I could not figure out where they were from from their accent. They weren't speaking English and it sort of sounded like Dutch, but not really... it turns out they were speaking Afrikaans, a mix of an indigenous language and colonial Dutch with English influences. I really enjoyed talking with them. I realized that this was going to be a great week... friends my age, speaking English, conversations about Christianity that were more than just me talking with people about strange cultural customs or people trying to convert me to Christianity. (a strange process and idea in itself... I believe it fully misses the point.)

I was still thinking in Spanish and missing my second language when we arrived at the Taizé bus stop. It was dark and I had no idea where I was, but at least I was with a fun group of South Africans! "Stop being so melancholy about Spanish," I said to myself. "After all, you wanted this. You wanted to take a break from Spanish."

Meanwhile, our group had migrated to sitting on wooden benches in the shape of a triangle. I saw a small cottage with a small group of people in front of it. While the leader of the SA group gave a small group talk in Afrikaans, I meandered over to the group of five... lo and behold I heard a sound so familiar to my ears I couldn't believe it. It was my beloved Spanish!! And not just any Spanish. These people were from Baja California and one of them was wearing a Kansas City Chiefs jacket given to him by his brother who lives in Wichita. I eagerly launched into a Spanish conversation with them and felt proud about not having used "vosotros" or la ceta (the Spanish lisp on letters "c" and "z"). I also met a Croatian boy named Neven who was 17. He had come alone on train from Croatia and his English was... a little rocky. That's okay though. I generally find that most people know more in a language than they give themselves credit for, and if you are patient and encouraging, sooner or later they loose the initial embarrassment that comes with trying to say something you know you are fully competent at saying in your own language and they can express themselves a little better.

So eventually I got all checked in and they fed me lentils (it was at this point that I knew it would be a good week), went to bed, and met my roomates: Ingrid and Elin from Norway, two German girls, and a girl from the Barcelona area who I didn't meet until 3 days in because we had such opposite sleep schedules :).

I went to bed and woke up the next morning to a beautiful foggy sunrise over the countryside of France.

To be continued...