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Sometimes we find ourselves practicing our French in unexpected ways. Granted, we are here in QC to do just that, but sometimes we are thrown off guard.

Today I, (Jenn) babysat a little girl and the two of us decided it was a beautiful, park-going kind of day, so we headed in that direction. Once there, we were entertained by day cares, day camps, lawn mowers and athletes all around us. The little girl and I headed over to the swing set, and that is where we spent the next hour or so. She was loving the continual pushing, while I, on the other hand, was thrilled to chat with the Moms as they pushed their little swingers. I met a number of very nice people, all very interested in why we’re living in QC, and why we’re heading to West Africa. After all of that practice, I think I just might grab a nearby phone book and look up, "rent a kid" in the yellow pages! Ha.

Next was the video store scene. I walked over to the store to return some movies from the night before and to try and explain that one of the two that we rented didn’t work. Luckily I think I explained it well enough because the owner said, "Go get another one." At least, I hope I understood him correctly…    Ha.                                            

Then, this evening Shawn and I had a GUINEAN over for dinner! We met him through a friend. It was a great cultural time as well as French galore! I think he maybe said one English word the whole evening, and he said something like, "yes" or "it’s". Which doesn’t really fill you in on much if you’re already lost in the context of the conversation! We met him tonight for the first time, and we had a really good time.  We talked a lot about Guinea, and what life is like there, etc. He said he’s going to have us over to his house for a meal sometime, and we look forward to that. 

After dinner, Shawn was able to practice his mechanical French terms by helping our neighbor with his car. 

There’s always a way to practice, you just have to open your eyes, and, "violà"  there it is!

Talking to park Moms, and fixing our neighbors car,

Shawn and Jenn DeAtley

It’s neat how God provides fun, unexpected, relaxing times for us. Yes, He provides food, shelter and a roof over our heads, but he also chooses to provide fun times with family on the beach!

This past week Jenn’s family took us to Cancun/Riviera Maya, Mexico. Here are a few pictures from our trip.

We spent time on the beach (AHHHHH), at the pool, snorkeling (A first for the two of us). We were able to see Tulum- some Mayan Ruins, shop and practice our bartering skills at Playa Del Carmen, and catching up with family members. Believe it or not, we even spoke a decent amount of French! We ran into quite a few French speaking families while in Mexico. We didn’t hesitate to strike up a conversation with them, laughing to ourselves as we spoke the French language in a Spanish speaking country!

Now we’re back, once again, at our apartment in Quebec. We’ve had to change our brains from French to Spanish, to Spanish to French. We plan to be planted here for the bulk of our summer. Our plans are to continue to work on the French that we have learned, get together with friends to practice, and even work ahead for the upcoming (and final) semester of French school.

We are also preparing lists of things we need to buy, ship and take to Guinea!

Thankful for a relaxing and FUN time away,

Shawn and Jenn DeAtley

GRACIAS

MERCI

and

THANK YOU

for your interest in our lives and ministry!!!

We’re back in QC now after a great two weeks in the U.S.A!

Our first stop was in CT to visit Jenn’s grandpa, who took us deep sea fishing. It was a fun trip, and oddly enough, Jenn ended up catching the largest fish of the day, and Shawn, well…he says fishing on the high sea may not be his thing after all.

Then we headed to PA, to, "drop in" on Jenn’s Aunt and Uncle and cousins for a Memorial Day BBQ. We were also able to see Shawn’s great Aunt and Uncle who happen to live only ten minutes from Jenn’s family.

After that, we drove from PA to OH. We were thrilled to meet and hold our new baby nephew, Carson. We also spent some time with Shawn’s brothers, including Brandon who was been out of the country for the past few months.

We spoke at a smallgroup Bible study, met with some good friends in the area and enjoyed hearing a few sermons in English! On our way back to QC, we drove through VT and stopped at Ben and Jerry’s! Who could resist a stop like that ?! 

We’ve been back at school for two weeks now. Jumping back into French took a day or two, but we were able to catch up in time for three final tests.

~More news on this summer to come~

Shawn and Jenn

Our language school took a trip yesterday to Quebec City- a 400 year old French city. Wow, what a beautiful city, full of histoy.

We ate lunch in the city, and then spent the rest of the day, "exploring the sights."

Here are a few pictures of our time there:

(Click on the picture to make it bigger)

After our class trip in the city, us and another family with NTM studying at Parole De Vie, met up with another family who are also headed to Guinea, West Africa. They are also studying French, but they are studying at Laval University, which is in Quebec City. So it was nice for us all to get to know each other a little bit more, since we will be serving on the same field in the future. 

Spring!

Most of the snow has melted and it looks like Spring has finally arrived here in Sherbrooke, Quebec. We have definitely been enjoying the weather!

Last Saturday we spent six hours at a world religions conference. It was very informative, and helpful. Although we were tired when we got home from the conference, we decided to stop by and visit our neighbor- who speaks zero English, by the way. He asked us if we wanted to go on a walk with him, since the sun was out and the temperature was great. He said it would be a short walk, 30 minutes at the most. We said, "Oui" and agreed to go for a walk, putting the French that we do know to the ultimate test as he explained from the passenger side of the car just how to get to the walking path of his choice.

So to make a long story short, the, "30 minute walk" turned into a 2 1/2 hour walk!! It turned into a very detailed, French tour of the downtown of Sherbrooke, the river, a few quaint neighborhoods, and a mini history lesson of the city and it’s inhabitants! Phew! Let’s just say that we were throwing each other numerous, "HOW LONG IS THIS WALK GOING TO LAST" looks! HAHA. For those of you that know us, you know we’re not exactly "Mr. and Mrs. fitness of the year!" But it was a good time, and great practice with the language. Just a little longer than expected! We laugh because now we’re a little gun shy when someone utters the phrase, "Do you want to go for a walk?"

Wow-time flies! We are already in our second semester of French school, and this second semester is a conversational semester. So we will be putting to use all of those grammatical rules that we have been learning.
Although it will be good for us, it’s a lot of work at the same time. Each day we are required to bring three news articles to present to the class. We have to read the article in French and then summarize it in French. It takes a long time because when we read the article there are still a lot of words that we don’t know. So, needless to say, our French-English dictionary is getting a workout.
Also, each day in class we are required to present a mini Bible lesson to the rest of the class. This is very practical because we are learning Biblical terms, and learning to speak the truth and encourage each other- in the French language!

That’s the latest from your friends UP NORTH,

Shawn and Jenn DeAtley

While it has been a few years since we said the phrase, "We’re going on a field trip today", it was a fun language and cultural outing with our class.

We began the day with a Quebec style breakfast. Believe it or not, baked beans are a common breakfast food here; as well as your typical omelets, potatoes and pancakes.

After that, we went with the language class to the Cabine au Sucre- a place where they make maple syrup. It’s a typical Quebec activity, and a delicious one at that.

A common treat is to pour the fresh, hot  syrup on top of snow. You then roll a wooden spoon around, mixing the syrup with the snow. It then creates a maple taffy.

After multiple, "taste-tests", our class walked up the hill to see how it’s made, and we also had a big snowball fight. After all, the snow was just sitting there. Ha!

We’re wrapping up our last week in this semester, therefore we have some big tests in the coming weeks.

We’re excited to move into a conversational course in at the end of next week. We’ll be practicing all the grammatical rules, pronunciation, etc. that we’ve spent the last few months learning.

Busy learning French (and eating maple taffy),

Shawn and Jenn

Joyeuses Pâques! (HAPPY EASTER!) This day has so much meaning for us as believers. Christ has RISEN FROM THE DEAD! He LIVES, wow, how exciting! Because HE lives, we can have life, victory, and hope in this world. 
We hope that you have a good day remembering the God we serve- a God who conquered the grave!

After a hectic week of learning lots of new material in class, our brains were thankful to see the arrival of March 1st, aka: mid-term break!

We enjoyed a few days with our out of town company: the DeAtley’s! Shawn’s parents, oldest brother, sister-in-law, and our little niece Laurianne came up to visit. We especially enjoyed seeing how much Laurianne has grown- even in six weeks!

We enjoyed hanging out, showing them around town, visiting, making meals together, and introducing them to some friends we’ve met here in the area. We also took a day trip to Magog, a nearby city with a beautiful lake, some tourist shops and beautiful old churches.

They headed back into a snow storm, and unfortunately, their 16 hour drive became a 22 hour drive! Thankfully, they made it home safe and sound.

Although we did have a break off of class, we didn’t abandon our French forever. Being out and about with the family was a great time to introduce people, ask a few questions in French, etc.

We enjoyed our break, but as of tomorrow, we are…

"back in the saddle again…"

Shawn and Jenn DeAtley

Language learning is known to have its comical moments. After all, you have to just say, "Farewell" (which isn’t easy) to your pride and begin to speak!

For example, on the first day of classes, I was upstairs in the office, and I decided to introduce myself to the secretary. I accidentally said, "I love you", instead of, "My name is…" Wow, love is a strong feeling for the first day of classes! The two phrases aren’t event that similar, but, they do begin with "J", and for whatever reason, that’s what just-so-happened to come flying out of my mouth. To make matters worse, my teacher popped out of nowhere and said, "Uh…I don’t think that’s what you meant to say…" and from there we all began to laugh.

This next one isn’t so much embarrassing as it is funny. We had been in Quebec for one or two days, tops, and we were a bit overwhelmed with the French language. We were unpacking and moving in to our new apartment, and we needed some food and such. So we headed to a Wal-Mart at 4 in the afternoon. We were strolling around with our cart, picking up some things, when we hear an announcement. We don’t understand one single word of the announcement, so we don’t pay that much attention to it. We’re looking in the produce aisle when another announcement comes on. Again, we’re not phased by it because we don’t understand. But then, some lights turned off. We thought, "Hmmm, that’s odd." But, we knew that sometimes that can happen. So we proceeded to check off our list when another set of lights turned off. A third French announcement aired, and we said in unison, "They’re not closing, are they??" We looked around us, and sure enough, we were the only people in sight. We made a mad dash to the front of the store, checked out just in the nick of time. Come to find out, stores close at an early 5pm on Saturdays. We chuckled as we walked through the snow on the way to our car, the only one in the lot, with only half of our list crossed off!

And…then there’s church. We’re really diving into the deep end come Sunday morning’s! First of all, we are so thankful for friendly people here in Sherbrooke, especially at church. And we really do appreciate the time in the language to practice, and train our ears to new sounds. But, let’s be honest, there’s a small part of us that want to sprint to our seats, sit down and burry our noses in the morning bulletin so that we can avoid the awkward, "Uh…nous apprenons le francais." ("Uh…we’re learning French.") The singing isn’t too bad, as long as we continue to move our lips in unison with the music leader.  But then Shawn learned the hard way that they like to have a time for JUST the women to sing, and he was right in the middle of it: singing his little heart out. Until one of the other men in our row looked over at him, and flashed him that informative grin saying, "Uh, just the girls." Then there’s the prayer time. We were all seated and reading a verse when the pastor decided to pray. I was still flipping the pages of my Bible (you know how loud those Bible pages can be) when Shawn leaned over and said, "Jenn, we’re praying!" Sure enough every head was bowed, every eye was closed…except mine."  Church is an exhausting time, last week Shawn said, "After church I just want to fall face-first into the snow!" What a visual! Although, it is neat to be able to pick out and comprehend a few more words each time!

So, for your entertainment, there are just a few of the many language bloopers that have come our way. I’m sure there will be many more to follow!

Keeping life fun with French,

Shawn and Jenn DeAtley