Halfway Mark

PROLOGUE: Since I’m ending up posting this on January 15, I would like to send a posthumous birthday shout-out to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., “Drum Major for Justice.” I’m currently making a second attempt to read through the entire Bible in a year (three chapters a day, starting with Genesis/Psalms/Matthew), so here’s an excerpt from Psalm 15 that made me think of Dr. King this morning:

“Lord, who shall abide in thy tabernacle? who shall dwell in thy holy hill? He that walketh uprightly, and worketh righteousness, and speaketh the truth in his heart. … He that doeth these things shall never be moved.” – verses 1-2, 5b

Reminded me of a song from the Civil Rights Movement - “We Shall Not Be Moved” - but I couldn't remember exactly how it went without confusing it with "We Shall Overcome." Learned more about the history of this folk song, which has been adopted over time by various groups, at this site: We Shall Not Be Moved - Folk Song History. Then I listened to one of the recordings of this song (with the original lyrics of "I Shall Not..." instead of "We") referenced on this site. You've gotta check out the super-deep voice on one of on these singers: The Harmonizing Four - I Shall Not Be Moved! 

Seriously, though, I am beyond grateful that Dr. King and many others involved in the Movement were never swayed from their non-violent efforts to bring about equality and freedom for little Black girls like me. 84 years after his birth, many people around the world still celebrate his life and legacy, even over here in France, where one of the ministers at the American Church in Paris started his sermon on Sunday by paying tribute to his "brother" in the Baptist ministry.

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*Written on Monday, January 14 and Tuesday, January 15, 2013*

When I blinked

I saw the link

I dreamed all night

That I couldn’t fight

(Composed on Thursday, January 10, 2013 by a group of « Seconde » [10^th grade] students)

Just when you had given up hope, I hit you with something unexpected – a “rap” in English that one of my classes composed last week. More on that in a moment.

Actually, most of you probably gave up hope in me a while ago. And for that, I apologize. I have been taking the equivalent of “a long winter’s nap,” to reference the Christmas tale that we all know and love. Speaking of beloved childhood memories, here’s a random shout-out for Lauren and Adam (I hope they read this, or at least their mom or someone else from Zion can pass this along!): I’m listening to “Bills, Bills, Bills” by Destiny’s Child and flashing back to the after-school choreography sessions we had with Mallory at my house when we carpooled together. This song will always make me think of us three girls sassily marching around poor Adam in a circle while lip singing “You’re trifling / Good for nothing type of brother / Oh silly me / Why haven’t I found another?” No wonder Michael opted to go to football practice or something instead of hanging out with us… ;)

Anyway, as I said, I realize that it’s been a while since I’ve written to you. I meant to take a break in order to enjoy my family’s Christmas visit and then to focus on grad school application submissions, but I certainly did not intend to take a month off or whatever. [BTW, in case this isn’t clear, the reason I waited until the end of the first trimester of school to write the bulk of my essays for grad school apps was so that I could actually have concrete teaching experience to share; it wasn’t entirely due to procrastination. So give me a little credit, because I had some vivid examples in my essays, lemme tell ya ;)] Honestly, after my family – at least three wonderful representatives of my family – left, I had trouble getting back into gear. Homesickness? Perhaps. But it was also just a sense of going from 60 miles – or kilometers – per hour during the first week of vacation to 0 during the second. I had them running (or riding the train, rather) all over the city during their time here to complete various items on my agenda plus any special requests that they had, and then after they left I literally had no outside responsibilities until my personal teaching responsibilities resumed on the 9^th. (It turned out to be the 10^th, actually, because the teacher with whom I work on the 9^th was in England on a class trip with her students that week.) The good part was that this gave me plenty of time to work on Northwestern’s application, which was the most writing-intensive of them all with four separate essay questions and a few other short answers here and there. The bad part was that after I wrote about myself for a while each day, I didn’t feel like doing much more of that, even if it was to update you on my experiences.

I did, however, manage to write the following short text as the opening to my first blog post of the new year, complete with a resolution to update my blog on the 7^th, 14^th, 21^st, and 28^th of each month. Clearly that didn’t work out since I didn’t have enough prepared to merit a post on the 7^th. I thought maybe I would change this schedule to multiples of 8, 9, or 10, but after turning my attention to other matters, such as preparing for the upcoming school week – or 2/5 week in my case – and, more significantly, working on my application to the Stanford Teacher Education Program [M.A. in Education + secondary teacher certification in French], which I submitted earlier today (1/14), I looked up and it was already the 14^th. So maybe this definite schedule thing isn’t really for me.... Here’s what I wrote a while ago though, just so it doesn’t go to waste:

*Written on Saturday, January 5 and Sunday, January 6, 2013*

“Time keeps on slippin’, slippin’, slippin’ / Into the future / (So I wanna) Fly like an eagle / To the sea.” Since my family brought me my very old CD collection from “my” car (which has been “repossessed” – literally – by my father) Seal is crooning these words in my ears right now as the Space Jam soundtrack begins. I am reminded of the fact that I “only” have 18 weeks remaining here in France – my return flight is planned for May 12, both so I can be at home for a few hours of Mother’s Day and so I can give my ATL family/friends a few days to get used to my being home before my sister graduates from high school the following Saturday so that I don’t steal her thunder on that once-in-a-lifetime occasion – so I need to “…[make] the most of every opportunity” that comes my way – both from a spiritual perspective, as suggested in the passage from which this quotation (Ephesians 5:16) is taken slightly out of context, and a general one. Having my family here with me during the week of Christmas certainly helped me snap back into the reality that I live in Paris rather than just gliding through my normal routine in the neighborhood that I’ve come to call “home.” More on that in a moment.

I hope that each of you has had a wonderful start to 2013. My first words of the New Year were sung in French as I waited in a long line to walk through the “Door of Faith” at the Basilique du Sacré-Cœur de Montmartre (one of the most famous churches in Paris) in a crowd of about 2000 people after having attended a service centered on the theme of world peace: « Jubilez ! Criez de joie! Pour Dieu, notre Dieu. » (“Rejoice! Shout for joy! For God, our God.” P.S. I just struggled to find the right translation for the first word. I didn’t think “jubilate” was a word in English, but I couldn’t come up with “rejoice” for a good 10 seconds.) Needless to say, it was a memorable experience. And after that, I holed myself up in my room (with the exception of a writing session in a nearby park on relatively warm day) for a few days while working on several long and short essays (subject to the word/character limits that my sister and I have grown to despise throughout our concurrent college admissions processes) about various aspects of my life experience up to this point as well as what I would like to do in the future, all in an effort to gain admission to the Summer 2013 cohort of the Master of Science in Education program at Northwestern University so that I can get the needed certification to teach French in U.S. public schools and earn a master’s degree while I’m at it.

I am pleased to report that that application has been successfully submitted in advance of the priority deadline for merit scholarships/graduate assistantships, and I’ve even taken a break from self-reflective writing, which is why this blog entry has been put off until now. But besides the resolution that I posted on Facebook – “Be present in the present because the present is a present (gift) from God” – I would like to propose a more regular system of blog posts in order to hold myself more accountable and to prevent any frustration on your part. So my resolution is to do my best to post on the “7’s” of each month: 7th, 14th, 21st, 28th from now until the end of my experience, Lord willing. I won’t guarantee a certain length each time, but at least you can expect to read something about my life or my point of view on those dates for the next 18 weeks. So there. Enough of this small talk. Time to get cracking.

I pray that the Lord will bless each of you richly this year, and I don’t necessarily mean that in a financial sense. I hope that you will discover “newness” in a way that is meaningful for the stage of life in which you currently find yourself. “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” (II Corinthians 5:17)

Peace and love,

M. Ashley Lyles (Just kidding. I had a Religious Studies teacher at the Talent Identification Program at Duke University during the summer between 8th and 9th grades who called himself A. Michael Ullrey because he thought the last letter of his first name – Aaron – sounded funny blending with the beginning of his last name. I was like, Whoa, I have the same phonetic problem! So I “almost” changed my name like another rebellious member of our family at this age, eh J.R.?)

• Musée Jacquemart-André: November 17 [musée = museum]

Promised to talk about this the last time I wrote to you. An example of a « hôtelparticulier » = from my understanding, a term for a very old mansion that was once a single-family home but has often been converted into something else in the modern era, like a museum or an actual hotel. Probably wouldn’t have heard of this museum, which was only about a 15-minute bus ride from where I live, if the French club (EAAEE) to which I belong hadn’t planned an outing there on this particular Saturday. (BTW, I can already tell that the Équiped’Accueil et d’Amitié pour les ÉtudiantsÉtrangers is definitely getting an MVP – “Most Valuable Player” – award from me for enriching this trip. Trip? I guess you can’t really call 8 months a “trip.” How about experience?)

So anyway, I hinted in my last post that this museum represents “what you think of when you think of Paris.” By that I meant the fancy-schmancy lifestyle of the upper-uppercrust of society. Maybe this describes the images that are conjured in your mind at any mention of this capital city of France, but maybe not. Forgive me for making any such assumptions. The inference that I can now stand by with some certainty after visiting this museum, though, is that kids must be really expensive, because the couple (Jacquemart + André) that filled this magnificent home with ridiculously expensive – priceless, often – artwork and furniture did so “because” they did not have any children according to the explanations given on the audioguide and in the literature. Mom and Dad: I’m sorry that the three of us prevented you from creating a shrine of glory that thousands of visitors could visit one hundred years from now. Hopefully we’ve added a little something extra to your lives that’s made all that money that you’ve spent / are spending /will spend worthwhile :)

Oh, and sorry that I don’t have pictures of the interior; no photos allowed. One of the highlight rooms, especially in the opinion of my “guide,” was the winter garden area, which looked like a greenhouse with really high ceilings, but in addition to tall plants, there was also a grand, winding staircase. I put “guide” in quotation marks because I was actually the only member of the club who signed up for this field trip, so the administrators decided against asking a formal guide to lead, well, me around and just let it be an inside job. Therefore, I was accompanied by an audioguide and a French woman who helps run the EAAEE, but was no expert on the museum. Still, she had a lot of general knowledge on French history that helped me appreciate what I was seeing much more that I would have with just the audioguide. The other folks missed out! And I thought I was going to miss out too, because this poor woman dropped her cell phone on the subway tracks on her way to the museum and they had to stop traffic for someone to climb down and retrieve it for her. Thankfully, she had a random bystander give me a ring to let me know she was running late. I’ve learned that French people are not known for their timeliness, but if there were ever a reason to cut them some slack, this was it ;)

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*Back to 1/14 and 1/15*

It started with a look

It seemed like I was reading a book

But it wasn’t a happy ending

It was just the beginning

So I will eat chocolate cake

And go out with Justin Timberlake

(Composed on Thursday, January 10, 2013 by an advanced group of « Seconde » [10^th grade] students)

There’s another student rap for you, but I think it could use a little work rhythm-wise. I had this group of “10^th graders” cracking up when they finished this group writing exercise on Thursday (1/10), and then I started counting us off to rap as a class, first nice and calm (one…two) then in my best rock band leader impression (AN’ A ONE, TWO, THREE, FOUR!). I pointed at them and, of course, got laughter instead of rapping as a response. I acted like I was surprised/upset at first, asking, “What, what’s wrong? You were supposed to be my band!” but then my classic smirk slowly spread across my face, and they knew I was just kidding. But I’ve literally just skipped from a museum trip on November 18 to a class session on January 10, which is slightly problematic. I’m gonna try to account for some of that lost time with photos + captions covering some key moments:

Won’t talk about every day in chronological order, but November 18^th was significant. Went on a day trip to Beauvais (small city just over an hournorth of Paris by regional train) with the EAAEE. Here’s the train station.

This is for my UGA/Athens friends. It was one of the first things I saw upon leaving the train station. Also note the Christmas decorations to the left. Thanksgiving is meaningless here so it was acceptable to have these up already.

Some parts looked “old”…

…others looked “new.”

Other sections of town paid tribute to particular regional architecture, such as the German vibe of the Rue d’Alsace(Alsace Road).

A slice of downtown in this small city (relative to the metropolis of Paris). To be clear, Beauvais is in a different administrative region (think “state” if you’re accustomed to the U.S. mentality) from Paris: Picardie vs. Île-de-France, respectively.

Main town square. I think Rue Carnot branches off from here, which is one of the main drags. Oh, and what’s that you spot in the background on the left?

Yep, thaaaaat’s a telephone booth from the UK. What’s that doing here? Apparently they also had a fire hydrant from the U.S. that was further down the street, so one of our “chaperones” told me that my country was represented as well. Are those really equivalent symbols though? ;)

Our first glimpse of the Cathedral of Beauvais.

Oh, and just in case you don’t believe I was actually in this city, here’s a map to prove it!

The National Gallery of Tapestries.(Definitely had trouble spelling “gallery” in English for a minute there.) We visited this museum later on.

Closer-up shot of the Cathedral. See the two different colors? That stone gets dirty after a few centuries!

One of the main doors…

…complete with the characteristic intricate carving. I don’t know if Jeffrey or any other Black Theatrical Ensemble people will read this, but I think there are grapes in this shot. Definitely reminded me of painting the wallpaper for A Raisin in the Sun last year &tryna keep everyone’s grapes consistent :)

Looking over the old city wall at the cathedral. Our tour guide actually took us to another church down the road (St. Stephen’s) first before we went inside of the Beauvais Cathedral based on the schedule of worship services. Did I mention that it was a Sunday?

I distinctly remember the guide introducing us to St. Stephen’s Church (Église Saint-Étienne) by describing the difference between the shapes of these sets of windows, which shows that the church was constructed during 2 different eras. Can you spot the difference?

Looking down the center aisle of the church.

A side altar/area of prayer within St. Stephen’s. Should give you a general idea of many churches I’ve seen in France/Europe in general.

One of the better shots of a stained-glass window that I have.Hard to get them because of the light pouring through them, usually.

Apparently the blue color of this stained-glass window inside of St. Stephen’s Church was remarkable for its hue, which is not often seen in such windows.

A wheel of fate in front of which the citizens of Beauvais held mayoral “elections” of a sort in generations past. The person currently holding the office had to speak eloquently enough that they would choose to keep him around. The wheel was symbolic; it didn’t actually turn or anything.

The modern-day city hall facility.

Apparently the Beauvais Cathedral would have been one of the largest in the world…if they had actually proceeded with the original plans to tear down the old structure in back and continue extending the new one. But here you can see that the old one still stands, so Beauvais can’t say its church is biggest.

The Departmental/Regional Museum adjacent to the cathedral. We visited it later in the day.

So the reason the Cathedral of Beauvais is remarkable is because of its great height, which rivals that of Notre-Dame in Paris. The tour guide told us how Beauvais’s central dome used to be taller, but it wasn’t architecturally sound >> crumbling mess a long time ago. Anyway, here’s a top-down look: One, …

Two, …

And three.

Apparently the playwright Jean Racine went to middle school (« collège ») in Beauvais, so they have a statue to him and a street named after him there.

We had a set lunch menu as a group. Honestly, I don’t remember what this was because it was so long ago. I know that it wasn’t pork because there was a Muslim in our group, and it was ok for him to eat it. I’m leaning towards beef because I remember our leaders complaining about its preparation.

Here’s a shot of the outside of the restaurant, which was hoppin’ for a Sunday afternoon!

Some of the tapestries were about bold historical moments, such as this one from the life of Alexander the Great. I’m pretty sure this tapestry dates from 1694. (The next photo on my camerais of an accompanying caption.) It was hard to conceive of the attention to detail given to these weavings!

Do you know the account of the Peter’s vision of unclean animals that were previously not okay for Jews to eat but which God told him were now acceptable, just as Gentiles were to be accepted into the kingdom of God (Acts 10)? This was one of my favorite tapestries, of which you’re only seeing a glimpse.

Seeing the machinery used to make some of these tapestries made me flash back to a field trip I went on with some of my classmates at Utatlán Spanish School in Xela (aka Quetzaltenago), Guatemala in July 2010 when we visited the workshop of a gentleman who used a traditional loom to weave blankets.

This one was supposed to be pretty famous – a map of France from around 1530. Again, this is a woven tapestry, not a painting. It’s kind of confusing, though, because the bottom is actually the geographic north, as indicated by the word « Angleterre » = England.

There are 3 cities represented on this tapestry: here’s Paris.

Here’s Beauvais. See the Cathedral? (Sorry it’s dark, but the museum was a rather gloomy place to begin with.)

And here’s Troy. You may recall reading about it in English or history class at some point in life. Remember that ol' Trojan Horse? (The word “Troye” appears at the very top in the center, but it’s hard to read in this photo.)

Just to give you an idea of the permanent collection at the Regional Museum. You’ve gotta love you some Mary and baby Jesus to enjoy many an art museum ;) Seriously, though, we had several art-inspired discussions about Bible stories throughout our day, which was a great faith-sharing opportunity.

Ok, so this one was just funny. The sign was warning you that there was a winding staircase that was only meant to be descended and not ascended. But I just liked the size of the man relative to the stairs on the graphic. And the concept of a one-way staircase. One of our leaders took a picture of this too.

There was a temporary ceramics exhibit going on. I won’t lie: I was looking for the pretty colors, like the purple one in the back. (Mallory, are you happy?)

But the teeny-tiny pieces (referred to as « les minuscules »; by AugusteDelaherche, I believe) were the most impressive of all.

A view of a labyrinth within the grounds of the former bishopric (I think this is the right word in English…we don’t have all those fancy people in the Baptist denomination…the place of residence of a high church official) in back of the cathedral.

Here’s my “proof of the pudding” pic on the Beauvais Cathedral steps – I promise I was actually there! And yes, we had to wear nametags that included our country of origin. FYI, there were 9 young people on the trip, including students from Russia, Algeria, and Taiwan, for example. I’m an oddball as a TA.

One of our group leaders really wanted us to see this particular house with faces and figurines carved into the façade, so we speed-walked over to this section of town even though we weren’t sure we had time to do so. Apparently someone actually lives here – it’s not a museum or anything!

Speaking of time, I paused towards the end of that photo selection/captioning session because it was midnight, and, although this may not be scientifically correct based on the time difference, I wanted to recognize the halfway mark for my time here: I’ve been here for 16 weeks and 5 days, and I’ve got that much longer to stay, Lord willing, not counting the days I left/arrived or the day I leave. Why did I figure this out, you may ask? I’m always dividing periods of time up into bite-sized chunks, so this is not unusual. For example, back when I was a student (sniff, tear) I used to think of 18-week semesters as a 400-meter race. Granted, my “typical” race when I ran track in 7^th, 8^th, and 10^th grades was the 200m (in addition to the 4x100 and 4x400 relays and the triple jump), but we all had to do a little bit of everything. There were 6 sections of 3 weeks each: Warm-up – getting set in your blocks, waiting for that gun to fire with every fiber of your being; Leg 1 – first curve, seeing where you fall in the group; Leg 2 – back straightaway, striding it out instead of full-out sprinting as my coach would say; Leg 3 – the back curve, where you felt like you had a bear on you back, to use my coach’s language again; Leg 4 – the final straightway, a full-out sprint, giving it all you’ve got; Crossing the finish line – in slow motion, I guess, if it’s supposed to take 3 weeks :)

So, as you can see, I’ve been looking at calendars and dividing them up into “meaningful” sections for a while. I didn’t realize that tonight was the halfway point for this experience until a few days ago, though, when I was thinking about the fact that I’d written in my original attempt to blog last week about having 18 weeks left and wondered how many weeks in all I would spend here. Just as the clock struck 12 a few minutes ago, Marvin Sapp’s “My Testimony” from Aunt Tammy’s gospel mix CD came on, and I think the words are appropriate at a time of looking backwards and forwards, Lord willing:

“So glad I made it / I made it through / In spite of the storm and rain / Heartache and pain / I’m still alive, declaring / I made it through / … / In spite of calamity / He’s got a plan for me / And it’s working for my good.” [Here's a link to a live performance of this song if you need some audio/visual assistance: Marvin Sapp - My Testimony.]

At the same time, I read the next devotion in sequence from Sarah Young’s Jesus Lives: Seeing His Love in Your Life, which was on the topic of “Transformation.” Here’s an excerpt from the beginning and the end (I think I’ve told you before that she writes as if from the perspective of God):

“As the Holy Spirit controls your mind and actions more fully, you become free in Me. You are increasingly released to become the one I created you to be. Freedom through surrender sounds like a contradiction, doesn’t it? Yet when My Spirit is controlling your thinking and behavior, you feel more alive, more real, more content! I encourage you to pray, ‘Holy Spirit, think through me, live through me, love through me.’ This is a prayer of surrender. … I am pleased when you ask My Spirit to live and love through you. This is the collaborative way of living I had in mind when I created mankind. The more you collaborate with Him, the freer you become: free to live exuberantly, to love extravagantly, to know Me in ever-increasing intimacy! (112-113)”

I’ve known for quite some time that this time I’m spending in France has been transforming me in many ways, and that, if I am blessed to continue living for many years to come, I will most likely look back on this as a turning point when I kind of got my life together. No, I’m not perfect, and no, my life wasn’t a complete mess to begin with, from many an outsider’s perspective (talking to you, card-carrying members of the Morgann Lyles Fan Club), but trust me – I needed this. From a spiritual perspective, from a personal growth perspective, and from a professional perspective. So, since I’ve been at this for a few hours now and told some folks that I’d have a post up on Monday (which is looking more like Tuesday b/c with all of these photos/captions, a 2-hour posting session would really throw off my sleep schedule), I’m just going to wrap it up here, even though I still haven’t moved beyond that ONE weekend of November 17-18, other than to make brief mention of my family’s visit (which has already been thoroughly documented by Mallory's album on Facebook if you're friends with one of us there) and to give you some samples of my work in the classroom last week. What can I say? I had a TON of photos from Beauvais; I’m honestly only showing you maybe 1/3 of them here, and it seemed like they needed explanations. 

I’ll end with the final “rap” composition from one of my classes last week. This one starts out with some non-original lyrics (Rihanna fans may recognize them), but then this group surprised me by exceeding the requirements of the assignment (4-6 lines as a class) in the final minutes of period. Having written a rap in French when I was about their age (oh so long ago), I know how challenging it can be to attempt such a task at all, let alone to treat such a sensitive topic as they selected here. This one is also special to me because of the gesture of one of the students at the back of the class who was misbehaving during the earlier activity (filling in the blanks to the lyrics of an old-school, slow-paced rap song – Will Smith’s “Just the Two of Us” – that I played on my laptop). This kid was apparently using his cell phone under the desk while I had my back turned writing the correct words to go in the blanks. Most of the students in the group of 14 were actively engaged, so I was cruising. But then the door opened, and one of the faculty members who I’d met once before said something in French along the lines of: “(To me) Excuse me…(To him) Young man, give me that cell phone! You know the rules: no phones in class. You will give me that phone right now!” I was like, How did you see that he was using a phone? Were you creeping on my class that hard through the window? The kid didn’t give up his phone, I guess because the guy wasn’t his actual teacher. I just kind of said “Thanks…” and, and the guy left. I’m not supposed to break my cover of being able to comprehend French, remember? But I did ask the student to put his phone away before continuing with the lesson.

Anyway, after class ended, it was this kid who came up to me and asked if we could do more activities involving writing rap lyrics in English in the future because he had really enjoyed it. He was also one of the three who actually volunteered to “spit” the rhymes after we were finished writing them, so I told him he had done a good job. And I actually did end up speaking French because he spoke French first and when I responded in English he was lost. Plus we were both in a hurry to get to our next classes. I told him I was going to try to organize some sort of English-language hip-hop workshop, which will hopefully be my additional project that will set me apart as a Fulbright scholar rather than a standard English teaching assistant from the States. So that was a memorable moment: I didn’t know if I wanted to yell at him for not paying attention for the first 40 minutes or hug him for being sweet enough to ask to repeat the activity after it was all over. Honestly, I think my biggest problem as a teacher will be playing favorites – and they won’t be your typical “teacher’s pets” either; they’ll basically be the “unfavorites” of all the other teachers.

So here it is. One last partially-original rap from a group of rowdy kids who are very dear to me:

Find light in a beautiful sea

I choose to be happy

My dad is dead

And it stays in my head

It’s hard to find

A quiet place in my mind

Let’s not kill the karma

It’s not worth the drama

(Composed on Friday, January 11, 2013 by a group of « Première STMG » [11^th grade, vocational education] students)

Until next time, Lord willing, I’ll keep moving forward through faith in Him. I pray that you will do the same.

“Forget the former thing; do not dwell on the past. See I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland.” – Isaiah 43:18-19, NIV