Carla Dibbs: First Week!

Bonjour from Paris! My first week here has already flown by! It's crazy!
Seven days ago I was flying through the air towards France after saying goodbye to so many special people who fill me with their love and friendship. It definitely hit me when I said goodbye to my sister and my Mum as I walked through the departure gates that I would be leaving for a long time and would be walking on a path that was very unknown to me. Tears started flowing (I'm pretty sure someone took a snapchat photo of me in line for customs. Thanks.) and they kept on flowing as I read some letters from dear ones that I was supposed to read on the plane but wanted to get the waterworks over and done with (sorry!) But the excitement kicked in when I got my first meal, which was Chicken Tagine mind you, and also knowing that I had set off for a grand adventure with Jesus.

God blessed me with two amazing flights in which there were only a few bumps here and there which is pretty spectacular for a 24 hour flight. The food was great! (Except for breakfast. I have never experienced a tasty breakfast meal on a plane before. If you have, please let me know.) I slept for 9 hours and managed to score a whole row to myself on the 7 hour flight from Dubai to Paris so it was kinda like I was in first class living the life of the upper class. It also had free wi-fi (thaaannkk youuu emirates) which kept me up to date with y'all's instas, snaps and what not.

I arrived in Paris and was met by one of the Discipleship Training School's (DTS) staff and two other students who had arrived around the same time as me. We managed to navigate our way through the metro system with 20kg bags in hand to our new home in a suburb called Belleville. We then dragged our bags up another set of stairs to find our apartment which is on the main street. It's a super small apartment but we manage to fit 7 people in it! (3 DTS students and 4 staff). My favourite thing about it is that we have a window overlooking the street so I can totally Rear Window it everyday and view everyday happenings here in Belleville.

Belleville itself is very multicultural! It's the chinatown of Paris so at the moment the streets are adorned with fairy lights for Chinese New Year. I'm going to be extremely sad when they take them down though. :''''''''(
We have an organic market just across the road from us called BioCoop and one of the shop attendants already knows me from just one visit! He speaks english and is extremely nice. He even gave us a free loaf of sweet chestnut bread which was delicious!

There is a park called Parc de Belleville (original name I know) and it is a 2 minute walk from our apartment. It has an amazing view of Paris and surprisingly free wi-fi ha! Below are a few photos of the view.

The DTS staff and my fellow students are all SO nice and lovely. Although we don't all live together, it's beginning to feel like a tight knit community. I am excited to have them along side me through this crazy journey!

As you can see my paragraphs are getting shorter and shorter. It's 11.59pm so I think it's time to call it a night as I am tired from 6 hours spent at the Lourve and experiencing Hillsong Paris! Both were so great though. Below are a few snaps of where I live and also from my Saturday which was spent with the lovely Johanna Knoechel. I'll hopefully continue to write more as time goes on and let you know what I'm actually doing day by day instead of just reporting on the things I'm eating.

Bonsoir,

Carla