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The Ellis Page French Sabbatical |
Master of Arts in Counseling Psychology ("MAC") The French Sabbatical
Our experiences in France mean a lot to us. We hope they make a story worth sharing and that you'll enjoy reading about it and looking at some of our photographs. 1. Setting up the Sabbatical When I was 20 years old, I served as an missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Paris, France. Twenty-three years later, I took my dusty missionary journal off the shelf and read it. To make a long story, short, I found it really exciting and inspiring! I didn't know what was going to happen next! Those events of years ago had mysteriously slipped away. It was like reading an adventure that was made all the more exciting because I was reading about my own life. The more I read, the more I remembered the beauty of the countryside, the faith of the members, and the incredible excitement of Paris. What memories! The more I read, the more I wanted to go back somehow. I began looking into grant opportunities and writing to people in France. Merry was 100 percent behind me and so were our two youngest sons still at home. In fact, when we first suggested the idea of going to France, we wondered what their reaction would be. We should have known! The next day, Merry overheard Braden talking to a travel agency on the phone. "Hello, yes.... I'd like some information on the cost of a round-trip ticket to France. Yes, you can get back to me with the information. Thanks." At 12 years old?!! Never bashful, that one! We quickly arranged to have a French exchange student for the summer and that was great. Brice Lechevallier, from Paris, taught the family French while we taught him
English. One day we overheard Brice and our kids in the back seat
comparing all the various ways to say "vomit, up-chuck, gag,
throw-up, burp, fart" and the
like in French and English. (And
they say teens aren't interested in education...!)
We had a lot of fun and ran through an entire inventory of
exciting activities including going to car races and a demolition derby in
Tenino, Mount St. Helen’s, a Mariner’s game, the Hoh Rain Forest, and the Olympic Game Farm.
(You can see Brice making a new American friend above.) We also took a couple of trips to Vancouver, Canada, to see my family who lives up there. The photo on the right shows Brice among the amazing, huge tree roots of Lynn Canyon on the North Shore. That fall, Merry started French at Saint Martin’s and David, a high school freshman, began an experimental intensive program giving him two years in one. We were even able to arrange for 12-year old Braden to get out of middle-school three times a week and take College French with his mom! In November, I began an intensive application for a Fulbright position teaching sociology in Switzerland. Unfortunately, I found I was too late to receive a sabbatical leave-of-absence from St. Martin’s. Close to Christmas time, I had this strange impulse to translate my vita, some class syllabi, and a revision of the Fulbright proposal into French and send it to the University of Rouen, between Paris and Le Havre. It really made no sense. By then, we knew that I was the finalist in the area of sociology. I worked for days on this strange project. Translating "Hello, which way to the restaurant" is one thing. But how does one translate, "Served as co-principal Investigator for: Data sources for family/tribal psycho-social anchorages”? In the spring, the University in Switzerland gave the award to a finalist in American literature. We were crushed, of course, but it was for the best. Our dream had been to teach in French in Le Havre, France, and not teach in English in cold Switzerland. However, about the same time, we learned that the professor who had been awarded the SMC sabbatical had been forced to give up his plans. Well, University of Rouen came through with an offer and we were fortunate enough to put that with the reopened sabbatical. We were going to go to France the next year!! Back to Ellis Family page |
| For email contact use either: gellis@stmartin.edu or godfreymerry@home.com |
We've enjoyed several
truly wonderful trips to
France. The major trip was the sabbatical leave of absence that
we were able to take in 1995. But, there was a lot leading to, as
well as resulting from the sabbatical.. 