Officially a Student

I moved into the basement of Chalet Bethany. We did not get much heat there since all of the heating ducts were on the upper floors. The top floor was where the women lived, the floor below them was the family that managed the Chalet and the ground floor was the common area. The kitchen and living rooms were on the ground floor. The advantage we had in the basement was we had an outside door in our room. The common bathroom for the ground floor and basement was outside our door to the hall that led to the stairs. The Chalet was built on the side of the mountain so the front door was on the floor above us. The biggest adjustment for me was the time shift, I had to get up at 7:45 am in order to make it to breakfast. I had been getting out of bed at around 10:00 each morning. I was assigned to Study in the morning and Work in the afternoon. This worked great for me, I rather work in the afternoon. Apparently most students likes the schedule opposite of mine which made it easier for me.

Each day breakfast was in a different Chalet. My first day I had to go to Chalet Les Sapine, the farthest Chalet in the village from Bethany. After a brisk walk down the path behind the Chalets we made it to what I thought was the most beautiful Chalet at L’Abri. I did not write in my journal what we had for breakfast but we usually had a bowl of grain cereal or scrambled eggs and toast.

After breakfast I headed to Farel House which is below the Chapel. We had to chart a course of what we wanted to study. I chose to study Prayer and the Will of God. I checked out some cassette tapes to listen to. Study time was four hours each day. After the four hours was lunch. Each day there was a notice posted in every Chalet to show our assigned lunch and dinner.

For work on my first day as a student, I hauled dirt for several hours at Chalet Beau Site. I ate supper at Chalet Beau Site. After supper I went to the Chapel to hear Dr. Freeman lecture on C.S. Lewis book on Miracles. After a long first day, I was back in the cold basement of Bethany for the night.

I don’t plan to go into such detail of every day, but I wanted to show what a regular day is for a student at L’Abri.

Every student has to go a full week before a day off. When the first Saturday arrived, I had to help make sack lunches for the student in our Chalet to take with them where ever they were going for the day. I had to stay to work. I would not get a day off until the following Saturday. Most of the students caught the bus to Aigle then trains to other cities to explore. Other students spent their day hitchhiking to parts of the country where the trains don’t go. I was really looking forward to my first day off.