Hello and happy holidays!! Today was the last day of classes before Christmas break, so the students have been a little restless this week...but so have I. I'm leaving in 4 days to go to Bordeaux with Brita (fellow French major from FU) where we will spend a relaxing Christmas holiday in a little bed and breakfast with a bottle of vin rouge. I've read that Bordeaux has the best Christmas market in France outside (of course) Strasbourg. So after all that relaxing and vin chaud in wine country we're headed off to Paris for New Years! I'm so excited it's my first big city New Year's celebration; I can't wait to see the lights on the Eiffel Tower. OH---but I have to back up to things I've done leading up to the holidays! I went to Nice a while back with my friend Jon who lives in La Ciotat, where the first movie was ever filmed ("Train arriving at the La Ciotat train station" by the Lumière Brothers. It's a train arriving at the station platform, how original.) Anyway we went to Nice and enjoyed the warm weather, saw the Matisse museum, wandered around the gorgeous flower market, and stayed at the BEST hostel I've ever experienced, the Saint Exupéry Villa. Not only are the towels and breakfast free, but they have a shuttle that takes you in and out of town because it's literally a villa in the hills of Nice.
Then a few weeks later I enjoyed FOUR Thanksgiving dinners! Ali hosted a spectacular dinner with a huge turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, green beans, and (my mouth is watering) pumpkin pie. All of the italians, french, and other internationals there thought all of us americans were crazy, gorging on this huge meal, but we were in heaven. Then a couple nights later four of us got together at Ali's again for a leftover party. Thanksgiving number three was at my apartment on actual Thanksgiving: my roommates and I did a raclette dinner (melted cheese on potatoes and charcuterie)--so I got a French Thanksgiving in. Then the fourth was the next night in Miramas at Kathleen and Darius' house in the country. We all had a big, traditional meal then (as tradition would have it) we all fell asleep on whatever sofa or bed we could find. Then I ran 3 miles every day for the next week.
It's been fun introducing French people to american Christmas, though...most of them have no idea who Rudolph or Frosty are...OH funny story that happened totally outside of any Christmas conversation in my apartment: we were keeping a kitten for a friend in our apartment for a few days (her name is Giselle and tore up the entire apartment but was precious all the same)--and I was talking about Shannon's cat, Tinkerbell, to Pauline (my roommate from Paris). So Pauline goes, "tinker bell? wha----oh! I know!" then she sings: "tinker bells, tinker bells, tinker all the way!" I was rolling on the kitchen floor laughing. What's also difficult is discussing Christmas with a bunch of Muslim students who don't even celebrate it (not to mention the strict separation of church and state here). So those conversations usually end up about soccer, the Marseille soccer team OM, and/or shopping. Oh, teenagers.
SO now I'm just counting down the days until I leave for Bordeaux and baking mountains of Christmas cookies for my roommates! I included a picture of our cute little tree in the salon...Happy Holidays to everyone back in the States; missing you all so much this Christmas season!!
Love and Blessings
LOVE.
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