A Scottish Tale

    Here is a little story of how the birthdays (mine, Jennifer's, and Jesus') went this year. On my 24h birthday I woke up with a feeling that something was horribly wrong. Not 'there is a murderer in my house' wrong more like 'why the hell can't I breathe' wrong. As we got up I realized that this is the oldest I had ever been and felt. I was coughing like mad and was determined to not let a little sickness ruin my birthday! Jennifer and I went to the store to find some cold meds and supplies. Once back she made No-Bake cookies and we hungout. In ther afternoon I skyped with my family and told them they could open their Christmas gifts from me a little early. It was fun to see their reactions. About this time I decided that if my head was already going to be in the clouds I might as well start drinking and get the party started. Good thing Jennifer was thinking ahead and bought whiskey in the Paris airport. We met up with Arran at six when she was done with work in town and went out for another birthday drink before the dinner with her family. She ordered three drinks and the total was less than five quid. Mind blowing. You can't even get a pint for five euro in France. After drinks we went to The Village which is a delicious Indian restaurant. I share my birthday with Arran's father so we were able to partake in the family night out. After dinner the plan was to head out and party like most people do on their birthdays. But, I was feeling horribly ill by this point and opted for bed. I was passed out by 10:15. Thanks 24 for starting it off with a bang...Let's hope it was just a false start.
    The next day was Jennifer's birthday! Unfortunately I was still too sick to be any sort of fun fodder. We ended up running some errands, shopped a bit in the city, and then had a kick back at the apartment. Jo, Craig and Arran came over and we just hung out. Jennifer didn't even get to wear her birthday dress we searched so diligently for. As the night was coming to a close we packed up all of our things for Christmas and headed to Arrans for the night. As a secretly added gift, Jennifer received my illness for her birthday. Sorry.
     We woke up Christmas morning to a delicious breakfast of toasted croissants with smoked salmon and eggs. Arran's brothers did a fabulous job with breakfast! We then opened gifts which was still fun even without our families. Arran had gotten us both a gift so we were not just sitting there the entire time. After everything was opened we all got ready and then watched some Scottish stand up on DVD that someone had gotten that morning. The rest of the day was passed like most family holidays. We talked and laughed and hungout. Christmas dinner was great. We had all sorts of traditional Scottish foods. I even had vegetarian Haggis as the main course. We all ate so much. I felt like I was in a food coma for hours. We were able to talk to our families with the help of modern technologies (thanks Skype and cell phones!). It was a little strange not being with the family on Christmas but I am thankful I was with another family at least.
    The 26th was a total loss. Jennifer and I both felt like death warmed over. We didn't leave the apartment at all and just slept the entire day. The 27th wasn't much better. We did go out to the West End for lunch at a really cute cafe hidden away down an icy alley. But, that was about as much as we could manage. We again slept/rested the rest of the day away. The 28th Arran brought us supplies  (food, more meds.) and helped entertain  us for the day. On the 29th we decided we have got to suck it up and see something while we're here in Scotland.
    We woke up early and went to breakfast with Jo and Arran then caught the train to Edinburgh for the day. I'm very glad we did. We walked around the Christmas market, went to a fabulous bar called the Brass Monkey where we watched The Breakfast Club on giant bed-like couches, ate burritos at a cafe called The Forest (its super cool- everyone who works there is just a volunteer and everyone just hangouts and drinks coffee and plays music etc...together. Fabulous!), we walked up to the Castle which was very ominous at night in the fog. All in all a very good day out and about in Scotland which was topped off by watching Hook before bed.
    We're starting to feel better, so hopefully New Year's Eve will be a great adventure without hacking coughs and wheezing lungs (at one point my breathing sounded like the rattle of a Dementor's kiss in Harry Potter. Sexy.)

It's begining to feel a lot like Christmas

    This trip to Paris has been wonderful. I feel my relationship changing with the city I once longed to visit as a teenager. Everything I once saw with a sense of star-stuck wonderment I now experience as if I am greeted by an old friend. That is not to say that everything always goes off without a hitch but just that I feel much more comfortable in the City of Lights than I ever thought possible.
    Jennifer and I arrived in Paris Saturday afternoon and spent the day shopping and eating more delicious food than I care to recount here (do to the massively high caloric quantity) and  talking with old friends (new on my part).  While wandering we found outselves in front of the Opera where there were about two hundred people singing Christmas carols in the snow. It was a truely beautiful movie-like scene. We had a little incident with where we were going to sleep that night due to our original sleeping assignments being dashed on account of the snow blocking all trains coming into the city. So, once again Anna Marie saved the day! We spent the night hanging out and talking with Anna Marie and Regan (just back from Africa) before they went clubbing and we went to bed.
    Sunday we woke up to a blizzard. Jennifer and I went to the Louvre and marveled at...everything. I don't care who you are or how many times you've been to the Louvre you can't help but be impressed. If I lived in Paris I would spend at least one day every two weeks at a museum. I get a calming peaceful sensation whenever I am at the museum. There are so many stories and vibrant lives protrayed in the paintings and sculptures that it just never gets old to me. Its not just the story in the paintings but also the lives of the painters who created the work that makes it so interesting. If you know a little about the artist you can then seen bits and pieces of their life coming through in their paintings.
    After the Louvre I went to mass and listened to Anna Marie sing in the choir. What a fabulous experience. Going to mass in such an ancient church in amazing in itself but to have that accompanied with angelic acapella  music was an experience I'll never forget. Also, I really liked the priest and the way he presented the Homily. Once mass had ended Anna Marie and I took a bus back to her place and met up with Regan, ate some pizza and waited for the others to arrive.
    Anna Marie and Regan threw Jennifer and I a very adorable birthday soiree which even included a handmade chocolate cake with chocolate ganache icing. Legit! It was a fabulous evening of a mixture of languages. We had party guests who spoke Korean and French, Englihs, Polish and French, Spanish and English, English and a little Swahili, and English and French. Suprisingly, there were no communication problems and everyone had a fabulous time. This was one of those days when I can't believe my life is so blessed with fantastic people and opportunities.
    Monday we woke up to another blizzard. It stopped by the afternoon though so we just bopped around Ille St. Louis for a bit and ate some crepes in an adorable little restaurant. Regan and I took a break in a neighborhood bar while Anna Marie went to an appointment and after that we bought some hair dye. All terribly exciting. We went back to the apartment, ate some soup and had a hair dying party. I am the new proud owner of a fabulous purple chunk of hair.
    Tuesday we had lunch with all of Jennifer's fantastic "euros" (the europeans who studied at Eastern last summer) at a fondue restaurant in the Latin quater. The food was delicous but that might be because I love cheese and bread. After luch Jennifer and I rushed to the Port Milliot to catch the bus to the airport for our flight to Scotland. The bust trip should only take about an hour and it turned into a two hour ordeal due to traffic and heavy fog. We finally checked out bags and thought we were good to go. We raced through security and through customs (recieved our exit stamps) and then entered a room full of people...waiting. So, we sat for a while, ate the sandwiches we'd brought then were all told that we had to leave the holding cell we were occupying. As we were all fileing out we were stoped by custom officers who crossed out the recently added stamp in our passports. We were then told that we had to wait for another two hours before our plane would leave. What did Jennifer and I decided was the best option to kill the time? Buy duty-free alcohol, of course! Turns out its not duty-free if you're not leaving the European Union. Did we let this ruin our party? Hell no. Another great ting about French airports is that they sell personal bottles of wine for the same price at Coke. Needless to say, we chose the Cab-Sav over the Coke and started our flight delay on a great note. It seemed like in no time we were being told to queue up to board the plane and getting another identical stamp in the good 'ol passport . We arrived in Scotland just in time to catch the last train into Glasgow from the airport for the night. Craig and Arran picked us up and drove us to their friend Piia's apartment where we get to stay for the next 9 days.
    Today we shopped for boots, ate delicious pizza, and drank a ton of free peppermint hot cocoa (something I've dearly missed in France)! A great first day in Scotland! Tomorrow is the be 2.4. I'll update with a ravishing account of how the festivities play out.

The Snow Monster

First: Sorry I've been absent for so long. I've just been feeling so quotidienne in my village that I wasn't really thinking anything was blog worthy. I was then informed that this is not true and I'd "better get writing!" So, here we go.
    Its always nice to open with a weather update (everyone feels like they can relate), so, let's start there. In my little corner of western France it doesn't usually snow... and "never this early in the year!" one of my fellow collegues informed me. This being said, it did snow. A whole two inches! Here is how the story goes. One overcast Thursday there was a prediction of snow. Someone from the office announced over the intercom that class would end an hour early because they were afraid it might snow before school was out. Just after that a representitive came to each class and reitterated the fact that school would close at the end of the next period (just incase we didn't hear it on the intercom). Just before the 4:30 bell the flakes started to fall. The students lost all concentration and looked longingly out of the windows. As the bell rang the students left the school excited to experience the white winter wonderland what awaited them. The tiny flakes continued to fall for about another hour and then the whole spectacle was over. The next day, there were about 1/10th of the students present for class. All of the school transport was cancled due to the "snow and ice" on the roads. I of course gauffed at this considering there is usually a least a foot of snow in Washington by this time. Never-the-less 15 teachers were absent (unable to get out of their driveways) and the school was a ghost town. Since then there have been three more days on which half of the school transport was cancled due to icy roads. Free days all around! I just imagine these students in Maine or Washington when there is a meter of snow... it always makes me laugh. Melissa and I have decided that the residents of this part of France treat the snow as if it were a beast or something of which to be very afraid. Now, anytime someone mentions the possibility of snow or how nervous they might be that it might snow we usually comment on it later with a comment about "la monstre de neige!"
    It was great to experience the first real snow with Melissa. She made her first snowball and snowman (very mini version) and commented on how snow is much different than she thought it would be. She always thought it would be heavy like ice and always marveled at the young children making giant snowmen taller than themselves in movies.

Melissa learning to make snowflakes.

Melissa's first snowman.

Winter Storm!!! Les Herbiers Under Atack of the Snow Monster!

    Up until this point I was doing very well on the not-being-homesick front. What changed? Oh, just the fact that people ask me at least three times per day if I get to go home for Christmas...and when I say "No, its too expensive." they look at me like I am a lost puppy or something which makes me feel like I should feel very upset. In all actuality, I'm excited to spend Christmas in Scotland with Arran and the friends I have there. It will be a new experience and great to see people I have missed. I am in no way saying that I would not like to be home for Noel but just that I feel Scotland is a fabulous altrenate. In one of my classes we were playing the game Would You Rather... (where everyone must decide between the two options and then say why they picked said option) and the exchange student from Columbia said she would rather be able to fly than be invisible so then she could fly home for Christmas. I told her she got a gold star for the day for best response.  One thing that has been making the homesickness ebb away is that letters, birthday and Christmas cards have been arriving like crazy this week. I love getting mail and the addition of a suprise birthday package from my family was the clentcher! Its always great to get a small peice of home (mine included candy canes, books, and quilted christmas decorations as the highlights).
    THE END...dun dun dun... just kidding, but I am out of internet time. To be continued...