Fêtes de Noël!

After my birthday party, Julianna stayed in Marseille through Wednesday. On tuesday, Julianna, Emma and I went to Aix-En-Provence and met up with some other AFSers! I can never express how amazing it is to be with the other AFS PACA students. I don't know how common it is to be incredibly close with all the students in your region, but the ten of us  form what we like to call "awesome-groupness." Whenever I see our PACA group, I feel renewed and like I can keep going when I'm feeling down. We understand exactly what the others are going through, and because of that we've bonded so quickly, and I know I'll have this awesome-groupness for life.

In Aix, we ate lunch together and spent the day enjoying the great christmas atmosphere, shopping, and just talking about everything that had happened since the last time we had seen each other. We even had time to take a ride on the carousel!

Julianna and me on the Carousel!

On Wednesday Julianna left for Nice, and Thursday Emma and I went to la patinoire (the ice rink) together with some of her friends! It was the first time I'd been to the ice rink since March 2010, and I felt so free. It's been really hard to not have hockey as an outlet this year, so to finally be on the ice again meant that I was finally back in my rightful place. I can't explain how good it felt to be able to just leave everything behind and skate for a couple hours. 

In France, Christmas Eve is sometimes just as big as Christmas day. In the morning, I went over to Tashina's to helo with the preparations for the feast that night. I got the task of decorating les bonhommes en pain d'épice. 

Hard at work!

les bonhommes :)

That afternoon I prepared for the next day by wrapping all of the presents. It was the one occasion throughout the holidays where the nostalgie really hit me. I realized that I would be doing the exact same thing at home, wrapping presents for my family in my room and making sure that anyone didn't come in. Here, I realized that I was wrapping presents for a different family, and it made me realize how lucky I am. I not only am able to have this amazing experience, but I'm going to come away from it with not only one, but two families who love me. Despite the moment of sadness, I finished the task of wrapping the presents with a smile on my face. 

We finished the night off with a big Christmas Eve dinner at Greg and Tashina's. The night started off with champagne and foie gras (yeah, I'm definitely in France). Foie gras is very traditional for the holidays. Since I was the youngest there, I was given the task of toasting the bread for les tartines.

After appetizers, came the traditional Christmas Eve meal: raw oysters, and raw shellfish in general. Since I'm here to try new things, I dug right in! I ate two whole raw oysters! I was pretty proud. They're definitely an acquired taste. Luckily, Tashina, who is a vegetarian, made a soup and happily gave me some (I'm pretty sure she made extra knowing that that would be the case).

After dinner Béatrice, Tashina and I went to a Midnight Mass. It was definitely a night of firsts! Church at midnight in French didn't make for a good combination for understanding what was going on, but it was still really nice to see everyone in the Christmas sweaters and sing along to the somewhat familiar Christmas songs that were in French instead of English (imagine that!). 

The small street with the church at the end

On Christmas day, Nicole and I went to Tashina and Greg's around noon for presents and dinner. Dinner was just like Thanksgiving! We had a turkey, stuffing (though it was the french kind), gravy, cranberry sauce and mashed potatoes; all of which was absolutely delicious. 

Though I followed different traditions from my own, I had an amazing Christmas, and every day I am thankful that I have the chance to experience all of this in france.