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. 

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to everyone all around the world! I hope no matter where you all are, whether it's in France, the US or other parts of the world, that you spent a wonderful Christmas with loved ones!

To my family and friends back home, I miss you so much at times like these, but judging by how fast these past four months have gone, it won't be long until I see you again! I love you all! Merry Christmas!

To my family and friends in France, thank you all so much for welcoming me with open arms! You've made these first four months incredible, and I'm sure the rest will be even better. I have enjoyed myself so much here in France, and it's been a Christmas that I'll never forget. Merci à tous! Je vous aime!

Before I go to bed tonight, I get to look out the window and see snow falling quietly from the sky. It's a sight that I've been craving for the past month and it finally came, on Christmas day no less!

I promise, a full blog will follow with updates on all the festivities!

What's cookin' good lookin'?

Turkey, that's what! That's right, I cooked a whole thanksgiving dinner (Friday night) for my French friends and family: Nicole, Beatrice, Danielle, a friend of Nicole's who gives me French lessons, Emma, and my friends from school Marie, Axelle and Roxanne. I made a turkey, mashed potatoes, green beans, carrots, cranberry sauce, gravey, and a pumpkin pie!

Thursday evening, I did the grocery shopping for the "grand repas". Who knew it would be so hard to find the things I needed for a Thanksgiving dinner? The hardest to find were the cranberries for the cranberry sauce. After about ten minutes of trying to explain what cranberries were to the sales associate, we found some dried cranberries, so I decided to settle. The next was the pumpkin for the pie. I went to four different stores searching for a "citrouille", and by the last "épicerie" I just decided to go with some butternut squash. It wasn't exactly like the classic pumpkin pie, but it was still delicious (if I do say so myself :)).

Friday afternoon, I started cooking at 3h and didn't stop until after people started to arrive at 7h30! I had never cooked a turkey before, let alone a whole Thanksgiving dinner, so starting off I was a little intimidated. Once I got going though, things went smoothly. It's really amazing how many things can go wrong with a thanksgiving dinner. It's truly a miracle that everything went smoothly for me, in fact it didn't just go smoothly, it was fantastic! Everything was perfect (which is amazing, considering how lost I am in the kitchen.)

When people arrived we had appetizers and I showed people a little bit about my life back home. I showed everyone my school yearbook, and my scrapbook, and everyone had a fun time looking through them. I also recounted the classic story of Thanksgiving that we learned in second grade to everyone.

When the time for dinner rolled around, I explained to everyone that it's traditional to go around the table before you eat and say what you're thankful for. It was at the point where I realized how thankful I was to be sitting in France eating a Thanksgiving dinner with my French family and friends. To me, Thanksgiving is about being with the people you love, and I was. I really couldn't have asked for a better night.

La Dinde!

In other exciting news, two weekends ago was the AFS weekend! I love getting together and seeing all of my AFS friends. Our AFS PACA (Provence-Alpes-Côté d'Azure) group is really close, so we all look foreword to these get-togethers. At the weekend, there was also AFS returnees, and AFS hopefuls. It was really neat to see the "three generations" of AFS, as well as disconcerting to realize that I was in the AFS hopefuls' shoes a year ago. It seems like so long ago!

awesome groupness<3

Today, Nicole and I decorated the sapin de Noël! It was a bittersweet moment, but it really turned my day around to get into the holiday spirit! It's really crazy to think that it's already December! Christmas is right around the corner. That's a scary thought! It's hitting me that I've been here for three months, which is so hard to believe! The time has flown by!