Merry Christmas Eve! It is the morning of the 24th and I’m taking spending a nice long morning still in bed.
Oh dear, I just looked at the date of my last post- the time passes so fast. I haven’t written a thing for a solid week and you know what that means- I have been very, very busy and it’s time for a long and detailed post telling you all about it!
Saturday I had class in the morning, including a test. At least it was a test on a book that I really enjoyed, but you could almost hear during the scratching of pens how aware the whole class was that the rest of the world was already on vacation…
So after the test I came home for lunch and my host family got ready for Papy’s birthday that night. At 80 years old he is a spry and good humored patriarch for my host mother’s expansive clan. On the two hour drive to the family farm my host sister, who has her permit, managed to deftly navigate some pretty nasty sleet, which is the closest thing I’ve seen to snow here yet. It looks like this year is too warm to hope for a white Christmas. When we got there it was 7:00 and the party didn’t really start until 9:00. We only left at 2:00 in the morning. I think that Christmas Eve dinner should be the same, but since I’ve been warned this time I’ll try to take a nap this afternoon. The whole family was there, filling the barn-turned-party room (complete with kitchen, lighting and plumbing). Late that night between courses my host sister and her cousin managed to find his saxophone and cajole him into treating us to an impressive jazz performance. Another highlight was show he put on, dressing up as an old-time peasant of the region and regaling his family with funny old anecdote in berrîchon, the traditional dialect of the region of Berry (where I am). I didn’t understand a word, as hard as I tried, it seemed like everyone else found it really clever. As we were leaving, he translated it for me; it involved a very clever pun about a farmer’s donkey and a farmer’s wife which I don’t think I would be able to translate.
Sunday I morning I spent sleeping and Sunday afternoon I spent with my third host family. We visited a tiny village which was decorated in Christmas lights fit for a king. After admiring the tiny shops (and candy shops with all their best Christmas goodies on display!), we went to a salon de thé and enjoyed a nice cup of tea against the cold. That evening I learned crêpe-making techniques from my future host dad, and we all had crêpes for dinner.
I am always, always impressed by host wonderfully warm my future host family is and the rest of the evening was spent perfectly together in front of the fireplace.
Monday I did absolutely nothing. I am serious when I say that my neck was sore by the end of the day from not moving. This was because I hadn’t really stopped moving for the last couple of weeks and was starting to get sick. So Monday was an excellent day for catching up on all of the rest I needed. I did, however, pull together a PowerPoint presentation on American holiday traditions for the Rotary Christmas dinner Tuesday night. Thanks for the pictures, Mom!
Tuesday I finished my Christmas shopping and preparation in town, and Tuesday night was the Christmas dinner. The president’s wife who is also a member of the club asked me to prepare something for the club, so I was ready with my presentation mentioned above and in costume (as all guests were requested to be) in the only specifically ‘American’ clothes I had, a cowboy-esque outfit with a borrowed cowboy hat. The dinner was delicious, the club was as bright and convivial as ever, though this time in costume, and I got a ‘Joke a Day’ Calendar in the gift exchange. My presentation also went well; I even succeeded in getting the club to join me in a rousing chorus of ‘We Wish You a Merry Christmas’ at the end. Since the biggest traditions are the same (Santa Claus, the tree, gifts, seeing family) I highlighted the other holidays leading up to Christmas which aren’t celebrated in France: Halloween, Thanksgiving, Hanukkah (though my family isn’t Jewish we usually celebrate one night at a friend’s house). I also shared family traditions such as getting the tree in the forest and the traditions of hanging stockings, rather than putting slippers under the tree, and sending Christmas cards.
After the dinner I went home with Rotarian and his wife, who I have already mentioned spending a weekend with. The plan was to stay with them and their daughter for a few days, which I was very happy to do, since I’ve come to consider them as a fifth family!
Thursday we spent together, braving going into town with their daughter despite the rain. When I came home and the mom saw the state of my boots (which had already been showing show where, but completely fell apart in the rain) I was whisked away shoe-shopping and presented with a brand-new pair as a Christmas present despite my protests and attempts to pay. We ate that night at a kitschy and cute restaurant with an impressive variety of baked potatoes.
Thursday was busy but wonderfully so. I spent the morning with the same family, come home to drop off my things and took the bus into town to see a movie with a friend from school. We saw ‘The Lady’ and it was absolutely excellent, I highly, highly recommend it. I have always found An San Su Kyi a fascinating and inspiring figure but was never familiar with her story, and found the movie extremely well done. The friend I went enjoyed it as much as I did and would like to show me some well know movies by the same director, Luc Besson, who I had never heard of before, but is a well know French director. Right after the movie, I left the theater which is located in town and walked to the building where all the Rotary clubs in Bourges meet (it is also centrally located and wasn’t far). There, I had been invited by another club to their dinner so that I could talk with their outbound student for next year. She is French and will be leaving for Taiwan next year, but since this club isn’t currently hosting any students, the president wanted me to come so that we could meet each other and talk. It was another nice dinner and I traded contact information so that we can stay in touch before and after we leave at the end of the year.
Friday I spent once again with my third host family. Everyone, including their son who is studying in Switzerland was home for the holidays. We went shopping for their Christmas dinner, made a spice cake (which was good despite accidently adding black pepper instead of nutmeg) and spent a nice day together. They were thoughtful enough to give me an apron for Christmas with my name embroidered on it with the French spelling (an ‘s’ instead of a ‘z’) and a tiny French flag in the corner. I absolutely adored this gift. I also borrowed a book from my future host sister which I can barely put down, Les yeux jaunes des crocodiles. Friday night I came home in time to have a family dinner with my host father’s brother and his family. They stayed the night on their way to Christmas with other family members.
Tonight, being Christmas Eve, is also the four month anniversary of my arrival in France. After the family left, we have had the rest of the day to relax before leaving for Christmas Eve dinner at an aunt and uncle’s house. Four months in and I’m not even homesick any more. I’m really starting to have a place here and I already know that it’s going to be difficult to say good-bye to the people who I know here.
Hugs and kisses to everyone at home, I’ve been thinking of you all and I wish a very merry Christmas.
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