So, here is my holiday post.
Christmas eve was pretty interesting. The family and I went to the catholic church here in town, which is much much different traditionally than what I am accustomed to. Lots of monotone chanting and smoke blessings. A good christmas church band (with too many flutes)that doesn't really sound like they practiced brought back some good memories though.
Christmas day was great! Different traditionally again.. but great. Christmas started at lunch when we went to the grandparents. Christine's brother and sister and their families came shortly after. We opened presents all together, then sat down to a nice meal of Foie Gras. Foie Gras is a liver meat type thing that is really fatty.. It's made by shoving food down a goose or a ducks throat until it is about to explode. Then its liver become extra tender. This is a traditional meal for the holidays in France.. so I had participate. I wont lie, it was delicious.. but my conscience tells me never again. The lack of christmas music was starting to drive me crazy.. so the grandparents put on a old record of french christmas hymns for me! I only knew like three songs.
(Boxing day doesn't exist)
The next day I left with the grandparents for Stella Plage where they have a second vacation house on the sea. The sea was soo beautiful. The whole town was on sand, and there were lots of dunes to go hiking through! The grandparents took me to the town of Montreuil which is incredibly old and charming. There is a wall that was built all around the town (for protection from the english) and the grandparents and I took a nice stroll along the border which was always a beautiful view.
The week consisted of relaxing by the fire, knitting, practicing french, visiting surrounding towns, and going to France's largest Aquarium. It was a great holiday.
New years I went to a party with some friends. New years in France is pretty cool, because everybody says happy new year to every one for the month of January.. and people call distant family members to reconnect and say happy new year. They don't send christmas cards but they send new years cards.
Now we are back to work and today I went to re-register at Alliance français.
Sad to see the grand vacation over.
I hope all of you had good holidays too!
