Christmas!

December 6th - St. Nicolas!

St. Nicolas is big here in France, especially in the Lorraine region, apparently. In a nutshell, the good citizens of BLD spent the greater part of November stringing lights all over the town, and on December 6^th, they turn on all the lights, and there is a parade and fireworks. This is pretty similar to what most of the towns do for St. Nicolas, in this region at least. After the parade, we watched the fireworks, which weren’t bad.

Christmas Markets in Nancy

This past weekend, after a minor strike by SNCF (they like to strike during the holiday season, apparently) which led to us having to take a 2-hour bus ride instead of a 1-hour train ride, we made it to Nancy to go Christmas shopping. Thierry, Kat, and I have now figured out a bizarre method of conversing: us speaking to Thierry in French, and him speaking to us in English. It sounds strange to hear, but it is effective for all of us. We kept this up for almost the entire time we were in Nancy…where it was COLD. Below freezing temperatures and wind are not things that should go together, but thankfully there is ‘Vin Chaud’ (hot spiced wine) for sale on every street corner due to the abundant Christmas markets.

Field trip

Today instead of teaching my normal classes at l’école de Fains, I went with the entire school (mind you, this is the school with 4 classrooms) via charter bus to Commercy. (20 min by train or 40 min by bus East of BLD, only 7, 000 people live here. They are known for their delicious little cookie/cakes called Madeleines). It was a bouncy ride, and of course, a student vomited. Thankfully this was only 9 km outside of our destination. There we saw a one-man musical show. It was very impressive actually, just one man and about 12 instruments, which he combined in different ways to make humorous songs for the children. When it was over, I abandoned the teachers when they went back to BLD, so I could go sit in on one of Caitlin’s classes and then grab some lunch with her, and take the train back to BLD in time for my afternoon class. It was a lot of fun and I wish I saw her more often!

I go back to the states for Christmas break this Saturday. I happily learned that there is not going to be a strike on the day I leave (two of my friends work for SNCF, so they gave us a heads up about upcoming ones) so assuming all goes to plan, I should make it to the airport okay. I am really looking forward to seeing my family, friends, and animal buddies!

I forgot to mention...it snowed!!!

Boulevard de la Rochelle
Walking down the Boulevard...
Our town's Christmas tree!
THE FLOATS
Alice in WonderlandNo idea what this is.
Aladdin?

A Mississippi Paddleboat!!! Complete with entire jazz band on top, and smoke billowing from the 'engines'.
The bike-powered bubble machine!The bubble machine power source.


Snow white and 4 dwarves?

Kat and I!

St. NicolasThey are really into Christmas decorations here.
Hôtel de Ville


The gazebo at the parc de l'hôtel de ville

Some of the smaller fireworks...

NANCY!
The fountain at Place Stanislas

More fountain...
More fountain...

Place Stanislas

The Christmas tree at Place Stanislas...check out the last video to see it in action.Street decorations...

More decor...Okay, so this picture, is the end result of the following video. It was already taking place in the Place when we arrived...no idea.


What the...


Place Stanislas at Christmas!

My Birthday!

My birthday could not have been any better...seriously. Good friends, good food, good music, ninja sword fights, unexpected presents...what more could I ask for? (Okay, I wish Chris had been there. Stupid brother! Why are you in Seattle!?)

For the party, Hélène and Nicolas very graciously offered their house, and we all drove over in a caravan. Having attended Julie's birthday party the previous weekend (drinks and food at her place, then to the discothèque where we were kicked out at 4:30 am when it closed, and managed to make it in bed by 6 am), I had an idea of what to do for an ideal French birthday party. With the aide of Julie's car, Thierry to drive it, and Kat to help prepare all the food, the night before we made a run to the French equivalent of Wal-Mart - and it is just as terrifying - where the cheapest prices can be found without a doubt.

We took all the necessary items and with the aide of Julie and Thierry's kitchen (they have an oven AND a food processor!) Kat and I prepared all the food that had to be made the night before...i.e. the smoked salmon terrine (this is like salmon-flavored crack), and lots of crispy pancetta.

A couple hours before the party, Kat, being the good friend she is, continued to aide me with the preparation of the rest of the food: crispy pancetta topped with chevre, pear, and mint, melon wrapped with prosciutto, camembert with fig jelly, pâté en croute (I wish I could say I made this from scratch, but alas, it was store-bought), simple munchie snacks from the store, etc.

The party was great. Everyone loved the food (especially the smoked salmon terrine - thank you for this recipe, Dad! I have successfully translated it into French for Hélène because it was such a hit!) and there was, suprisingly, enough food for all 14 people who were there!

I got home around 4:30 and slept until 11. On weekends, my sleep pattern is a little screwy.

Here are the pictures from the party!

Kat, dutifully spreading chevre on crispy pancetta.
Almost all of the prepared food and alcohol that had to be transported to Hélène and Nico's.
Everyone patiently awaiting our service.
The girls of the party...
The boys of the party...
Florion, Olivier, and Scott
Chowin' down on the smoked salmon goodness.Kat and I slicing up the terrines.
Maxim, an expert in the exact science of face-making.

Happy birthday!
Maxim successfully thwarting evil ninja Nico...don't worry, they are not sharp whatsoever.
Thierry and I!
Amélie, Olivier, Fabrice, and Maxim
Maxim and Kat


Presents!A bottle of Mirabelle liquour...it will definitely warm you up.
This was my chorus of random songs while I opened my presents. The best was 'I Will Survive', where no one knew the lyrics because they were in English. I just wish it had been filmed!
My new awesome scarf from Kat!
Qu'est-ce que c'est?It is a music box that plays 'la Vie en Rose', which is one of the best French songs ever.
A box chock-full of goodies of the Lorraine. Just be wary of the candies that are filled with Mirabelle liquour jelly...even the candy burns!
My AWESOME birthday cake, bought from a local pâtisserie, it had a pistachio crust, with rasperry jelly on top, and vanilla nougat with mousse and raspberry jelly inside. There is no better place on earth to buy a cake than in France. I am still debating going to this pâtisserie to buy another one of these just for myself...so good!

The melon and prosciutto! It is safe to say I have never had a better tasting melon before this night.
Good times!