Christmas Away from Home

It is finished. The event that every exchange student kind of hmm’s about before his exchange, saying “hmm, I wonder what Christmas is going to be like away from my family, in a new country, with strangers?” Mine, in fact, turned out to be great.

Great may not be the correct word to use though, but this whole experience has been so semi surreal, aka it hasn’t felt exactly like Christmas, and since nothing bad happened, I ate to my hearts content and didn’t start balling when I talked to my parents, I will say it was great. I say it didn’t feel like Christmas because it really didn’t. Probably because what I view as Christmas, the tradition and celebration that my family and I celebrate and remember each year, is really the only Christmas I know. Sure I know that around December each year lots of people put up Christmas lights and buy lots of presents, which didn’t change when I came here. But the real festivities that let me know it’s Christmas, with my family and my mom’s food and my friends, didn’t come with me this year. The reason for Christmas, Christ’s birth, was still celebrated, but it didn’t feel like it was supposed to, as it didn’t feel like what I was used to. Welp, here’s to growing up.

Now, after my meager attempt at philosophical wanderings, onto the concrete, what I actually did for Christmas, or more specifically, the weekend surrounding Christmas.

Saturday night I went over to Paul’s house (this is the final time I’m explaining who he is, the Kiwi, from the church, who went on a rotary exchange 9 years ago) because his brother just came in, who is my age. We drank some good Trappist beer and talked for a while, and then in true French fashion, Paul, his brother John-O, Garth (Australian) and Danielle (Paul’s girlfriend) left to eat at around 9:30. We went to a pretty typical French restaurant where I had duck, mmm I love duck. We had a great time talking over the funny live French acoustic musician and inhaling loads of smoke. That in fact isn’t sarcastic, we did have a great time. I will probably be hanging out with Paul’s brother more over break, as he is my age and Paul will be working. He is really cool so it should work out pretty nicely.

Christmas eve I met up with Victor and his brother and sister while they were finishing up some last minute shopping. They are really nice, and we went to a café for a long time talking over vin chaud (also known as gluhwine or mulledwine) and spiced beer for Christmas. I made it home just in time to throw on my suit and speedily walk to the Church where we were attending mass. I walk by it all the time when I go to the closest metro, and I had never peeked inside, but the inside is beautifully designed with whitewashed walls and tall arches, so it was a good place to have Christmas eve mass. It was the “kids service” so the kids sang a lot of songs. I tried really hard to pay attention but it’s hard when there’s a large mass of stone blocking your view of the priest and there are tons of people around. I enjoyed it, but I prefer a little calmer service like at Discovery. I then proceeded to the apartment where I ate one of the biggest meals of my life. First though we drank champagne (Cristal to be exact, aka 150 Euro bottle) and opened presents. Crazy Europeans decided they would do that on Christmas eve, but I think it makes it lose some of the charm, not really having to wait and kind of just opening them all at once and eating. But the food was amazing. We had coquilles saint-jacques (seafood in shells, I don’t really know how to explain it), followed by chapon (basically a big, good, chicken) with stuffing, potatoes with I think walnuts or something of the sort, then a enormous amount of cheese of all types, topped off by an excessively rich raspberry cake that I had helped my host mom make earlier in the day. Coupled with all the wine I drank, saying I slept well would be an understatement.

For Christmas lunch we went over to my host grandparent’s apartment (who I forgot to mention ate with us on Christmas eve) to have probably the most filling meal of my life. My host mom is from the Alsace-Lorraine region of France (so basically Germany), and therefore she made the traditional alsacian dish of sauerkraut topped with sausages, salami, and smoked meat. All of this is put on a gigantic platter then brought out and put on a heating pad, so it stays nice and warm for seconds and thirds. Definitely one of my favorite dishes, ever. Along with the meal we drank amazing wine, starting with wine from Alsace (which is sweeter white wine) then moving along to a 1988 bottle from Bordeaux and a 1975 bottle from Bourgogne (the wine, as my host grandpa explained to me, was Napoleon’s favorite, and he never went anywhere without a bottle). Against all odds, the meal only got better, because the cheese we ate was Muenster (my hands down, favorite cheese, and no not “muenster” like you get at Safeway, but real honest to goodness Muenster) and the dessert was bûche de noël (a ice cream type log cake) and little éclairs, all washed down with lovely expresso. I honestly didn’t consider moving after we ate. Alas my resolve was not strong enough, as later in the evening I went to see James Bond with my host family. Afterwards we went to this fancy pants restaurant type place and grabbed a drink, where I had Bailey’s, yummy. And that was the end of Christmas.

Today I got up around 8 to get ready to go to Disneyland Paris/go look for my package. Turns out my package never found it’s way to the post office like the nice lady on the telephone said it would, so I still do not have my Christmas presents from my parents L. Although my day made up for the disappointment in the morning, as Disneyland Paris was extremely fun but extremely cold. It was for the birthday of my friend Guillaume’s girlfriend Marine (who is also my friend), another couple I didn’t really know, and Victor. As Victor woke up late then forgot his wallet, I was left as the 5th wheel for the first while which was not that fun. When Victor came things started looking up, and the day turned out to be a success, with lots of rides ridden and lots of laughs had. I’m really glad I went, as the smile on my face in the pictures attest to.


Merry Christmas to you all!!

Brent

I read an amazing editorial about Christmas last night in the Wall Street Journal, which you can find here http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=65000827 , read it. That’s a command.