Well it is definitely Christmas time in Paris! There are lights and decorated trees ALL over the city. Paris is definitely the most magnificent city I have ever seen during the holiday season. All the grand magasins (big department stores) have elaborate window displays and the Champs-Elysees is literally covered in lights. Unlike Thanksgiving and Halloween, all the patisseries (bakeries) have decorations and special treats for the holidays.
My December has been extremely festive, starting out with a trip to Strasbourg to see the Christmas markets. Strasbourg is on the border of Germany and France and is in the Alsace region. The town has gone back and forth between France and Germany over the years , but is currently French territory. Every year, the entire town turns into a little North Pole- EVERYTHING CHRISTMAS. There were lights and decorations all over. I dont think there was one house or building that wasn't decorated. There were vendors set up all over the town selling mostly home-made crafts, foods, drinks, and unique gifts. It was a bit overwhelming because of the crowds, but overall it was enjoyable.
My wonderful mother sent me a package with some Christmas decorations, so me and my roommates bought a Christmas tree and decorated it. It was my first time getting a tree without my family, but we all made the best of it. We all have stockings and our apartment looks very festive. I have been collecting presents for my roommates all month- we all got each other presents and are also all contributing things to each other's's stockings. We are like little kids- counting our presents, trying to convince one another to open presents early.
We are planning a wonderful Christmas. Tonight (xmas eve) we are ordering sushi and drinking champagne and then we are getting dressed up and going to Notre Dame for midnight mass. Tomorrow morning we will open our stockings and presents. In the afternoon we will go ice skating at Hotel de Ville, then we are making a vegetarian feast and eating together in front of our fireplace. I think it will be a very very merry Christmas.
The weather here has been VERY cold. It has been in the 30s for the past few weeks. I have finally broken down and bought a pair of mittens :) My friend Harasyn (my roommate Freshmen year) is coming to visit me on the 31st and staying for 10 days. We will be visiting a lot of museums and also ringing in the New Year together. I am SO excited that a little piece of home is coming to Paris!
+++++++
Well, it's been about a month since my last email and a lot has been going on around here! My roommates and I had a wonderful Christmas. We went to midnight mass at Notre Dame, went ice skating, opened presents while eating fresh croissants, and made a wonderful vegan feast for dinner! My friend from Dominican came to visit for New Year's Eve. We had a lot of guests over the first few weeks of January with Natasha's family, my friend, and Jenn's friend all here at once. We all went to a few museums (including the Musee D'orsay and the Louvre), climbed the tower of Notre Dame (AMAZING view of the city), and saw some of the main Paris attractions. One highlight was making baguette sandwiches, wearing berets, and eating lunch under the Eiffel tower. So very French. Another highlight was going to a very exclusive club with Natasha's brother. He used to be a club promoter in LA and got all of us into the VIP section at Club VIP on the Champs Elysees. We later found out that the only people that can get into the club are either really rich or famous. Pretty cool that we all got in and were VIP :)
Once my friend left, I started classes again and began intense studying. I had my final a week ago and I am very relieved now. I think it went well, but I wont find out how I did for another two weeks.
The real excitement of the month was my trip to Stockholm, Sweden! My two roommates, Jason (Natasha's boyfriend), and I all went to Stockholm for the weekend. We left very early on Friday morning and after two bus rides and a plane trip, we arrived in Stockholm at around 4 pm. The weather was clear and cold- about 34 degrees F. The first thing we got excited about were the vegan hotdogs sold in the train station! France is seriously lacking vegan/vegetarian food, so this was like paradise for four vegetarians. The hostel we decided to stay in was on a boat! It was an old ship turned into a hostel so the room we all shared was the size of a walk in closet with two port holes. It was small.. but totally worth staying in a boat on the Baltic Sea. That evening, we walked to Gamlastan which is considered 'old town' and explored a little. We ate at a little cafe where the portions were HUGE (I think this was in comparison to French portions) and the people were welcoming. After dinner, we went to a pub we had read about that is the oldest bar in Stockholm and had Irish coffee. We were worn out from our day of traveling, so we went back to our boat, got in our PJs, and sat on the deck looking out over the city- it was beautiful.
The next day we woke up early and went back to Gamlastan for breakfast. I got a latte (anything other than cafe au lait and espresso are non existent in France) and a Swedish pastry of some kind. The cafe was so cute- candles and pillows all around. For the remainder for the day, we walked around pretty much ALL of Stockholm. We saw the royal palace, glimpsed the oldest ship still afloat (we decided 15 dollars was too pricey to see a really old ship), the most beautiful 7-Eleven ever, went to lots of candy stores, touched the Baltic Sea, ate more Swedish pastries, and just enjoyed being in a place where the people speak English and the air feels fresh.
I absolutely adored Sweden. The people were very welcoming and warm, the food was good, there were candy stores everywhere, and everything was cheaper than Paris. It was like a breath of fresh air being there for the weekend. Sweden is definitely a country I would love to return to and explore more fully.
I am back in Paris now for a week before I head off to London and Cambridge. I am visiting my cousin, Christina, who lives in London and a friend of a friend who lives in Cambridge. I'm so excited!!
Life in Paris is as wonderful as ever. My roommates are better than I could have ever imagined! We all had so much fun traveling to Stockholm together. My cheeks were throbbing from laughing so hard by like 9 am. We are like three peas in a pod.