The Final Chapter (For Now)

Well, it’s over. I’m on my last hour in France. I am sitting at the CDG airport and I’ve used up my 15 minutes free internet. Hopefully the NY airport is more generous as I will be there for a much longer amount of time. I had my last French meal, a French sandwich (at an airport price) called L’Americain. It was not American. It was thin strips of ham, mustard, mayo, pickle, and a hard boiled egg, the likes of which I’ve only ever seen available in France.

My last week in France was fun if mostly uneventful. I spent my time mostly indoors with Rachelle, watching movies, playing games, and helping her study for her finals. We did get out and about for me to get some photos of the town.

We found a good lunch place and a not so good lunch place, had coffee at a café, explored a neighborhood Rachelle had never been to and found a park with a great climbing tree. So the trip was pretty much a success.

I feel like I’ve set myself on French time now which means I am not at all prepared emotionally to start school again the day I return. I am however physically prepared as I made sure to order my books ahead of time. I just feel like I have nothing in the world to worry about (which is a great feeling to have on vacation) but I know that as soon as I get home, I need to pay all the bills, start school, and finish up my internship. In addition, I might try to get a job (paid or unpaid) at a Medford theatre so I plan on being very busy as soon as I arrive.

But for now, all I have to focus on is my trip home. I already achieved some of it (the train ride from Rennes to Paris and the subsequent train ride to the airport were quite uneventful). I’m through airport security so I have one simple step left (climbing aboard) before I am well on my way to NY. Then I have one more transfer and overnight layover before I hop on my final plane to SF. Easy.

Some pictures of Rennes

Sushi Preparations

Sushi

 Christmas spirit

 Traditional French tradition: there is a toy hidden inside the pie and whoever finds it gets to wear the crown.

Christmas 2012

Last night, Christmas Eve, after a good Christmas movie, Shell and I headed to Midnight mass. The Church is right next door so it was only about a 10 minute walk in the rain. The service took place in a relatively small old church. There was a balcony behind us on which the choir sang and rows of rows of chairs for the people attending the service. We sat and stood in unison with the rest of the congregation listening to a lot of French and some Latin. The most fun part for me was getting to see the lyrics to the songs written in both Latin and French. I think I learned a little Latin. I also enjoyed listening to the sermon in French.

We stayed there for about an hour and then when everyone got up to eat the body of Christ we snuck out. When we got home we started another Christmas movie but weren't able to finish it before falling asleep.

We woke up this morning a bit before 10:00am and had a present fest. It was pretty fun with all the little things in our stockings and a couple of bigger presents. Shell made me a book box. She took an old French text and cut out the inside of the pages so that it is a secret box instead of a book. I love it!

Baby Jesus

The other day Rachelle and I were heading to lunch when we noticed a Nativity scene set up in a window. The room behind the scene was completely empty and a bit dilapidated. The Nativity scene had several figures obviously arranged around the center, however baby Jesus was nowhere to be seen. Taking in the abandoned room in which the scene was displayed we came to the conclusion that it probably just wasn't finished yet. Shell jokingly pointed out that Jesus wasn't born yet anyway.

Last night we went to dinner at a friend's. We noticed that they had a Nativity scene set up as well and lo and behold, baby Jesus was not displayed there either. In fact, he was hiding behind a tree. So we asked a native French person and she informed us that Jesus is not displayed until Christmas because he hasn't been born yet. Another boy added jokingly that they also have a Mary Giving Birth figure that they put in the scene right before they bring out Jesus. He then informed us that he had had to chisel the cradle off of the scene as it had originally been glued down.

Dinner was good fun. Our eggnog didn't go over as well as it might have, everyone had a small glass but no one was really into it like we were. On the bright side we got to take the leftover eggnog home. Afterward we played a great game of Dixit and made it out of there just in time to catch the last bus home.

Shell and I have been plowing through Christmas movies as well which is something I have never done before but it does add to the Christmas spirit. Happy Christmas Eve everyone.

Holiday Spirit

Well, Shell and I are both quite relieved that we survived the end of the world. It was all rather calm in any case. No fire or brimstone, a little chaos but no more than is to be expected as a human. I can't imagine why anyone would want to stock up on supplies to 'survive' the end of the world. For one thing, if the world ended, some canned soup and bottled water doesn't really seem like it would do much good and for another thing, why would you even want to survive it and have to live in a world of END.

Having survived, of course we wanted to do something extra special to celebrate. So we decided to make some holiday eggnog. Eggnog is a delicacy unknown to the French populace and thus you cannot buy the stuff in stores. Fortunately you can find some easy and quick recipes online and all the raw ingredients *cough-raw-eggs-cough* in the grocery store next door.

So we bought the heavy cream and nutmeg necessary and tried our hand at holiday beverage making. SOMEONE *cough-me-cough* accidently was stupid (not on purpose, I promise) and doubled the amount of sugar. So of course we had to double the rest of the recipe and we ended up with enough to bring to the Christmas dinner we are going to tomorrow. It tastes delicious and not entirely unlike 'real' eggnog.

(Oh, and of course we added a homemade label for the bottle we are bringing to the party tomorrow).

Ocean Dew

Yesterday I managed to do the laundry without any mentionable difficulties so I have clean clothes now which is good. I also have new boots now but that is unrelated to the laundry.

After Rachelle got home from work yesterday we went on a small shopping expedition where she and I both bought eye liner (because we needed it) and we looked at boots. I gave myself permission to buy one pair of black boots while I'm here because that is something I don't have and often regret not having. Rachelle found the perfect weather proof shoes for her and I found a likely pair of boots for me, however I decided to sleep on it before making a purchase. After shoe shopping, of course we were hungry so we hit the Carrefour that we right next door and stocked up on groceries. For dinner we had a delicious, cheap and easy vegetable soup and a delicious, cheap and easy salad. After dinner we played cards and watched an episode of French Amazing Race. There was a very Christmas atmosphere to the evening.

This morning I showered and tried on my new eye liner. Shell had a mid-afternoon break so we hung out in her apartment and studied the presidents for a little while before she had to head back to work. I took the Metro with her to her stop and then we parted ways and I made a couple of quick stops to buy some stocking stuffers I had spotted out earlier. On my way home I stopped and bought the boots I'd been eyeing and some rosemary for the potatoes I want to cook tonight. There was no spice called 'rosemary' on the shelf and I wasn't sure what the French word was. The closest I could find was 'romarin' and I wasn't sure if it was the same spice. On the back it said that the original name in French was 'rosée de mer' or in English 'ocean dew' but I figured 'rosée de mar' sounded enough like rosemary that it probably was the right spice. When I got home, I opened it up and smelled it and I was right so I am excited for my potatoes tonight.

Dimanche

Rachelle and I were talking about how every day in French ends with 'di' except Sunday, whereas there are no exceptions in English, all days end in 'day'. However, Rachelle pointed out shortly thereafter that in fact 'Dimanche' or Sunday, starts with the 'di'. This is just one example of the super entertaining things about which we spend our days conversing. She is working on her masters in linguistics so, like me, she finds words very interesting in both French and English.

Today, Dimanche, we slept in and woke up just in time to have a relaxed breakfast and make our matinée of Mama Mia. It was so much fun. The songs where all translated into French as well as the script and somewhat difficult to understand over the orchestra but the atmosphere of musical theatre was lovely and already being familiar with the story, I had no trouble following along. We had cheap seats in the 'nose bleed' section which turned out to be good for two reasons. First, we could look down on the rest of the audience, which was pretty fun and second, we were literally in the last row so I was able to stand up and lean against the wall in order to have a clear view of the stage (being short I often find that the head of the person in the seat in front of me annoyingly blocks my view). We had a great time and didn't even realize that the play lasted 3 hours.

Afterwards, we had dinner at a small pizza joint and then headed to Rachelle's favorite pool hall. We played several rounds of pool and made it home and into bed before midnight. All in all it was a lovely day that could only have been improved upon had we woken up a bit earlier and had a good morning part to the day. Tomorrow, Rachelle works in the morning and I intend to venture out on my own to find a laundromat as I have run out of clean undergarments.

Rachelle and I are planning a trip around the town in the next couple of days in order to get some good photos of the town, the architecture, and us. So expect some visuals in the near future.

Present Shopping

Today I wondered a bit more confidently considering how easily I didn't get lost. I tried to walk mainly on streets I didn't travel the last time and after scooting out Rachelle's Christmas present I got lost. Rennes seems to go on forever in a never ending expanse of streets and walkways lined with shop after shop of goods ranging from cheap junk to expensive chic. When I finally decided to go home, I had check a bus stop map to find out which direction to walk. I did end up making my way home pretty quickly after that, with a short stop to buy the Christmas present.

Upon arriving at home, I took advantage of the hour I had before Shell got back to creatively wrap the present. It is pretty big and there isn't any wrapping paper in Shell's apartment so I ended up just wrapping it in a trash bag. Merry Christmas.

Nothing too exciting happened today but I had a good day in any case. Tomorrow should be fun with Shell here all day and Mama Mia.