Christmas in Paris!

Honestly, I never thought I would be able to say that I spent Christmas in Paris, but now I can. If I couldn't go home to be with my family (because of high airplane prices and the closure of the PDX airport), then at least this was the next best thing.

The weekend before Christmas, I was in Perpignan, and stayed back to go on a hike in the Pyrenees with Graham, an English teacher from my school (who now I know is reading my blog, so "Hi, Graham!"), and DouDou, a philosophy teacher from another school in town. The weather was nice the day we went, but windy. We had to stop our first hike because the wind was too violent to continue, and we had really only begun.

We drove quite a ways to the hilltop village of Montferrar, near the Spanish border. We had a view of the Mediterranean from the village and ate lunch there. It was splendid. Then we started hiking further up the mountain, which was difficult for me because of my brand new, unbroken-in shoes that I was wearing. Ouch and ouch! But alas, I made it back down alive, with only some damage to my ankles, but that view...was fantastic!

On the 23rd, I went up to Paris to spend Christmas with my friend Vicky and her boyfriend, Mike. On Christmas Eve, we all went to the Jules Verne restaurant on the Eiffel Tower for lunch/dinner. I had booked reservations over a month in advance, and it was a good thing, as we were the last table to be seated. Amazingly, we had a table for three right by the window, with a superb view of the Arc de Triomphe and the 16e arrondissement, which included the Ecole Militaire (you'd probably recognize it if you saw it). And yes, I took lots of pictures and videos!!

Our meal was incredible, to say the least. We were all enamored by every new plate and couldn't stop saying, "wow...oh yum, wow..." I was careful to take pictures of everything we ate, too! The waiters even helped Vicky and me push in our chairs. What service!

The bill is another story. Let's just say I took a picture of that, too. Hopefully, I'll never pay so much for another meal for the rest of my life!! But, when comparing it to the price of a plane ticket back to Oregon (that I probably wouldn't have been able to make because of the snow there), it was much, much less.

For Christmas, we had a good, relaxing day. We slept in, opened presents, watched movies, and Vicky's Chilean roommate Victoria made us an excellent Christmas dinner. We had two of Victoria's friends come over, both Chilean, and it was a wonderful, multilingual Christmas dinner. Victoria and her friend Patti only spoke French and Spanish, whereas Patti's cousin Andés only spoke English and Spanish. So we went back and forth between languages, and it was so much fun.

After Paris, I went down to Poitiers to visit my host family. It was so good to see them, and felt so strange to be back in the town where I lived after four years. Some things had changed (a new theater was built, a building in the center of town had burned down), but most had not. The saddest for me was that my beloved Greek restaurant, where my friends and I dined each Thursday at noon, was gone. I was looking forward to a good chicken pita, but no.

I stayed in Poitiers for two days, and then came back to Perpignan. It had snowed in Perpignan while I was gone, and had already melted. By the time I got back home, it had started snowing in Paris. So no snow for me this year. And I'm pretty glad about that.

On the other hand, however, Perpignan is supposedly having its coldest winter weather spell this week since WWII. At least, that's what one of the teachers told me. It's perfectly beautiful outside -- the sun is shining, there isn't a cloud in sight, but the air is frigid. Realistically, it's probably freezing (can't be much colder), but everyone is panicking by this "winter weather." What a perfect time, then, for the heating to go out in my new apartment. Let's just say that last night was extreeeeeemely cold and unpleasant. Should be fixed today.

Now, I am back to school, back to the grind, with a new year ahead of me. I have a lot to look forward to: my mother's visit in less than a month!, my tentative trip to Ireland for St. Patrick's Day, and my planned trip to the Greek Isles in April. I am certainly looking forward to all this year will bring.