Gay Pareeeeee

I'm a ballerina!!!

I started taking ballet classes in November, and I LOVE it. I was just made for pink slippers and rooms with wooden floors and slow, plunky piano music. I am in a beginners' class (surprisingly!!! haha) with six other women who are très sypathiques, and who look to be between the ages of 35 and 50 (and who call me "la jeunesse"--the "youth"--of the class).

So this weekend, Becky and I went to Paris to see some REAL ballerinas! We went to l'Opéra Bastille to see Coppélia (don't ask me, I still don't think I quite understand the story, but I know it involved a slightly shady toymaker and a jealous boy and a doll that comes to life...) Watching the professional dancers made my little pliés and demi-pliés seem painfully basic. (But painful it is, actually; my muscles are NOT pulling their own weight yet.) After the ballet we wandered around Paris--shoving our way through the throngs of tourists--and enjoyed the Christmas lights on the Champs-Elysées and the Eiffel Tower.

J'adore Paris, but visiting the city for the weekend made me remember why I'm happy to be living Thionville: In Paris, there are so many tourists that almost everybody talks to you in English. Even if I order or ask something in French, they respond to me in English. Even if I continue to respond to their English questions in French, they still persist. At one restaurant, I actually had to ask the waiter to please speak to us in French, because we are trying to learn. I know people are trying to be helpful and show that they know some English, but it just ends up being frustrating--especially, for example, when you are waiting as the receptionist at the hotel struggles to communicate with you in English ("You have reserve until yesterday?") despite the fact that you just greeted him and explained your situation in (nearly) perfect French. I just wanted to say, "Look, buddy. It'll be better for both of us if you just say it in French. In fact, it is easier for me to understand you in French."

But I can't wait to be in Paris again in a few days for New Year's ... with my FAMILY!!!!

Joyeux Anniversaire à Moi

France is a nice place to have a birthday! In the morning, Lauren, Becky, and Mike surprised me with birthday cards and one of those cakes that you see on display at French bakeries but that you know you can never have because there has to be an occasion. (There was shaved chocolate on top--that's how fancy this cake was.) Later that night, they took me out for dinner to a fancy restaurant in the main plaza of town, called Mississippi Jazz. Who knew that a small town in northeast France would end up having a Louisiana, cajun-style restaurant?




Now I'd like to introduce you to my adopted French family! Every Sunday I meet with Marion, who is eighteen years old, and I tutor her in English--and by "tutor" I mean we just sit around and talk about whatever we want. It's so refreshing to get to talk to someone my own age! In exchange, her parents have taken me in as a third daughter: Once a week, they come pick me up and take me to their home, where we drink tea and eat cookies and they help me with my French. Last week, Marion's mom and I made cookies together--I learned lots of kitchen vocabulary--and this week we went to Metz to amble around the Christmas markets and drink vin chaud. On my birthday afternoon, I went to Marion's house and we decorated her Christmas tree and had a birthday brioche (a loaf-shaped fluffy-ish bread-ish kind of thing with chocolate chips in it) with candles! They are so good to me!

Les Marchés de Noël

Okay, I think I've found one of my favorite things about France so far: the Christmas markets! They are unique to Germany, but also to Alsace-Lorraine (MY region, which changes hands from time to time between France and Germany), and they are absolutely spectacular! This photo to the left is of one of the main streets in Thionville--yes, devoid of people, but chock FULL of beautiful holiday decorations! Go France!

As long as I'm here, I decided to do a little research on who has the best Christmas market; so far, I've visited the ones in Thionville, Yutz, Nancy, Metz, Luxembourg and Strasbourg. Every city's market is a little different, but you can be sure that in nearly every plaza big enough, there will be little huts with vendors selling trinkets and chocolates and gingerbread and potato pancakes and crêpes and, of course, mulled wine and cider. Some towns (little Thionville being one of them!) even set up temporary ice-skating rinks in their main plazas.

Strasbourg (which is the photo to the right--Becky posed for me) is just a stone's throw from Germany and has one of the best-known marchés de Noël in France--but the thing that makes Strasbourg stand out most is that, from almost anywhere in centreville, you can look up and see the impressive pink cathedral towering above the rest of the buildings. We went ice skating right at the foot of the cathedral, and it was magical!

There is no place like home for the holidays, but Alsace-Lorraine is a close second!