The Story Continues ...

What did I promise you again? Bugger ... let me check ...

-Christmas
-Paris with Anna
-New Year's
-A brief recap of my afternoon with Alice and Baptia
-Moving in with my new host family

Part One: Christmas ... in France!!!

As you may recall, I didn't get to sleep until, oh, about 4:00 in the morning on Christmas Eve ... although, by that time I suppose it was Christmas morning. Seeing as I usually like to get a healthy 8 hours of sleep a night I felt I would be justified in sleeping in until noon. However ...

#1: I hate sleeping in that late
#2: Who the hell sleeps in til noon on Christmas?????
#3: If, indeed, I did do that it would have been quite selfish, don't you think?

So instead I settled with a nice 6 hours of sleep and awoke at 10 the next morning.

There was really no pomp or ceremony over Christmas morning. Everyone but Alice was still in pajamas and gathered around the Christmas tree which had been up since before Thanksgiving. Everyone opened their presents and then it was over. Basically. The Petiots were nice enough to have bougt me a few small gifts: some earrings and a necklace and a grey-and-black-stripey shirt which Alice was convinced I would never wear but jokes on her because I wore it the other day!!!

My favorite part of the morning was when Victoria opened the present from my mom--an angel Christmas ornament, though I don't think she got it was for the tree.

"Qu'est-ce que c'est beau!" she said, which is a compliment reserved for her favorite things.

Didier didn't seem as enthusiastic about it at first, but later he asked me very fervently to write to my mom and tell her thank you for the beautiful angel.

The Cousins came over for lunch and the exchange of presents. Guess what we ate???? More foie gras!!! Psh. Not enough fig jam. Victoria thinks there's such a thing as "too much" but I disagree. She does not, however, believe in "too much" of the foie gras itself.

Baptia was the only person who gave presents. It wasn't like at home. She gave everyone (including me) a little gift and that was that. She gave me some little perfumes and a case to put toiletries in ... which I just realized I forgot to use it when I moved. Oops.

I should have done this a long time ago. I don't remember anything. Bah humbug. We move on ...

Part Two: Paris

Eve, one of The Cousins, was sick on Christmas. The next day Thomas (her little brother) and Douglas were sick. Then it was my turn. A few days after Christmas I was innocently laying on bed reading a book that Mom sent me for Christmas, feeling slightly nauseous, wondering if I'd eaten too much. Next thing I knew I was kneeling over the toilet down the hall, vomiting all three of my meals into the Porcelain King.

I was sick all night and the next day as well. However, the day after I was feeling my normal self (almost), and I got a call from Anna (who reminded me who she was in an email by saying "I'm the other exchange student with a metro card," ... because we live close to Paris ...), who I met at that rendez-vous thing that I talked about in my last entry. She asked if I wanted to meet up with her in Paris. Ooh ... Victoria was all worry-ish about my having been sick and all that. I said I'd call her back.

Much to my surprise, the response from Victoria was enthusiastically affirmative. "Il faut aller à Paris. Il faut." I have to go to Paris, roughly.

Boy oh boy. Me and Anna decided to meet at Gare d'Austerlitz which is a pain to get to from RER A. It involved a trek deep into Paris and two train changes. But I did meet some Canadians who had been visiting Belgium. They were leaving that day, I was informed.

Because I badlybadlybadly estimated the amount of time it would take me to get to Paris, I ended up getting to the gare nearly a half hour later than agreed upon. And ... she wasn't there.

I'm not going to go into detail about waiting because honestly ... that's quite boring. Especially since I didn't have my iPod.

No worries, though, Anna showed up, saying she'd been late as well and all was forgotten and blahblahblah.

And so our Parisian adventure began. Anna suggested seeing some thingy that had been around since Roman times. One of two remaining in Paris. We set off and took a long walk through the grounds of a hospital, realized we'd gone the wrong way, turned around, walkwalkwalked and ... we found it.

Now, to me, it wasn't very impressive. It was a theatre of some sort, apparently, or it used to be. Anyhow, we only hung around there for a few minutes before Anna mentioned the marché aux puces--the flea market--in the north end of Paris at the verrrrrrrry end of the métro line 4.

Now that was a worthwhile visit. I love the open-air markets! Beaucoup de monde! And noise everywhere! That's my kind of shopping atmosphere. Not a mall. I hate malls. I did end up buying one thing ... a present ... for someone ... I'm not saying who, but if you got a phone call from me from Paris, it may be for you ... and I may covet it myself.

We decided to be sporadic for dinner. We got back on the métro and got off where our stomachs toldus to. We found a lovely Italian restaurant and enjoyed some lovely Italian food in lovely Paris.

It was lovely.

Part Three: New Year's Eve

My original plans for the new year were to go to this other exchange student's house for some party with Alice and her friend Solène. But Anna said that she was having a party as well, and that one was SO much easier to get to than the other. So at quarter to seven on december 31, me and Alice (Solène opted to stay home with her mom, who would have otherwise been alone for the new year) set out on our sojourn to the verrrrrry end of the RER E.

Although Anna's directions weren't veryvery clear, we ended up finding her house alright and even though we got there a half hour early, we were some of the last to arrive. Yes. And we knew no one, except Anna.

At the beginning we sort of ... stood ... in the kitchen ... and did nothing. Sigh ...

We thought we were going to be bored the whole night. BORED??? On New Year's Eve???? That is simply not allowed!

Luckily, we were saved. It turned out to be a veryvery enjoyable party. It had the most bizarre mix of techno music, Anna's friends turned out to be really nice people ... and at one point (sometime before midnight, I think) we were even brave enough to dance! I think I've discovered the secret of having the ability to dance without feeling like an idiot. Just do what everyone else is doing! How can someone think you look stupid if they're doing the exact same thing? ... okay ... I'll rephrase ... How can someone openly make fun of what you're doing if they're doing the exact same thing??? It worked for me, anyway.

I don't know when I went to bed that night ... that morning, rather. I just know that the day after I was quite tired the whole day.

When the new year had come, I had been one of two people who noticed. Fancy that.

A slightly sad ending: I left my green coat at Anna's house ... I love that coat ... I must get it back.

Part Four: an afternoon with Baptia

Creative title, no?

I don't remember why I wanted to talk about this. Nothing remarkable exciting happened. The day before I moved out of the Petiots' house, me and Alice went to Baptia's house, which is really the top half of a house due to circumstances blablabla.

She made us clementine juice. Freshly squeezed. Très bon pour la santé. Very healthy. I hate that phrase in French. It's just because whenever someone has said it to me it has been in a self-righteous way ... I was doing something the wrong. So I associate it with negative things. I must chage that.

Anyhow. Besides being very healthy, it was also very delicious.

She proceeded to invite us out for a lunch at a crèperie. Crèpérie? Je ne sais pas. Crepérie? Whatever. Not important. The point is that the crèpes were delicious. I had an egg one for the "lunch" part and a chocolate one for dessert.

Honestly. I don't remember what I wanted to comment on!

We did have some really good coffee at a little bar I must remember for when Dad and Rozanne come. Very strong. Very French. Thus ... very good.

Moving on ...

Part Five: NEW HOST FAMILY!!!!!!!!

Wednesday January 3, 2007 I spent most of the day in the room I no longer referred to as my own but as Lola's (the eldest daughter of the Petiot family who is currently in Mexico), cleaning. I had finished packing, so it was "clean" as in not ... disorderly, for lack of a better word. However, I vacuumed, I vacuumed again, I washed the bedspread, I made the bed, I cleaned the sink, I cleaned the shower, I put all her things in the bathroom exactly as they were when I had arrived.

Then I went to the mall with Alice.

We won't talk about that. Boring story. I didn't buy anything.

Ahem. Yes.

Anyhow, about 8:00 (a half hour after we had originally planned, as usual) we left with allllllll my stuff (my possessions have expanded since my arrival) for Guite's house ... all of us. See, it was going to be something of a gentle transition. The Petiots come for dinner at Guite's house ... they eat ... then they simply leave me there. Not that I needed the transition to be gentle. I just needed the transition.

We had a cheese fondue for dinner. The cheese ... well, I covered it with so much potato and so much meat, I didn't notice it much. The point is, however, that I ate it and I didn't die.

That doesn't mean I've started liking cheese, though ... don't worry. I still think it is the most disgusting thing to have ever cursed my tastebuds.

After dinner, me and Alice listened to Are You Gonna Be My Girl by Jet on my iPod one last time (it was Our Song, see?) and then ... they left. I was now a part of the Benoit family. No longer with the Petiots.

And now I'm settled. All my stuff is put away in my room, which is much smaller than the one I had at the Petiots' house and without its own bathroom, but I like it even better. My new Japanese "sister", Sayaka, is sitting behind me, studying for an exam. Hilal, one of the granddaughters of Guite is playing with her babydoll and regularly coming to Sayaka for help when her lego pieces fall apart. Guite is watching the TV and sewing something for her daughter's baby ... because her daughter (who lives in a little house in Guite's garden) is pregnant with her fourth child.

I am settled. I am opening the next chapter of my life in France.

I have made France truly my home away from home. Finally.