Holidays

Happy New Year Everyone!!!

I hope this year is better then the last!(That might be difficult seeing as I spent four months of it in another country) Oh well=) Things here in France have been moving non-stop with the holidays. I spent most of them with my host family and their other family members. It's been fun. For Christmas I learned that at least in my host family here most of the traditions are almost exactly the same. A larger then normal dinner even though the foods change slightly, and spending time talking with everyone.

Then the next couple days after Christmas my family and I went back to Paris to go visit all the monuments and famous places possible. I am proud to say that I have seen way more museums and old buildings then I can handle in three days which is suprisingly difficult. I did get the chance to see what Paris looks like with all the holiday lights and decorations our, and let me just say it's so beautiful. It also seemed to be a special year for some buildings. It was the 850th year of the Cathederal Notre Dame de Paris, so there were special decorations up around there and a temporary stage that let the visitors look at the details on the building more closely. Then for the Lafayette Galeries, they were celebrating their hundreth year I think. They had decorations as well and a huge christmas tree under the glass dome made with huge disks of Sworvaski crystal and other random things that made it really pretty as well. Then of course all of the other streets and everything had the normal decorations up. I also learned that there are some interesing places that people can take tours of in Paris. Just to give an example if someone wanted they could take a tour of the sewers and things like that. Why someone would want to I am not sure but okay. Then after we left Paris we went to Versailles and I agree it is beautiful and I was suprised at how the gardens looked because it is technically winter. They were still green and the fountains and everything were running so it was nice. I did find it a little odd to see people taking their morning jog in the gardens, but it makes sense since to me I looked at it as if they were treating it as a public park.

Finally as for the New Years, We had guests over at the house yesterday. My family and them spent maybe four or so hours eating dinner. I was supriingly not bored. Then right before midnight we set off fireworks and I learned that when the clock hits minight it's in the French culture to "bise" everyone(the kiss on both cheeks) for the New Year. One of the guests asked me if we did something like that right for midnight too, and sadly I honestly couldn't think of anything that is the same for everyone. Maybe it's just so normal that I didn't think of it differently or we don't have one. I am not really sure. Other then that I have one more week before I start school again. It's wierd to think that I have about three weeks of school left till this is all over. On that note Happy New Year again and i'm still hoping everyone's well.