Christmas à la Campagne

Well, I didn’t get to go home for Christmas this year which was kind of hard for me to come to grips with at first.  When the majority of my program was going home and getting all excited about being able to spend Christmas with their families I was left behind to mope around.  Maybe that is why I spent most of the week before Christmas just hanging out around my foyer.  However, I spent Christmas with Perrine's family in Beauvais, France.  Perrine invited me over to her house for Christmas which was very nice of her to do so!  I took the train out to Beauvais and getting to the train was an adventure in and of itself!  So I had to go to Gare du Nord to catch my train to Beauvais.  Well Gare du Nord is a huge train station and I was running late and was rather frazzled and couldn’t figure out where I needed to go!  I ended up calling Perrine and she explained to me how where I needed to go.  I had 5 minutes until the train left and didn’t have a ticket yet.  However, Perrine told me that I could just buy one on the train.  But there was a slight problem with that scenario, I never saw anyone that worked on the train to buy a ticket from them!  So I got a free ride from Paris to Beauvais on the 24^th of December.  It was rather nice not having to pay but not something I will ever do again!  So I got there and Perrine was waiting at the station and we walked back to her house which is in town.  I got to meet her parents and her older sister and younger sister.  Her two sisters also each had a friend coming for Christmas.  We hung out and went to a Christmas Eve service (her mom is a pastor).  We had dinner and played a game afterwards and then eventually went to bed.

Dimanche le 25 décembre:

Joyeux Noël!!  Or as we say in the States, Merry Christmas!  So I felt kind of bad because I didn’t wake up in time to go to the church service on Christmas morning but her family was totally fine with us coming or not coming, they didn’t force us to do things.  I didn’t feel as bad because Perrine’s younger sister’s friend didn’t get up in time either.  We had an aperitif and after that we opened presents.  I gave to Leila, Perrine’s younger sister and Perrine’s older sister gave a present to me.  I got a little chocolate fondue pot with dark chocolate and a little notebook.  It was very nice of her.

They actually lit the candles on the tree!  I was afraid that something would catch on fire but nothing did

Perrine opening up her present

Afterwards we had lunch and that consisted of the dinde et marrons which is turkey and chestnuts and is a very typical French Christmas dinner.  After for dessert we had la bûche de Noël which is like a cake.  It was all delicious!  A family tradition at Christmas for Perrine’s family is going over to place that is like a forest preserve and walking around.  I guess they do this every Christmas, rain or shine.  It wasn’t too cold out so we had a nice walk.  We then headed back to the house and hung out for the rest of the evening.  I got to skype with my family and that was a lot of fun.  They were just beginning the festivities and ours in France were coming to an end.  We had a light dinner and watched a dvd of a comedian afterwards.  It was rather hard for me to understand at times because he used a lot of slang that I didn’t know but I would get the gist of it sometimes.  I did miss my family but it wasn’t as hard as Thanksgiving because I was with a family and was busy doing stuff unlike at Thanksgiving where they don’t celebrate it.  I had a very nice Christmas day despite the fact that I didn’t get to spend it with my own family.

Lundi le 26 décembre:

Well today I got to walk around the town with Perrine’s family.  I also got to see some churches and some old ruins that the town found.  It was a nice day out and we had a nice time just walking around and enjoying the fresh air.  For dinner we had a raclette and this was my first time ever having one and it was so good!  For those of you that don’t know what a raclette is, well it is a cheese fondue and you melt the cheese and put it on potatoes, charcuterie, or pickles.  I skipped the pickles since I am not a huge fan of them.  We played a card game afterwards and it was fun and I had never played it before.  I won the first round but it was just because of beginner’s luck, the second round I lost horribly.  But I still had fun.  Later on in the evening I went to bed.

Mardi le 27 décembre:

Well today I got up and got ready to head back home.  I had lunch with her family and then Leila and I took the train back to Paris.  Leila was going to go to her Grandma’s house and so she had to take a train to Paris and then catch another train to get to where her Grandma lives.  It was nice being back in Paris.  I enjoyed my weekend with Perrine’s family and it was nice to see how her family celebrates Christmas.