Friday, December 28, 2012

A Scottish Christmas

For months, I have been saving money scrupulously for a really fantastic Christmas and New Year vacation. One that's just for me, paid for completely by me, and one that is positively fabulous. My two-week trip has been planned for months, with all sorts of exciting things to do; well, exciting for me anyway. Some of you may not be excited or interested in all the things I'm doing, but I assure you I am. While I like travelling and hanging out with other people, I have to say I'm thoroughly enjoying getting to do pretty much whatever I want without worrying about whether or not someone else is enjoying it as much as I am. Being a single lady is pretty great, especially when there's no schoolwork or anything to worry about. This post is long. I want you guys to know that it is totally cool for you to skip around or just skim over the pictures. Fair warning, though: if you skip too much, you won't get to hear some of the funny stories I've been accumulating for the past few days. So.... proceed in whichever fashion best suits you.

Monday, December 24, 2012

Christmastime in Paris

While I'm not spending my Christmas break in France, I did get to experience a lot of what Christmas in France is. Christmas in Paris is beautiful, quite cold, and remarkably less touristy than I was expecting. The best part, in my humble opinion, is the French Christmas Market, also known as the Marché de Noël. I spoke a bit about this a few weeks ago when I was in Reims; pretty much the deal is that they are awesome. There's cheap (and hot!) food, street vendors everywhere selling everything from huge blocks of homemade chocolate to handmade jewelry. In Paris, the big Christmas market is on the Champs-Élysées, running from Place de la Concorde to about halfway to the Arc de Triomphe. It's beautiful and fabulous and a really great way to spend an afternoon or evening.


Monday, December 17, 2012

For the Love of God

Originally, this post was going to be about the differences between French Christmas traditions and American ones. I've been taking notes for a few weeks on little things I wanted to mention. But it all seemed rather frivolous in light of current events and after the truly beautiful Sunday I experienced this weekend. So I give you readers fair warning; this blog post will discuss my spiritual beliefs, particularly in light of what happened on Friday. I've spent a lot of the last few years trying to minimize my religious beliefs, especially with new friends and acquaintances. This is not one of those times. I am religious, and in situations such as those we face at this moment, I look to God. Not necessarily for answers, but for guidance and comfort.

Saturday, December 8, 2012

Lessons Taught and Lessons Learned


I get a lot of questions from people back home and French people here about why I’m doing this. Leaving my home, friends and family for ten months without really looking back very often. Seems pretty crazy to some people. Sometimes one of those people is me, but not very often. Most of those people are the same ones who couldn’t understand why I chose to go to a small women’s liberal arts college nearly a thousand miles from home and looked even more flummoxed when I said I was double-majoring in French and History. “What on earth are you going to do with that?” It’s a legitimate question, but not one that I lose a lot of sleep over. The easy answer to all of those questions is really quite simple: I’m doing all of this because I love it.  

Monday, December 3, 2012

Champagne, A Cathedral, and Christmas Shopping!

After a generally uneventful week, I got to take a day off from city living and ventured out into Reims, a small(ish) town about 2 hours outside of Paris. This was sweetened by the fact that the day trip was provided by the Sweetbriar (no pun intended) program, which meant that I got to hang out with all my American friends who will be leaving me here almost all by myself in just a few short weeks. Also, I didn't have to spend much in the way of money. So it was totally a win-win trip. We got to visit a gorgeous cathedral, have some real champagne straight from the source, and visit the cutest outdoor Christmas market. I may have been freezing my little Texas behind off most of the time, but I sure had a blast!