this past week has been good times. there were festive parties, late night light hopping, christmas markets, decorating, warm spiced wine, disney land...i couldn't imagine a better last week before break. i've been teaching a lesson on the holidays in the us to my students. i start with what christmas is like for my family - for example, i tell them about the christmas carol sing which is next sunday and i CAN'T WAIT!!. also, in france they generally celebrate on christmas eve instead of in the morning. and they love our stockings. i've been playing them christmas songs like rudolf and santa claus is coming to town. they all know all the words to jingle bells and they taught me the french version of silent night (douce nuit). the best part is watching them work on the word search i give them. they love that stuff. as soon as i pass it out, they have like 14 different highlighters and markers out. they color it in and everything. hard. core.
thursday blew my lesson out of the water though. caitlin and i went out in the afternoon and got a bunch of decorations for the flat. we also got the ingredients we needed for our warm spiced wine recipe. when we got home, we decorated, made the wine and put out gingerbread cookies all while listening to christmas songs. our friends came over around 8 and we warmed up with the wine and treats before spending the rest of the night light hopping. we started at our metro stop, abbesses, which has a little christmas market. then we took the metro to the champs elysees. we started at the arc de triomphe and walked down to concorde, stopping at another christmas market to get some more warm wine. at the end of the champs elysees is the obelisk at concorde which has a huge feris wheel set up for christmas. from there we walked to place vendome - it's another obelisk but it has really crazy christmas trees all around it. then we walked down rivoli and past the louvre to hotel de ville where they are setting up an ice skating rink. too bad it's not open yet. from there we walked over to notre dame where there is a big christmas tree. then it was on to opera and madeleine by metro. finally, we walked to haussman and saw printemps and galeries lafayette which have world famous christmas displays. we were EXHAUSTED by the time we got back and totally freezing but it was all worth it. we thawed quickly.
friday was mellow. i went for a run and froze to death. it felt good though - my ankles have been really bothering me and i hadn't run in a week or so. it probably wasn't the best choice in the long run but since when have i ever respected the signs my body gives me? i run when i WANT!
so friday night was bradley's birthday and caitlin and i made a brief appearance. i'm glad we went - i hadn't seen jake and ben in a while and we spent the whole time laughing. oh, those crazy brits. after the party we came back to the flat to meet caitlin's friend from high school. lauren is studying in nantes which is about 2 or 3 hours south of paris. she brought her friend from the program, april. we chatted for a little while and went to bed around midnight because we had to get some decent sleep before our saturday at EURO DISNEY!
we got up early and made our way to the rer (kind of like the commuter train to boston). it took about 45 minutes to get there and when we left the rer station, there it was - the happiest place on earth! i was giddy - i hadn't been to disneyland since i was a kid. we used to go at least once a year since my mom grew up in california and my grandparents still lived in la. so, needless to say, i was super pumped to be there. i can't really remember what disneyland looks like except for what i can see in the pictures so i had no expectations of preconceptions of what it should be. and i was very pleased.
it's really strange to be in a place that you identify with your childhood as an adult. euro disney has sleeping beauty's castle just like disneyland. sleeping beauty is my alltime favorite disney movie - i LOVE tchaikovsky and i even want to walk out to aurora's theme at my wedding. i've had it planned since i was little.
it turns out that lauren is the most experienced disney-goer ever. she knew exactly what to do which made my life so easy. i didn't care what we did. i was just happy to be there. she was easy to see with her purple coat and the santa hat (caitlin and i got us all santa hats when we went decoration shopping on thursday) so we just followed her around. we started with star tours where a little french boy threw up all over his mom right before we got on the ride. poor little kid (i only say that because he didn't throw up on me). it was REALLY funny to hear c3po talk in french and once we got into the actual ride it was in franglais. parts were taken from the movie and other parts were dubbed. soooo weird.
after star tours we walked through sleeping beauty's castle. i was so happy! i skipped through the whole thing - even the dragon's dungeon (which was a little incorrect since the dragon happens to be maleficent so there couldn't be both at the same time but...poetic liscence i guess). after the castle we went on the pinnochio ride which was SO cute and then the pirates of the carribean (mom's favorite ride). then we grabbed lunch and payed a fortune for a burger and fries...BUT we did get to see a live performance of the lion king while we ate. in english. it started raining by the time we finished eating and it was, at that point, 28 degrees and wet. we were frozen - couldn't feel our fingers or feet at all. but we were still happy!
after lunch we headed over to the buzz lightyear ride which is crazy! you sit in this little space pod thing that has laser guns on the front. there's a joystick that turns your car all the way around like the teacups and you shoot bad guys to get points. it's so fun. i've never seen any of the pixar stuff since i was too old when they made all the rides.
after buzz we went to the haunted mansion. that was one of my favorites when i was little. it was just as cool as i remembered. although, the french crazied it up a little and it was longer...which was AWESOME! i love the way they let you into the ride in that room that sinks. so creative. after the haunted mansion we made our way to santa's christmas village. we took some pictures with jessie from toy story and then jack and sally from the nightmare before christmas. and last but not least, we got a photo shoot with pere noel. he was so cute! when we all sat around him he goes 'i don't know what to do with my hands!' so in the picture he's just sticking them out like he's asking a question. it was so cute to see all the little european kids talk to him. ugh, everything is cuter in an accent.
our next stop was the light show so we walked through aladin's palace (so cute) and back to main street. they call it main street usa in france which i thought was strange. the light show was so pretty. they lit up sleeping beauty's castle little by little and in sync with the music. it looked like it had snow and diamonds all over it. and they lit up the big christmas tree and all the shops. so precious. it's funny because usually i think disney is kind of trite but now i get why people love it so much. i thought you had to be a kid to really appreciate it. WRONG!
when the light show was over we decided to go on the peter pan ride. totally awesome and adorable. you get on these little ships and sail over london and through neverland. there are stars all around you - it's totally trippy and awesome. after that, lauren and april didn't want to go on the indiana jones ride since it went outside and not only was the air freezing but the rain was as well and they didn't want to get pelted in the face. caitlin and i were hardcore though and the roller coaster turned out to be totally bitchin. except for one ice-in-the-eyeball incident, we didn't even notice the cold and rain. and we even had time to sprint over to space mountain which was the only ride i HAD to go on. it was my favorite when i was little and it is my favorite now. most trippy, crazy roller coaster ever. my favorite part is the black hole.
we were supposed to meet lauren and april before 9 to get a good spot for the candelibration parade and when we got off space mountain it was 9:02. we SPRINTED all the way to the castle and spotted the purple coat right away. the parade was so cute. i felt bad for the dancers though. they must have been freezing. i mean, i was numb all over and i was wearing about 3 more layers than them.
we finally got home around 12 and thawed out for about an hour before all passing out. lauren and april left early this morning and caitlin and i have hung around the apartment all day. we were all so sore from clenching and shivering all day yesterday (and from smiling :)!) anyway, i'm headed home on thursday for christmas. i couldn't possibly be more excited. i miss everyone so much. i will be happy to come back though. the past 3 months have been so perfect. this is the best thing i could have ever done for myself. i'm at the halfway point and if the next semester is even half as good as this one has been, i will be completely satisfied. happy holidays everyone! can't wait to see you when i get home! bonne nuit...
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