Tag Archives: Christmas

Christmas and Heritage

Christmas and what truly makes us, us. This video is long enough to speak for itself. I love the things and the ways I was taught to celebrate this time of the year and that helps make me who I am today. And truth be told, I’m not a bad dude. Christmas, true Christmas, puts a delight in your bones, a spring in your step, and a love so strongly in your heart. How can you help but smile, but give, but love, it’s Christmas! God bless us, everyone. Yeah, Tiny Tim style.

Update :)

Sorry, haven’t uploaded much lately, it’s pretty much just been life as usual over here. Teaching, reading, a drink or two, friends, you know, as one does.

I did have some other assistant friends come into town this weekend which meant we were up until about 5am on Sunday morning having been out at a club until 3am or so. It was my first night really going out in Caen, more so than just for a drink or two. It was fun and we all crashed on the apartment floor of my friend’s boyfriend’s place, all 8 of us. It was fun!

Some other assistants and I did a small gift exchange and played charades, which was fun. I didn’t know all of them since it was a UK version and I hadn’t heard of some of the TV shows and movies. But still fun, for sure.

This is the last week of classes for the year. I’ve got Christmas lessons planned and just in case the lil buggers don’t already love me, I’m bringing chocolate. Game, set, match! It’ll be fun, I’m using some pictures from last year at my house for Christmas and some famous American movie clips. I’m excited 🙂

So, now I’ve seen both the Hunger Games and The Hobbit in French. The Hobbit was by far the easiest to follow and understand, but I HATED seeing it in 3D, gosh it was the worst. It just makes it look so cheesy. Oh well. Next I want to see the “Ice Queen” as it is called in French, from Disney. I think it’d be cute to see in French.

Next week I take a few trains and will end up in England for Christmas, more to be posted from those adventures as they happen.

I love Christmas 🙂 Even in another country when my friends and family are back home, it’s still just wonderful 🙂

Christmas Plans & Carols!

Ok, I was going to do a post about this yesterday but kinda, well, forgot. Anyway! We (Lorrey, Mark, and I) went to the Herouville (our town) Christmas Market. It was a lovely example of taking a flea market and putting up wreaths. After our 15 minutes there, in which time we did two long, slow laps around the market, we were done. Lorrey, however, had not yet been to the Caen market so I suggested we go.

We got there, I got my hot chocolate, and we walked around. Neither of them cared for my idea that we all get a picture with Father Christmas, party poopers! I had a lovely chat with the ladies running the Quebec booth (there is always a Canadian booth) and another lady who just stopped over to chat with us. It was SO fun. I love small chatting in French with strangers, it really does make my day.

Anyway, we were shortly joined by our friend Daniel and we spend the afternoon wandering the town, drinking some coffee and waiting until 5pm. Why 5pm you ask? That was when we were told to get to the church for an English Christmas Carol service! So, shortly before 5pm, we picked up some “hot wine” and sauntered over. It was a good service, even though I only recognized three songs. They had a choir from Paris who would do a song, then we’d have a reading, then we’d all do a song, and repeat. It was very, VERY traditional, and at times the pace was a bit slow but overall is was great fun.

So, my video pretty much explains my Christmas plans, there’s been lots of changing and rearranging but such is life sometimes! Enjoy.

With love,

Christmas Market & Plan

So, hello! from the Caen Christmas Market. It’s pretty small but I am a sucker for Christmas markets nowadays. I got my Chichis, which was like churros but without the cinnamon, I decided that was the difference. Anyway, lots of little booths, mostly just selling stuff that you’d find at Pike Place Market or some place like that. Then of course there are multiple waffle, hot wine, and crepe stands mixed throughout.

Mentioned this in the video but my Christmas plans have changed thanks to rising costs. Because my credit card was charged 4 times for plane tickets I didn’t buy I had to wait. The waiting meant that the actual tickets I wanted went up in price and really, to save myself some piece of mind I decided to trim down the trip plans. I will not be going to Berlin after Christmas, instead I will spend some extra time in London and then perhaps a few days in Paris. The issue with Paris is that for these days, the hostels are NOT cheap, holy buckets. I’ll have to look around but also need to book now! Maybe I’ll figure something else out. Hmmm…

Nantes!

I love Nantes! But more on that in a bit.

We had an amazing Thanksgiving dinner in Argentan, a cute little town only 40 minutes from Caen by train. They had their Christmas lights on and another display going up when I arrived. It’s pretty small but nice. The dinner was fun, I helped prepare the green beans AND the turkey. Thanks to the oven the turkey took a bit longer than expected but it was all worth it. Chelsea, one of the girls hosting the shindig made pumpkin pie and I mean she mashed the pumpkin and everything. It was also delicious. Most importantly, the wine flowed all night and us three Americans got to share Thanksgiving with British and German folks and make them all say what they were thankful for, in French 🙂 After a dance party and more wine we finally went to bed around 5:30am. Good times!

I woke up at 10am, jumped from bed, grabbed my stuff and ran outside, where my friends were already waiting for me with a rented car because we were off to Nantes! It’s 3 – 3 1/2 hours away but SO worth it. I believe it is the 6th biggest city in France and while it isn’t gigantic by any means, it is definitely an improvement over Caen (sorry, love ya Caen but the truth is the truth). I got to see some cool chapels, a Christmas market, the Chateau, some museums and more. Pictures will hopefully be up tomorrow.

One thing and I’m sorry if this sounds self-centered but, while traveling with people is nice for some moments, I would much rather have us split off in the morning, meet for meals, and have our own agendas. Maybe I’m just selfish but getting to see the things you want to see and at your pace are amazing gifts that you don’t appreciate until you’re stilling for a half an hour in a tiny museum waiting as someone reads every last word… Love him, but wowsa.

Anyway, the best part of Nantes for me was the little Christmas market, it was just fun and lovely. The churches were beautiful too, and really just the livelihood of the place was refreshing. Weather was a bit warmer than Caen and didn’t rain!!!!

Ok, well, off to bed soonish. I don’t have work tomorrow so I’ll get those photos up. Until then, enjoy the video 🙂

Holidays

Sorry, kind of a rambling video this week. Thinking about not being home for the holidays, which will be really weird. I’m going to start teaching my students about Thanksgiving and for my high schoolers I’ll also teach them about Black Friday. I found a great video to help me explain the importance (historic) and the importance (personal) about Thanksgiving. It helps explain why Thanksgiving is the most travelled on holiday in the US. My high schoolers will then get to know about the ironic twist of going from a holiday where we are thankful for everything we have and then launch into a pre dawn knock out brawl to get a Playstation for $50 off, an event that causes deaths EVERY YEAR. What?!?!?! Dumb. I’ shielding my middle schoolers from that for now.

Also been making my Christmas plans. I need to buy the tickets soon, first to head over to London to stay with Mark, the other assistant and then to see where I’ll go from there. I think I’ll stay with them for a few days, stay in London for a few days, and then go to Berlin where I’ll stay awhile AND celebrate New Years. It will definitely be weird, feel like I’m intruding, on someone’s personal family time at Christmas but I am thankful that they’ve invited me. Staying in Paris for Christmas all alone doesn’t sound as glamorous as one would like to think.

Yesterday we went to Falaise, the birth place of William the Conqueror. It was a very beautiful town, small but nice. The castle was a cool place to be, kind of reminded me of Edinburgh Castle, just in the positioning and everything. I do HAVE to say, I wasn’t crazy with what they’ve done on the inside. They had a special exhibit that took you through the castle while telling the story of Sleeping Beauty, a tale I had just read in its original French funny enough. But it took away from the castle and its history so I wasn’t the biggest fan of the exhibit. Otherwise it was pretty, great views, and