Noel 2006

So much has happened since my last posting, which wasn't very long ago, so I will do my best not to forget anything...

First off, MERRY CHRISTMAS!!! I hope everyone had an excellent holiday and that you all ate as well as I did :) It was wonderful to hear all of the Wilson side of the family sing me 'We wish you a Merry Christmas' on the phone on Monday! While they constantly play North American music on the radio everywhere in Europe, they somehow avoid any of our cheesy Christmas tunes (so it was a welcomed sound from home).

Well, on a slightly different note, I should point out that this blog has obviously provided a somewhat biased view of my time here in Europe. Pretty much, I only write a posting when I'm in a good mood. I think that if someone were to read these entries without knowing me they would assume that my life here is an endless stream of wonderful events and visits to exotic destinations. While this is partly true, I wouldn't appreciate these good times if they weren't intertwined with more difficult ones. These, I usually don't bother mentioning,...

The most challenging one thus far struck last Friday night 15 minutes before I was supposed to catch a bus to Marseille for a 5 day holiday with the Magnan's. I'm not going to go into all of the details, but basically I became the target of a classic scam. Really, would one's 8 month trip to Spain be complete without being robbed at least once??? Essentially one person walks up to you and mumbles something in the form of a question, and while you're trying to figure out what they want, another comes up behind and leaves with your bag. Awesome,... before I knew what had hit me, I was left standing in the bus station, bewildered, and wondering 'what just happened?' and 'where the hell is my backpack?',... this completely helpless sinking feeling is not something that I would wish on anyone. So, at this point I had a bag full of clothes, the clothes on my back, my bus ticket, and my passport (thank god). I'm now minus my wallet (so all id/credit cards/money), my camera, cellphone, sunglasses, and washkit. In hindsight I didn't have many options, but at the time I had no idea what to do. My dilemma: Get on the bus? or stay in Barcelona? Thankfully I had enough sense just to get on the bus and go. After a rather worrisome 7 hour bus ride, replaying it over and over in my head, I was welcomed into my surrogate family's home in Bouc-bel-air. From there we set about going through the motions of post-traumatic wallet-loss. Calling visa, cancelling everything, praying that you won't be the next victim of identity theft, and once again, camera shopping.

Anyway, I'm trying not to think about it anymore. What's done is done. Take it as a learning experience and move one (special christmas lesson: apparently even if you're literally standing on top of your bag they will steal it out from under your feet, so now I will be one of those super paranoid tourists who chain it to their waists).

Okay, on to the many good parts of my Christmas holiday this year.

Saturday morning I arrived; around mid-day Myrna and Alain's neice, Magalie, from Corsica, arrived; and in the afternoon Marie-Anne, their daughter, arrived (so there would be 6 of us for Christmas). At night Michel and I went out for a great dinner in Aix-en-provence after wandering around the Christmas markets and the beautiful old city.

Sunday, Alain and I went camera shopping in Marseille. In the afternoon all of us went for a walk behind their property, and then that night we had a Christmas eve feast. La carta: salmon, peppers, dates, olives, salad, lots of wine, cheese, and then the desert. A French Christmas tradition is to have 13 different deserts at the end of the Christmas eve dinner. These include things like nougat, pears and apples, ice cream, pompe (a tradtional olive oil bread), nuts, dates, figs, chocolate, and a bunch more. yummmm. After dinner was the gift exchange.

Monday, Christmas Day, everyone slept late and then in the afternoon we went over to Alain's brother's house for a big Magnan family lunch. I don't know how it was possible but the food just kept getting better and better. Lunch included foie gras, oysters, lobster, salad, cheese, champagne, wine from tahiti, ice cream,.... I was in gormet heaven. :) After the meal and clean up, Myrna and I dropped Marie-Anne off at the train station as she had to return to Geneva for work the next day.

Tuesday, the remaining 5 of us, took a ferry out of the Marseille harbour to Chateau d'If (the island which is the setting for Alexandar Dumas' Count of Monte Cristo) and had lunch on one of the neighbouring islands.

Wednesday, Myrna, Alain, and Magalie drove to Toulouse to watch the successful launch of the Corot satellite which Alain has been working on for the last 10 years. Because my bus would leave Aix that evening before they returned to Bouc-bel-air, Michel and I went on an excursion to the city of Arles. This city was a very important Roman centre and therefore has many Roman buildings and monuments within the city. The most impressive being the collesium which is still used today for bull fighting, and other performances, and the amphitheatre where concerts are held. This is also the city of Van Gogh.

Now I am back in the city of pickpockets; slightly more paranoid. However, my current houseguests are hard at work trying to keep me occupied so that I'll stop thinking about it. Stephanie Dixon is back from a great Christmas in the Basque Country, and Stefanie Howorun is here to complete our traditional news years threesome. :) I love these girls, and we don't see each other nearly enough, but it's always the same when we get together, no matter how long it's been.

Can you spell T-R-O-U-B-L-E??? This is them at the Xampagneria last night. We are no longer teaching Howorun any Spanish as she'll say anything to anyone, and I think she's trying to land us in jail.

Somehow they have convinced me to go on a spontaneous trip to Madrid with them, so January 1st through 3rd, that's where we'll be,... I am such a sucker for peer pressure. New Years should be fun with these 2 around.

Okay I think that's about it.

Oh, last but not least: I must include a thank-you to the Magnan's for having me, and for helping me in my most recent crisis. I'm not sure what I would have done without them.
I had a wonderful Christmas!

Most sincerely, Sarah.

Dixon Reunion

I think that many of you who have made your way to this website know, or at least have heard of, my oldest best friend/swimming sensation, Stephanie Dixon. Whenever we're together we love to tell anyone that will listen that we practically knew each other before we were born, as I was in my mum's stomache when she delivered Steph almost 23 years ago. She is a swimmer currently in the midst of a psych degree at the University of Victoria, BC, and is the most modest person I've ever met, and so I've decided to dedicate this posting to her.

Steph arrived at the BCN airport last Sunday straight from an unbelievable 3 weeks in South Africa. Her time there was full of intense highs and lows. Despite being really under the weather for about a month before reaching Durban, SA, Steph managed to take 7 medals for Canada, and broke her own world record in the 100 backstroke. Not too shabby if you ask me,....

Here is a good article about her recent swimming: http://www.swimming.ca/swimming/index_e.aspx?ArticleID=3641
Also, see this website if you're interested in keeping up with her results, and what continent she's on,.... I'm honestly never quite sure.

Then, since she had already promised to visit me over here for new years, she decided to travel around South Africa before coming to Spain. From what I've heard, travelling anywhere within this continent seems to be an ultimate eye-opening experience; something that will profoundly change your view on life. I suppose this is true of travelling in general, but Africa manages to bring this to an extreme. The desperate mentality driven from the poverty in South Africa was not something that could be prepared for, and some of the stories she has told me are horrific, to the point of almost being unbelievable.

Seeing her has been absolutely wonderful, as I think the last time we saw each other was last Christmas! We've had some great talks, and although we'll both be away from home this holiday, we know that we are 2 of the most extremely lucky girls in this entire world. We will try to just focus on that, and our surroundings over the next week, as opposed to what's going on at home :) Steph, who is more Spanish than I could ever hope to be and truly belongs here, will travel up to the Basque country to visit a friend of her's for Christmas. Then we will meet back here December 27th, only to be joined by the final third of our traditional New Years trio (Howorun!).

How is it December 20th today??? It's Christmas in 5 days?! I feel like I'm in a time warp,... or that someone is pulling a prank on me, and that it's really not even December at all.

I will post some pictures of us next time.

Steph, I'm so happy you're here!

Congrads Kath on being done exams! You made it :)

~ Bon Nadal! ~

(catalan for Merry Christmas)

Swept away in Paris...

Well Canada, you wouldn't be very proud if you understood how quickly I have lost that typical Canadian resilience to the cold that we are so proud of. After only one summer away from 'the North', my blood has essentially turned into water, and I am now a wimp. It's rather embarrassing how cold I found the weather to be in Paris, as I'm now so accustomed to the relatively warm Spanish 'winter' temperatures.

However, neither the cold nor the rain could cast a shadow over the pure elegance and class of this remarkable city. It is simply impossible not to fall in love with Paris, even if you aren't really a city person. Last Friday I parted ways with my nurses, as I flew North to the captial of France, and they flew South to Granada. I arrived at Paris' southern airport, Orly, and caught a bus into the city where I met up with Michel Magnan, a son of the family I'll be spending this upcoming Christmas with. He lives in Meudon (just SW of the city), and was a fantastic host and tourguide for 3 full days; he made this weekend completely stress free, as I never had to worry about where to go, what to do, and what I was seeing or hearing. Without his constant translation I would have been very lost.

Saturday morning we were up bright and early to see the Chateau de Versailles. This palace is like nothing I've ever seen. As a symbol of 'absolute monarchy', the incredibly ornate decoration covering the entire inside of this building will take anyones breath away (I suppose even the king's). Below are pictures of the outside of the complex, before the crowds descended, and the lineups appeared (shots like these, with so few tourists, are apparently quite rare).

Below are the Royal Chapel (left) and the Hall of Mirrors (right).

After the audioguide had finished it's stories of the chateau, we took in the view of the famous gardens and decided to head into the city for lunch. On the way we stopped off at L'Observatoire de Paris, where Michel works. The location of the observatory is apparently the highest elevation in Paris, and therefore offers a great view as well as a beautiful park.

We dined on greek cuisine in the Latin Quarter, and then strolled along the river Seine, to Notre-Dame de Paris Cathedral.

We walked through some Christmas markets, and through the downtown until we reached the Musee du Louvre. Here are some classic shots of the museums famous pyramid.

These days the sun sets quite early, and by the time we passed through the Jardins de Tuileries to see the Place de la Concorde (Paris' oldest monument) on the otherside, it was almost dark. From there we walked up Champs-Elysees to finally reach the Arc de Triomphe. This street was magical as the trees lining either side were all dressed up with lights for the Christmas season.

Sunday we started the day a bit later, and met up with a friend of Michel's in the early afternoon. The three of us went to a small theatre to see the opera Carmen. Sitting in the second row of a small audience, it felt as if the power of the singers voices could have knocked me over if I'd tried to stand up. Quite the performance!

Afterwards, Michel and I walked ALL over the city,... we went to so many places I know that I can't remember them all, so it's a good thing that I was constantly taking pictures. :) The below shots are of Le Republique, the metro, Hotel de Ville on the other side of Le Seine, Centre Georges-Pompidou, Notre-Dame at night, ice skating infront of Hotel de Ville (city hall), and finally some night scenes of the river. We also walked through Montparnasse, and window shopped.

Monday morning we went up to a neighbourhood called Montmartre. This little village within a huge city, surrounds a famous square filled with painters, and caricaturists who would love nothing more than to do your portrait, or sell you a landscape of the city (I couldn't resist). At this point we had the first little bit of rain, as up until then we'd had cool, but clear skys. We took shelter in the Basilique du Sacre-Coeur; a beautiful church that, like the rest of the city, is so tasteful (not overly ornate like many are in europe).

After a good french meal (with some excellent wine) we took the metro to the Eiffel Tower; that single monument that everyone in the world associates with this city. I'd been watching it from a distance for 3 days, subtly appearing between buildings, in the sky line, or sparkling at night, but suddenly when it's up close, you can't help but smile, and stare. I'm fully aware of how cheesey and cliche this must all seem,... I know, but I don't care,... believe me, you really can't help it.

What a fantastic weekend (yes, haha, I'm still walking on clouds). And to think that I have SO many other photos that I want to post and show you, but it already seems a little much.... Okay, just a few more,...

Joyeux Noel!