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.