Sorry about that....being better about blogging wasn't exactly a new year's resolution, but maybe I should add it to the list. They were really more like mid-January resolutions, and the only one I've really stuck with is eating better and exercising. Today, for example, I went to the market (twice-- once to return the 9 euro mushrooms I accidentally bought), 2 different fruit/veggies stores, and the supermarket. And spent an ungodly amount of money on food, but....I can't help myself, it's just too fun.
ANYWAYS.
So this is the post about my Christmas.
First was France! I flew from Sevilla to Marseille, and then took a train to Antibes, where I met up with Julie. We explored a bit there and saw all the Christmassy wonderfulness, like yule log shaped cakes and lights and stuff. Then we spent a night in Valbonne and hung out and laughed and made ice cream sandwiches with Julie's homemade ice cream and the DELICIOUS chocolate cookies that miraculously arrived in the mail to my apartment in Sevilla with 9 minutes to spare before I left for France. We also packed a bag of clothes and supplies for me to take to the Chapelle so I could leave my fresa things in Valbonne and keep them fresh and clean for the Netherlands.
Some tacky French Christmas goodies
Antibes
Being goofy in Valbonne
I played dress-up the whole week
Then we went to the Chapelle. The people were great and also nuts. The surroundings were beautiful and also freezing. Christmas Eve we had a big feast, and the rest of the days were spent hanging out around the house, going for walks and a bit of exploring nearby towns, and other random events that popped up, like taking a trip to the hospital to visit one of the Rikikis who had a baby on Christmas Eve, and taking (what was for me) an unexpected trip to Italy to get olives pressed into olive oil. During that time, we got to explore the town while we waited on the oil to be made. And bought 7 kilos of gnocchi to take back to the Chapelle and have for dinner.
It was SO SO good to be with Julie-- even though it was weird because this was my first Christmas not spent in Greenville. Though a lot of that was made up for when I received the aforementioned package with things like the toothbrush and floss that would have gone in my stocking and peppermints that would have been on the floor. So this one was VERY different: different place, language, people, weather, clothes, events, food, vibe. But it was excellent.
The Chapelle on Christmas Eve
The hospital on Christmas day
Outside the Chapelle
In a little town nearby. Julie later said the first time she saw this house she took this same picture.
On the way to lunch in said small town, we found some persimmons. But we had to work for them (i.e. throw things at the branches till they came down.)
Julie and Sam emptying literally tons of olives
Exploring in Italy
The Chapelle on a calm day
Back in Valbonne with Julie. Her box was waiting for her when we got back.
THEN the next part of the trip came-- on the 30th, I flew to an airport nearish Dusseldorf and took trains to the station near Eva's town. I actually missed it her stop the first time around and had to sit around for 30 minutes waiting for the train to stop again, then get off and sort of hop a train in the other direction. I felt pretty helpless, not understanding the system or the language, but I got there eventually and there she was!
We spent a night in Germany at her parents' house, and then the next day her dad took us to her school in Groningen, about Columbia distance across the border.
Making ice cream cone-esque cookies that are standard Christmas fare in Northern Germany
Eva's house/why she couldn't come pick me up from the airport
The week in Groningen was super fun. We walked and biked around the city lots, which is veery studenty-- 1/3 of the population are students. We also spent lots of fun times with her friends in her dorm. It's the dorm for international students, and her floor is the masters/doctorate floor, but it had a very Maxcy feel to me, esp because that was her first year living in a dorm. I do believe my favorite part was getting pushed around the building in a stolen shopping cart that just kind of sits around in the hallways.
I take it back, my favorite part was actually New Year's Eve. Definitely. It was a very fun and very odd mix of traditions. Mexican: we required that everyone wear red or yellow underwear (for love and luck in the new year, respectively); German: raclette and German (tuna/ cactus fruit flavored) beer for dinner, watching the British movie (dunno) Dinner for One, melting lead and putting it in cold water and having the shape tell our fortune for the new year; Spanish: watching their equivalent of the ball-dropping countdown and eating a grape for each ding of the bells; Dutch: sprinting outside after eating said grapes to set off fireworks and see all the ones that everyone else in the city was setting off.
Raclette for New Year's Eve dinner with Eva and her friends
The lead thing
The grape thing (complete with the 2005-2006 youtube video of the bells ringing)
Slightly chilly (outside the hideous monstrosity of a modern art museum)
So many canals! Oh and some people actually live on these houseboats.
New concept for me, normal for dutch people: food from the wall
Thenn I took a train from Groningen to Haarlem to hang out with Annick! She showed me her beautiful city and we slept at her parents' house, then the next day we headed to Amsterdam. There we were super touristy and actually took a tour and walked all around the city.
Awkward outdoors bathroom stall outside the cathedral in Haarlem
A pretty picture to offset that last one
My Annick! Getting ready to start our tour outside the train station. Also this backpack contained my purse and all my stuff for a three week trip. Be impressed.
Obligatory
And thennnnn I went back to work and just sort of dealt with that while waiting for my next trip (which was amazing and which I will blog about soon.) And now I need to go to bed so I can get up at 0 dark 30. Loveee!
No comments:
Post a Comment