Christmas 2012 part 2 of 3 (will it never end?!?)

Wow, it's been longer than I planned to get the rest of this up and out to you all. I think sometimes writing about fun is hard. I could probably sum up this entire entry with: "I went to fun places with really fun people. We also ate really good food." But that just isn't that interesting for you all. So, I'll give you a bit more information.

The 23rd of December I picked up nice and early, and hopped on a train (shout out thanks to JP for getting me to the train station before 8 am). Trains in France over the holiday season are super busy. So there was lots of people watching and baggage negotiating en route.
Everybody had suitcases, including me, and baggage holding racks filled up fast. My TGV from Paris to Strasbourg was... cozy? There was a hispanic family of some origin travelling with about 3 adults, and at least 2 small children, and about 7 massive suitcases... But we eventually got everything sorted out and nobody had to sit on top of their luggage. So that was super nice.

So after some number of hours of travel I arrive in Strasbourg. Ready for a brief history lesson? Here we go!
Strasbourg is in Lorraine, a region of France that is right on the border of Germany. Alsace (the neighboring region) and Lorraine have long been flip-flopping regions. They really have only "belonged" to France since the reign of Louis XIV, meaning they have been French for about 200 years. Which, in France-time, really isn't that long. Before Louis XIV made things official, the regions had been flipping back and forth between France (the Gauls) and various pre-German principalities.
Then Alsace-Lorraine was re-taken over by the Germans during at least one of the World Wars. Furthermore, Strasbourg really is close to the border... like 20 minutes by train.
What all of this means, is that Strasbourg is a really interesting city. For all that it's in France, the German influence is omni-present: All street signs are in both French and German. The architecture is clearly German-influenced, both in style and in construction (the Germans, especially in southern Germany and Bavaria tend to have more red colored stone that they use to construct important buildings and cathedrals. It's a very distinctive color, and this stone is not found anywhere in the rest of France as far as I'm aware). I was very aware, very quickly, that this was, is, and has been for as long as it's been a city, a border-town. A meeting place, a trading post, a strategic point. Strasbourg was (and is) all of these things. Pretty neat huh?

Right. That's that. Now, where was I? Oh yes, onna tram. I'm on a tram from the train station to try and find my hotel, where I would be joining Katt and her family for Christmas week.

Oh wait... more background? I think yes!
Katt is a very dear friend of mine from UO; we dance, and talk, and drink tea, and hang out and she's generally a lot of fun. And her family is also lovely. They are based near SF and I've actually stayed with them when I had to go to the French Consulate to get my visa. So I'd previously met her mum, dad, and two of her sisters.
Well, Katt and her family have extended family in Europe. And this year, by a stroke of luck (the universe loves me sometimes) they had decided to celebrate together... in Europe! And they actually picked Strasbourg, France to do it! (This is actually quite logical, Strasbourg has a reputation as one of the most festive European cities ever. It's Christmas Market is one of the best, if not the best, in Europe.)
So, Katt and her family, being truly wonderful people, invited me to join them for some festivities! How lucky can a girl get?
Now, when I say "the family got together for Christmas" I mean maybe six people? When the T clan gets together for a family Christmas... it's a whole different story. There was thirteen of them. Plus me. Oh holy cow. I actually asked Katt to send me names in advance, so she very kindly sent me a little bio. Which, of course, I didn't get around to reading before I showed up in Strasbourg... whoops.
So you'll get to meet them as I did.

I show up around 2:00 in the afternoon at the hotel. T's were arriving all across the course of the day at various times from various locations. So I had no clue who was already there or how I was supposed to check in. So I go wandering up to the main desk, and explain. Luckily the T's were a known entity... I think that's what happens when you book a gazillion rooms under the same family name. Anyhow, the desk clerk very kindly called up to Control Central (Katt's parents' room), and Dana came down to sort everything out, and tell me which room I was supposed to be in.
Dana is a matriarch. She's got six kids, a very bright and energetic husband, and she runs the house. She is always wonderfully kind to me, and I have great respect for her. So she comes sweeping out of the elevator, gives me a lovely hug and a room key, and sends me off with great efficiency.
Up I ride to the fourth floor. I was to be sharing a room with Katt and her two younger sisters, both of whom I'd met before.
I find the room, open the door, and ask "Has anybody ordered an American?"--BAMKatthug. What a welcome! She had to let go eventually so that I could breathe, otherwise I suspect we might have spent the week in the entry hall hugging.
I spent the next couple of hours meeting everyone else. I took to calling them the T Clan. With love.
There is Dana and Lloyd. Katt's mum and dad.
Katt's younger sisters: Vicki and Cindy.
Katt's older sisters: Meredith and Sam.
Katt's paternal grandmother (a lovelier woman is hard to meet.)
Katt's  "          grandfather (very smart... he knows about black holes!), (His wife joined us later in the week. Also a lovely woman, a sort of hippie with a wicked sense of humor.)
Katt's dad's sister: Chris. She is the one who lives in Europe, in Holland actually, with her family-- her Dutch husband (a very nice man, with a lovely accent), and her adopted son. Chris reminded me a lot of my aunt.
Everyone was ridiculously to me and extremely welcoming. I loved getting to know all of them.
And watching 5 sisters interact was hilarious! I've just got the one (who I love to bits), and I think I'm glad...? They sort of dog-pile all over each other, and everyone of them knows exactly how to drive the others batty. But it's clear that there is love in the provocation. Most of the time.

So yeah, there was a ton of them. And me. The T Clan all have quite strong family resemblances. it's pretty clear they are a family, and a striking one at that! Lloyd is very tall, as are most of his daughters. Even Chris' husband is tall. So it was quite impressive when all fourteen of us went anywhere to do anything. (I was vaguely reminded of a mongol horde invasion... only with much better fashion, and in a very polite way... so the analogy isn't that good, but it's my brain so there.) This could be something as small as meeting in the lobby, to walking down the street, to going into a restaurant to entering a fashion boutique.
(Segue: the T women have excellent taste in clothes, and going shopping with them as a family was amazing! Lloyd sits and observes, the six women [and me by association] sweep through the shop, take over the dressing rooms, giving frank opinions to each other, swapping out clothes and sizes, "try this on you'll like it" "it doesn't fit me, Vicki you try it" "not your color" "yes that's lovely!" etc. It's a general scene. And so. much. fun.)

I think we gave a couple of waitresses heart-attacks in all honesty. Having a party of 14 in France, even in a big city, basically means that you take over the entire restaurant. And worse! They are Americans. Stereotypical American tourists don't know how to behave politely in a nice restaurant, let alone speak any French, hence instant waiter/waitress panic.
But, of course, this is not at all true with the T's. The T's have lovely European manners. They are also aware that a party of 14 is... well... extra work, and are therefore willing to make appropriate allowances. As far as the French went... they had me!

I got to play translater, backed up by Chris who also spoke some French, and her food vocab tended to be better than mine, so that was excellent! It's always good to know what you are ordering.
Translating menus, relaying orders to the waiters, talking with the desk clerk in the hotel, I even called AirFrance for them at one point (and I was super proud of myself there- phone conversations are tough!).
I actually really enjoyed it. It's work, but once you get a flow going, you just sort of have to step back and just let the language take over. Though it did mean that I tended to forget which language I was speaking. Poor Katt had to remind me once or twice that she couldn't necessarily follow me when I chatted at her in French.
I did threaten at one point to put this on my CV with Katt's dad as a reference. I may still do!

And all of this, without actually telling you what I did... but this was so much a part of it. Katt and her family made the holiday for me. It was so much fun running around with all of them. I think I got to spend some time with each of them, and I would have spent more!

But, enough gushing. Time for some touristing!

Christmas eve we all went trucking out to the Christmas market. The holiday market in Strasbourg is, as previously mentioned, kind of a big deal. There were actually lots of tourists, foreign and French, running around the market. And it was a huge market!
The center of the market is based around the Strasbourg Cathedral, a massive and beautiful piece of construction. Talk about a location! Wow. But the market is spread out all over. We spent the course of the next week stumbling across new little pockets of stands. It was such a treat. They have everything; carved houses, ornaments, scarves, jewelry, art, candles, and pretty much anything you can think of.
Of course, my favorite thing about any Christmas market is food! Be that chocolates, crepes, waffles, pretzels (a German staple, and all over in Strasbourg as well), or hot drinks.
I think my favorite would probably the vin chaud. Literally, "hot wine," though a more appropriate translation is probably mulled wine, as the french love to add spices, oranges, and liqueur to the wine to enrich the flavor. Vin chaud is a seasonal thing, and it works! France can be bitterly cold, especially during December, and vin chaud warms you right up. Most cafés and bars will serve it, but it can also be found (served piping hot) at the markets! Yum.
Traditionally vin chaud is made with red wine. Strasbourg however, is in a region known for white wine. So a bit of a local speciality is White mulled wine. I tried it, obviously, and enjoyed it. Interestingly enough, I preferred the more traditional red vin chaud (even though I tend to prefer white wine).  This is a tradition well worth bringing with me back to the States.

Then for Christmas eve dinner everybody got all dressed to the nines and we went out to a very nice restaurant and ate lots and lots of very good French food. So much food. So... much... hmmmm. So good.
The only downer of the night was the "stockings incident." Once again proving my life is hilarious and awkward. I had one pair of lovely black stockings. And somehow... they decided to hate me.
I put them on with my dress, and didn't notice until we were leaving the hotel that the elastic at my waist was busted. So the stockings were migrating. In a southerly direction. Bit not good.
Then we got lost, and did walking around trying to find the restaurant. And I had to keep trying to subtly yank up my panty-hoes. This, as most girls know, is not a subtle motion.
Luckily we found our restaurant before they had slid to my knees. Dinner was seated, no problems there.
Walking home was bad.
They made it to my knees.
Katt had to be my human shield while I attempted to pull them back up. In retrospect it would have been much more subtle to just kick off my shoes, remove the tights, and move on. Now you know ladies: when your stockings bust, don't try to preserve your outfit. Just take the dratted things off!

Christmas day was very chill. We hung out in the hotel room, opened gifts (They even had gifts for me! Thank you Chris for including me in your gift exchange! It meant a lot to me!), made food, and generally just took it easy.
Hilariously enough, our Christmas dinner/lunch was tuna fish sandwiches and soup. This is eerily similar to what my family traditionally eats for Christmas eve. So I got to uphold a personal tradition too!

The rest of the week was more being a tourist, some shopping, more really good food, and general awesomeness.

A group of us went to Haut Koenicsbourg, a really really cool castle on top of a REALLY tall mountain. We even had sunshine, and an incredible view over the valley. Castles are fun! This castle in particular has a really interesting history (like the region it flip-flopped often between rulers), which I will not bore you with the details. But should you ever be in the area, it's well worth the price of admission.

We also got to go to the local modern art museum. They had a special exhibit on about Spirits and the Occult in art through the ages. I loved this exhibit. Some of the pieces were truly breathtaking, and some of them truly creepy. It's so interesting to see how representations of spirits and the unknown has changed (or stayed the same) through the ages.
I would honestly have walked through the entire exhibit a second time. As it was I went really slowly through. And then went down and checked out a special exhibit they had on occult books from the Strasbourg University library. Old books and magic? It doesn't get any better than that!
This exhibit might get an entry of it's own someday. I do have that much to say about it. But I won't gush here. Just... yeah. Some artists have it right. Wow.

I do have to mention: Katt is awesome. She and I did an "Irish reel" (with neither of us really knowing how technically to do one. Details, details.) to live street musicians in front of the Cathedral. And we rocked it. Katt is very good at getting me over my inherent hesitation of making a loon of myself in public. (Not that I don't do that anyway, so really, I might as well do it while dancing.) It was a TON of fun. Dancing to street music is great fun. Go out and try it!

On our last full day, the entire family took a day trip to Colmar. Colmar is a small town about an hour and change south of Strasbourg. It has another famous Christmas market there. I almost preferred this market to Strasbourg, it was a few days after Christmas and things weren't so crushingly crowded. We wandered around, bought chocolate, traditional holiday buiscuts, and such. It was a lovely treat. Katt and I split a pretzel covered in cheese. It was very good.
I got the impression that Colmar is quite touristy, but with the Holiday Market running it felt much more like a real town, with interesting things. It also has a lovely old Cathedral, and perfectly medieval cobbled streets and row houses. Europe is pretty!

Our last night in Strasbourg we decided to get take-out and eat in the hotel. We actually found a thai food place two doors down, and Katt and I went, got menus came back, worked out a massive order and went back. It seemed easier to order in person than trying to call in a massive order with complex requests regarding sauce, peanuts, spice, etc.
The poor little waitress didn't know what hit her. I think the restaurant itself would have seated maybe 15 people.... and here we were ordering for fifteen (Edwins wife had now joined us) to go. But like a champ, she took our order, gave us a deal on rice, and told us to come back in half an hour.
I think she went and helped the cook to make all that food, but it was really good! So that was awesome. And so came to a close my last night in Strasbourg with the T's.
A more generous family you will not find, nor more welcoming. Thank you a thousand times for letting me celebrate with you all! It was a truly special holiday for me.

The next day we all packed up. People left in various stages. The older sibs left early to catch a flight, Chris and her family drove out a few hours later, and the rest of the T's piled into a rental car to head to Switzerland.
Me, I packed up, and caught the tram back to the train station. I was headed to Germany, to meet up with Lydia for New Years!
And I think Germany is going to have to get an entry all of it's own.
So tune in again, for Germany, New Years, and my great skiing adventure!

Christmas 2011 Part 1: Pre-Christmas festivities!

Well gosh my lovely followers. Here we are at last, the beginnings of an epic post.

Way back in December, I had a two week break for Christmas (have I mentioned there are serious benefits to being a teacher?) and I spent it doing fun, and festive, things! I really cannot even believe how lucky I was, and am, to have so much wonderfulness in my life. Good golly gosh. Okay. Moving forward.

So, my vacation was two weeks, but I didn't spend all of it traveling. I chose to hang out in Domfront for most of the first week. And I was very decidedly Not Bored.
The French celebrate Christmas... not like we do with loud music and lights, but with my favorite version of celebration: Food! And that means that I got invited to dinner with a true passel of people over the week.
We also had house-guests, 4 friends of Vero's from Salvador (also assistants), came up for the weekend to celebrate her birthday.
And I invaded one of my teachers kitchens in an attempt to re-create the Christmas Cookie Party (oh my).
And then there was the holiday hike... I was busy! So let us do this in proper order, shall we?

Friday, December 16th: The last day of school.
The first wave of Salvadorians arrive.
I have my last dance class before a two-week hiatus. This is mostly notable for the truly wonderful invitation I received from one of the women in my class--  I've been in this dance class for a bit over a month, it meets once a week. I have, therefore, met all of the women in my class 4 or 5 times total.
Well, one of the wonderful, wonderful women in this class (which, they will all at some point get a post all to themselves, they are so wild) comes up to me at the end of the evening. She asks me if I have plans for the holidays, and says that if I don't, I am more than welcome to come and celebrate with her family.
Wow.
She goes on about how it's all her family, quite a massive clan, that comes together at her mothers for Christmas, and that she wanted to make sure I wasn't alone for the holiday. On ne laisse pas les gens tout seule! She assured me. Donc, tu est bienvenue chez nous si tu veux. I have never been quite so touched. After barely a month's acquaintance, 5 dance classes, she wants to be sure I am not alone for Christmas. I did have plans, but the gesture, the fact that she thought of me at all, and then went one step further and invited me... Well I was truly touched. Anyone who says the French are a cold people... needs to get themselves set straight.
I thanked her profusely, obviously. And walked home with the warm and fuzzy feeling of general Good Will Towards Men.
This taught me something. It means so much to be invited, to be welcomed somewhere. Even though I already had plans, was already taken care of, knowing that someone took the time to think of me... that is amazing. Even just making the gesture was truly touching. I hope someday I can pay that thoughtfulness forward. Being alone (and a foreigner at that) in a new place... it's tough. And having someone recognize that, recognize that I might need a place to go and be with people at Christmas... it's amazing. It's important. It's wonderful. People can be so kind.

Saturday, December 17th: Fiesta chez Bar Odin. 
Saturday evening, the second wave of Salvadorians arrived. And Vero had her party at Bar Odin.
Odin is the only bar in Domfront.
Yes, Odin... like the norse god.
It's run by a French-Hungarian man named Christian.
Yup. I live here.
Anyway!
Vero and Christian are best buds. Vero goes out most Fridays, and has made friends with the regulars at the bar. So Christian agreed to let her have a sort of party there. We brought over some hors-d'oeurves and munchies, the Salvadorians took over the sound system and general good times ensued.
I got to chat with some of the girls who showed up to the party, find out more about them as people, which was nice. But the best part of the evening? The dancing!
There was some salsa, some bacchata, and some merengue! Not really any of the complex partner dances that I am used to, but still! Dancing and movement!
The Salvadorians seem to dance more as a group thing, sort of like Americans at a night club, only it's all salsa music and basic salsa steps. I can DO that! And I got the truly excellent compliment of a latino asking me if I had latino roots. Yes, I can, in actual fact, move my hips like a latina. I have great pride.

Sunday, December 18th: I go for a walk in the rain. 
Things were pretty quiet Sunday morning.
Sunday at noon I was invited to one of the teachers houses for lunch with her family. The lady works in the collège, and her husband in the lycée. Two of their kids were home for the holidays.
They treated me to an excellent meal and interesting conversation. Then the husband, a history teacher (and a bit of a fanatical intellectual if I'm being honest. He knows a ton about a lot of things, it's totally impressive!) showed me his collection of historical army medals (which was quite cool... I like the Napoleonic pin he had. And a lot of the medals from the first world war were quite pretty actually), and took me on a quick tour of the old castle of Domfront. He used to work with the archeological society, so he was able to give me a much more detailed tour then I had previously had. And that was quite a treat.
Then I went for a walk and got rained on.
But not alone!
I am a part of the Association des Rondonneurs Domfrontais, the Domfront Hiking Club! Wheeee! I'm the youngest one in the group by a good 30 years, but I love the club. They go out one Sunday a month and walk in the region. It's a treat for me because I get to see some more rural locations that I'd never get to on my own. And rural Normandy is breathtaking!
This was my second time out with them. They've all sort of adopted me, the young American girl, into their ranks. I'm almost a sort of mascot I think.
They are all wonderfully nice to me, and teach me words, and explain the history of the trails we hike, and are generally lovely.
For Christmas they drove out to a little town nearby. We did the 10 kilometer walk in the countryside and looped back through the village after dark. This particular village was know for its illuminations... or light displays! Beautiful light displays organized and put up by the town. This particular village has a Noah's Ark theme, including a MASSIVE whale in blue and silver lights.
It was really pretty... if totally sopping wet. Thank goodness for wool socks!

Monday, December 19th: I learn that translating recipe ingredients is not easy. 
Monday I went over to Perrine's house. Perrine is a teacher I work with in the collège. She is terribly sweet, and a very energetic teacher. We also are becoming really nice friends.
Anyway, about a month prior I had been explaining to her about how my family does a traditional Christmas Cookie party every year, and how I miss doing it when I'm in France. So she suggested that we try it at her place! Which was super nice of her.
I went over and we baked all afternoon. She had friends come over that evening to eat cookies, and other little munchies. And I spent the night at her place so that everyone could indulge in Vin Chaud (a truly excellent French holiday tradition. More on that later.) without having to worry about driving me back to Domfront later.

So my mom had sent me our recipes, and I did my best to translate ingredients and convert measurements...
hmmm...
Well..
Yes.
So.
It is, apparently, not that easy.
My ginger crinkles came out exactly as I wanted.
The other two cookies went a bit... off book, shall we say?
The Orange Cut-outs (my favorites), just went a bit wrong. I'm not sure what we did... or what I did, I should say... but the dough was not set to be rolled. So the Orange Cut-outs, just became Orange cookies. They still tasted really good... they were just large and fluffy circles rather than the cut-out cookies they are supposed to be. So that was fine.
But then... then we had the Melting Moments.
Oh my.
Melting Moments are the easy cookie. They have very few ingredients, you roll them into a ball, you bake them, you frost, you eat. Bam.
Wrong.
So very wrong.
My Melting Moments... melted. But not in your mouth, as they are supposed to. Oh no. They melted in the oven. And I don't mean flattening out a bit... I mean dissolving into a puddle of semi-cooked dough that spreads all over and begins to look vaguely like lace, rather than like a small round cookie.
And I couldn't save them.
I tried.
But it didn't work.
I couldn't save them! (Picture the dramatic actor going for Guilt with full fervor here. That's me. Or my mental picture of me.)
I think the trouble came with the cornstarch. I though I had worked out the French equivalent. But I don't think I did... it's my only valid guess. Because butter and sugar are really quite easy to translate. So apparently Mizena is not Cornstarch.
So we salvaged what we good, and gave up on the rest.
All in all though I labeled the First ever International Christmas Cookie Party a success. After all, at the end of the day, we still had lots and lots of lovely cookies.

Tuesday, December 20th: Vero's actual birthday.
We stayed in.
There was more drinking, more dancing, and a very quiet afternoon before the drinking and the dancing.

Wednesday, December 21st: The departure of the Salvadorian Contingent. 
Vero and her friends left quite early wednesday morning. They were headed north for Christmas.
JP and I just sort of hung out and took it easy. Then we both went to Cathrine's for dinner.
Cathrine is another of the teachers I work with. And a really really wonderful cook. They fed us excessive amounts of absurdly good food.
And then we got into a discussion about religion over after-dinner drinks. I managed it... somehow. Considering this was after an apéritif, huge amounts of wonderful food (including sweet potatoes!), two glasses of wine, and the after-dinner drink... and we were chatting in French... I was super proud of not making too much of an idiot of myself. Whew.

Thursday, December 22nd: I go out to dinner again. I begin to suspect I may actually have a semblance of a social life. 
This was my last day in Domfront before beginning my holiday travels. I spent the day running errands, cleaning house, and packing.
Then that evening I was invited to dinner. Again.
Marie-Ange and Claude are a married couple I met through the Association des Rondonneurs. They are wonderful, interesting people. Claude works part time for France-Ouest, the largest regional newspaper. He actually wrote an article on Vero and I (yes, I had my picture in the paper! I'm news here. It's a bit weird.). They had invited me to join them in a "second-family" dinner.
They only have sons...biologically. But they do have three "honorary" daughters. (We don't know anything about honorary family do we? Yes, I'm looking at a fair number of you...) So they had invited their girls to a Pre-Christmas Christmas dinner, and they were kind enough to extend the invitation to me as well.
This was really nice, as these girls are close to my age. So I got to chat with some people in my age groups, and I got a couple of phone numbers for if I want to travel around the region. Which I do. So that was really lovely.
And once again... the food. I could fill a second blog post just raving about all the food  ate during the course of this week, and Marie-Ange was a great way to close it out. Homemade soup, all vegetables fresh from her garden, shrimp, salad, and a tower, a literal tower, of chocolate for dessert. Yum.

Then off back home, and up early the next morning to head to Strasbourg!

Still to come:

-Holiday travel!
- Strasbourg!
- Castles
- Christmas markets
- MORE FOOD
- The joys of vin chaud
- Katt and her associated clan of a family. (hint: fun, hijinks, hilarity! And a really awesome group of people.)
- I learn to be a translator. On the fly.
- Chocolate
- Jigging in public
- More travel
- Germany!
- Lydia and Alex!
- I skied. Did I die? Stay tuned to find out.
- Biking on ice.
- Germans and their fireworks. A harrowing tale of fire, rain, and the battle field... aka the Marionplatz at midnight.
- German food.
- Americans abroad...
- German bath house.
- Did I mention food yet?

Also: I've had this blog up for about two and a half years now (only one year of posting though really...), and I've just passed 1000 page views. Whee! Thank you so much for reading and supporting me and my crazy bloggage~
Keep reading and leaving feedback! You know I love it.

Expect Part 2 of a Very Lucy Christmas within the week!

Galette des Rois

Why would Lucy sit under the table?

What is so important about the first sunday in January?

Click the link to find out! That last phrase? Was the link! Click it.

(I apologize for the low quality of the video... youtube was being really impossibly slow to upload the better quality... and I gave up. Hopefully you'll survive. Just this once.)