Bonne Année!*

*Happy New Year!

I'm back in France! My Christmas holiday was so lovely, but I was actually excited to come back. My first few days were really strange. My roommates Jamie and Melissa have gone home, as well as all sorts of other good friends. Most of my classes have been chopped in half because of the number of students who've left. But there's only one more week of classes to go, then a week of exams, and then the semester is done. I find I prefer having my exams a few weeks after Christmas because it means you don't have that added stress before the holidays. And considering I'm not one for studying far in advance, I wasn't worrying about them while I was home either.

I'm really quite sad that my langue class is ending. I think it's been my favourite university class so far. It's been kind of fun having a smaller number of students than usual in that class. During the first week back, our professor Florence showed us a French tradition. Throughout the month of January, the French eat these cakes called Les Galettes des Rois. There are two kinds: one is like a sweet bread and the other is an almond pastry. Each cake comes with a paper crown, and inside the cake is baked a little porcelain figure called la fève. The youngest person in the room sits under the table (so they can't see the cake) while someone else cuts it. The youngest person then decides who gets which piece. Whoever gets la fève is the king/queen, and they must wear the crown. At the end of the meal, they pick a queen/king and  faire la bise (cheek kisses) to that person. I've taken part in that 3 times now - once in class, once at my friend Matthieu's, and once at Aurélien's.

It's been bloody warm here the past couple of weeks. I've been wearing my spring jacket, and even then I'm hot. It's usually around 13 degrees during the day. Some of the locals tell me that it's not usual weather, but then, all of Europe has had unusual weather for the past 5 years or so, so unusual is the new usual. I'm not complaining though - there's nothing lovelier than it being sunny, warm, and flying down the road on your bicycle when you're in a good mood.

Two wonderful weekends to catch up on. Last Saturday Matt, Laura, Aurélien, and I went to Matthieu and Adrien's. They taught us a game that's a mix of that game where you have to describe a word without saying it, and charades. Oh my goodness it was funny. We had everything from abortion to fireworks to blushing. We played a bit of charades itself too. Matthieu made me act out Brokeback Mountain. I tried acting out a sheep to suggest the shepherding part of the movie, but when I got down on all fours... well... anyway. Matthieu in turn acted out Home Alone. You know the part when Macaulay Culkin puts on his father's aftershave? Matthieu's face was perfect. Highly expressive. We just laughed and laughed and laughed. These boys are so sweet and charming. They've each spent a semester abroad in the States and are fluent in English. They work as moniteurs, that's to say they each teach an oral expression class at CIDEF. I learn more from hanging out with them than I do in many of my classes. And little cultural things too, like last night we had a long conversation about la bise, the cheek kiss. It really is an important social ritual, and you can offend people if you don't greet them or say goodbye to them with cheek kisses. Oopsies. I often forget to do it unless someone else initiates it. If you're my age, you're basically supposed to cheek kiss everyone you meet. You start off by just touching cheeks and making a little kissy sound, but if you know them well you can actually go in for the lips to cheek kiss. If there are twenty people in the room, you may find yourself having to go around to every single person. Compliqué! I find it's a nice way to acknowledge someone to whom you would otherwise just wave awkwardly while you're standing a few feet in front of them, but for someone I know well, I really just want to give them a big squeeze. When I feel so inclined, I'll usually do the bises and then say, "And a Canadian hug too!"

Last night we all went back to Matthieu's place and had another excellent night of drinking wine. We played the card game King's Cup, where each card drawn has some game involved. One of the best games was the one where whenever someone drew a 5, we'd have to switch to English or to French, depending on what we'd been speaking before, and anyone who spoke a word of the wrong language would lose. We ended up staying at Matthieu's until 2:30 am or something. My host family was all laughing at me today because they heard me come in at 3 in the morning, rattling my keys and bustling around far too loudly. Merde. Just a little embarrassing.

I have two new roommates now, Liz from Manchester, England and Bianca from Switzerland. They're both really lovely girls. Bianca is only staying until the end of January, which is a shame, but Liz will be around until June. We don't all cross paths very often because our schedules are pretty different, but it's nice to know they're around.

Oooh last Tuesday, I did something so nerdy it was fantastic. Laura, Aurélien and I went to the Grand Théâtre to see a choral concert by the British choir Oxford Voices. They specialise in 16th Century music, but they also did a few Christmas carols and some African spirituals. They were really quite good, although the acoustics of the theatre didn't carry their voices as well as a church would have. Cultural things are pretty cheap for students in France, as the government wants to encourage the rowdy youngsters to channel their enthusiasm in classier ways. One of the tenors in the choir was amazing to watch. His face was so expressive and happy that there were times we laughed out loud watching him. When the concert was over, the choir gave its second encore in the front hall of the theatre, so that they could chat with the audience members afterwards. I went up to my tenor in an unusual moment of bravery, and told him he was my favourite. He started chatting with me and Laura, and ended up inviting us out for dinner and drinks with the choir. Laura and Aurélien wanted to go get a crêpe, so I sucked up my courage and went by myself. It was a hoot. They were all so kind to this random ginger Canadian fan of theirs, and I got a free dinner of boeuf bourguignon and pommes de terre dauphinoise. And wine, naturally. My tenor and one soprano were from New Zealand, and the rest from Britain. They were so funny. To think I almost chickened out of joining them, but Laura said (in front of the tenor) that I would regret not going. So, carpe diem! That's going to be my New Years' Resolution. Seize every damn day I have here, because if I don't, what on earth did I come to France for?

Oh gosh, one last thing I must mention. Last weekend Laura and I went to a cooking class! We learned how to make chocolate macarons and crêpe suzette. To dieeee for. I am a veritable Julia Child now. Iron Chef, here comes your latest wonderchef, fresh off the streets of Angers.
Major kidding here, but seriously, it's not actually that hard to make one of the most addictive desserts in the world. Génial!!

With that, I give you all a grand bisous (that's the friendlier form of bise) and bid you all bonne soirée!