Les jours Tranquille

Now it’s just about Christmas time. I received packages from my mum, dad and cindi already. These were A-M-A-Z-I-N-G to me just so you know. Reese’s Christmas trees? I never thought I would miss those so much. The New Harry Potter book, The Tales of the Beedle and the Bard (I’m so happy and open to read any English books I can find, and that was a good read), my beloved Frye boots are sososo good to me they keep my feet nice and warm and are definitely me. Etc,etc. The rest of the contents consisted of:
Bath and Body works shower gel, Burts Bees, Pedicure Set(AKA nail clippers and such), room fragrance, NYLON(that unfortunately I let my English teacher borrow and I don’t think I’ll ever get it back), Jim Morrison t-shirt, CANDY, gifts for my host parents, a talking card (that was my mum’s voice! So cute), slipper socks, Frank Sinatra Christmas CD (dad, my host dad LOVES frank and we listen to him all the time), and so on. All I can say is THANK YOU,THANK YOU,THANK YOU.

Before I was leaving for vacation with a different family(which I’m currently with them), my host mum gave me an unexpected little present- Dior Black Out Mascara. Little, but it meant a lot to me. She knows me so well already, and its amazzzzzing.

For the first two days on vacation I stayed in Isabelle and Eric’s apartment in Rouen. As I’ve talked about Rouen a lot of times, its one of my favorite and most visited cities. I decided to go to town and buy myself some Christmas presents (Sad, I know). I found my favorite vintage shop- Les Roses Aux Vents and I was immediately in vintage heaven. I found, an amazing teal blue Louis Vuitton sack. Tassle pulls, good size, 80euros- VENDU. It is a tiny bit dirty, but I honestly prefer it that way. Its vintage, and it obviously has a history. So I’m in loveeeee. I also bought a vintage shirt for summer. Its completely vintage, I can’t really explain it but it was a perfect find. That’s one thing I love about this place, finding French vintage all over Rouen there’s little vintage shops. The game of hunting down the perfect shirt is my sort of sport.

There wasn’t much for me to do in the appartment during the day- or at night also. Isa was working and Eric was doing whatever, so I just sat around. So the next day when they asked me if I wanted to go into the city, J’ai complement agreeable “OUI”. So I had absolutely nothing to do in the city yesterday, so I decided to buy a huge pile of French gossip magazines (and I found a Teen Vogue) and set myself down at a Café and read away, and occasionally people watched. This is when I feel completely French (without the fact that I was reading English), but sitting next to French people, drinking my tiny Espresso, Ahh. I love the city, I love watching the French boys pass, tuffing away at their cigarettes with their pea coats and scarves.

Today, I’m in the country house. Its cute, in the middle of nowhere, and there’s no disturbances of any sort. We are celebrating Christmas here, there’s a little tree and the family of Isabelle and Eric are all arriving tonight. Its good that I’m away from the internet here. I think I’ll be a little bit more unaware that I’m not home for Christmas this year. I kind of like to push the idea out of my head for the fear of me being overly-emotional with a family I barely know. But their son is off in Argentina with Rotary, so they understand how it is. Their daughter went to the US years ago with Rotary, and their other son is stuck in the south, away from the family. So I guess with that outlook I’m currently in the best situation I can be in for Christmas over here. Enjoy the Snow everyone, listen to those cheesy Christmas songs for me.

Merry Christmas
Joyeux Noel, Bonne Fetes! -Christina