Frohliche Weihnachten

Here's a little summary of our life...

• Christmas is upon us here in Montbeliard. We actually have stuff to do now and it's really exciting. The Christmas market here known as one of the top three Christmas markets in France. We went the first night to see the opening ceremonies where they lite the Christmas lights for the first time. They have tons of different booths where you can buy pretty much anything, petting zoos, Sleigh rides and TWO skating rinks! Oh and there is a ton of food... mainly cheese and sausage combos! Oh and the hot vin chaud...Every year there is a new theme and the spot light is on a different country. This year it is Ireland. All around town there are green lights and sheep and it looks JUST as we imagined Ireland would look like... everytime we ride in there on the bus we forget we are in France. We have one special Irish friend who own the fudge booth. He has taken a liking to Katie although he says that he does not recognize her with her clothes on... scandal. It appeared to be love at first sight as he proposed to her upon their first meeting, even before she purchased the fudge... She'll never forget that lad.
  

• We missed the canadian thanksgiving, however, Mary Elizabeth made some American friends to make sure that she got some dinner on their holiday. Dinner was held at a sketchy apartment in the center but it was great to meet some other assistants. We had quite a feast of a mix of foods because this apartment didn't have an oven either. American Bryan (our hebrew teacher) brought a dish of sweet potatoes and marshmallows (this is not a good tradition for next year). Our french guest even brought some foie gras to try. Sound pretty delicious? Katie is super sad to have missed out on the feast. anyway we did wash it all down with some wine from the franche comte.

• Belfort held an international film festival and we took full advantage of it. We went on 3 different days and saw a bunch of different movies. Some were silent, some should have been silent (not naming any names 'imitation du angel') we really enjoyed sleepy hollow (and johnny depp) we laughed a lot more than the french people reading the subtitles. The last movie that we saw was the best! no surprise there, the writer/director was canadian. It is called 'you might as well live' and was actually hilarious. "easy peasy japaneesy". We even met up with Jewish Bryan. what a treat. The third day we spent 9 hours at the theatre so we stocked up on some movie food. We were tempted to buy some orangina. but wait, they didn't just regular orangina! they had two new flavours...cowboy and indian. miam

• About two weeks ago Katie, Mhairi and Rach went to Strasbourg, known as the Christmas capital of France. They have an even bigger Christmas market that is spread out across the city. There wasn't much to see in Starsbourg other than the market but it was packed. We got some Christmas shopping done and learned a lot about each other, like for example, Mhairi eats an entire apple... including the core... who does that? In Strasbourg they have a a veryyyyyy tall cathedral. Rachel was very proud of herself for climbing to the top. Also there was little village called Petite France and it was the cutest place with the smallest streets, it reminded us of the town Belle lives in from Beauty and the Beast.
  

• Turns out Mhairi has other hidden talents, besides eating the core of an apple, she also cuts hair... sorta. She gave herself a cute little fringe(aka bangs) and so we thought she was legit. Mary Elizabeth bought a "bump it" and we were all really excited but we may have taken it a little too far, about 5 inches too far. We got out the scissors and went to town with Katie's hair... yup, Katie. It's not the worst haircut she has ever gotten but it is pretty good considering Mhairi and Mary Elizabeth (her cheerleader) aren't pros. One side is slightly longer than the other... but we'll call that European.

• Our Indian roomy Anant had a secret. Her mom was looking for a husband for her in Indian, little did she know that Anant had a life...a boyfriend who she wanted to marry. We don't know his name but he is in her phone as 'my life' ahhhhh. So she eventually worked up the nerve to tell her mom...and she was very happy about it and very supportive. So last weekend she met 'her life' in Paris for a few days and when she wasn't back when she said she would be, we were afraid that she was 'Taken' (as in the movie, see what we did there?) So she came to montbeliard with her parents, who are here for the holidays. They are renting an apartment in the center and last night they had us round for some indian cooking. Katie couldn't go because she has the grippa :( So Mary E and Mhairi went for spicy food. We had chicken rolls, rice, different indian dishes and some hot hot chili peppers. Anant's parents didn't speak english but her kept serving us and saying 'eat, eat'.

• Our christmas holiday starts tomorrow so we met up in 'Ireland' for some vin chaud and a secret santa exchange, in the heated outdoor cabin. It really put us in the Christmas spirit and it was the first real 'snow day' that we had. magical.
  

• We are heading to Deutschland tomorrow to spend Christmas with ME's cousin Billy and his family then to Paris to rock in the new year. We'll be back with some stories...

• Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! hope everyone at home has a great holiday! miss you