It’s been awhile since I’ve updated, but that’s not because I’ve had nothing to update about. It’s been an eventful couple of weeks… Foyer Christmas celebrations, Joseph’s visit, our vacation to Spain, and our engagement!
So grab half a baguette to snack on and a glass (or maybe a bottle) of your favorite wine, and read on. This may will take awhile.
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| I considered smoking a cigarette in this, just to fulfill all the stereotypes |
I’ll start by wishing you all a Joyeux Noël, a Feliz Navidad, a Merry Christmas! I hope your holiday was as beautiful as mine was. Cheers to the upcoming New Year! I apologize if you didn’t get this in your mailbox, or your email inbox, (as things were a little hectic) but I wish you all the best for the holiday season…
I know. You’re dying to hear engagement details. But let’s go through things chronologically and start with Foyer Christmas Celebrations.
My friends and I did our best to get into the Christmas spirit in this foreign environment, away from our own country and family traditions. School had a great Christmas lunch; the sea-scallops and the wine were delicious and a little fancier than what the cafeteria usually serves up. I spent a night making and decorating Christmas Cookies and watching Elf with other Americans… a far cry from the 8 hour day my mom, sister, aunt and I usually devote to this task, but a nice little piece of home-like Christmas preparations all the same. My good friends here did a small gift exchange with a 5-10 euro limit… this is what I received. A witty mug and a bank… giant, gold, and slightly obnoxious… it suits me. How these friends of mine have come to know me so well within such a short time is a little wild.
Our Foyer also had a Christmas Party, with a huge spread of food and WINE, going against its own no-alcohol in the building policy (although whenever I make the trek to recycle my glass, suspiciously clanking through the lobby, no one ever says anything). Pere Noel was there, made out of a stool, a mannequin head, and a Santa suit. The whole event was loads of fun, but also a little confusing, as we weren’t sure if all the food first laid on the table (appetizers) was all the food we would get… it was not an easy decision when exactly to stop returning for seconds/thirds etc, and was the topic of more than one whispered conversation amongst the foreigners. There was also a band, not your typical holiday music, but reggae type music instead. I’m not sure why the French love this style of music so much, and whether any of the band members have any idea what they are singing about in English, but I’ve danced to more reggae music here than anywhere else in my life.
Joseph arrived on a Friday, despite a hurricane-like storm that hit the French coast and cancelled all flights and trains the night before and the morning of. I have never been so addicted to the computer, constantly refreshing flight statuses. He had his own travel drama that involved sprinting through JFK as he was accidently in the wrong part of the airport relaxing and watching some football game… but all was well and he made it. Stephanie 1, Sports 0.
I won’t go into too much detail here, because my approximate 7 readers consisting of: my mother, my aunts, my sister in law, my mine as well be mother Kelly, and some of my best friends, already know how we got engaged.
If you are a mystery reader who doesn’t comment on the blog, I will tell you that we got engaged in a quiet local Creperie in downtown Nantes, in an old pedestrian-only part of the city with tiny winding streets near the castle, over a pitcher of wine and a delicious regionally-traditional meal. It was absolutely perfect. We are so excited.
I of course had no idea. When I questioned the boxy square size of his travel man-bag, and why he was even bringing it out with him to dinner in Nantes when he could leave it in my apartment, I accepted his answer that both his phones were in there, and he just wanted to have everything with him.
I am also very thankful that we didn’t go to the pizza place I suggested as a quick and easy meal, knowing how tired Joe must have been from traveling. (As delicious as it is, it just doesn’t have the same ambiance).
That night was spent calling our immediate families and packing for Paris. I am so thankful to our families for keeping things quiet and off the social media network, because coming back home to Nantes and calling our dear friends, sending emails to those we couldn’t reach, and telling everyone ourselves was too much fun to miss out on.
So we started our second European vacation as an engaged couple. It was actually pretty nice to be away from everything… cell phones, constant internet access, and instead just take a week to focus on us, with no outside interruption.
Our trip began a little crazily, as we left for the train station in Nantes at about 5:30 am… making the 10 minute walk to my tram stop with our luggage before I realized I didn’t have my passport with me. It’s not something I carry around for my every day living here, and in my defense my mind was a little preoccupied by the giant sparkle sitting on my left hand. We made our train with 5 minutes to spare.
Our vacation began with a day in Paris- Joseph and I have already been to Paris, having spent a few days there summer 2010, so we weren’t on a strict itinerary to see and do a million things. We went ice skating by City Hall, visited the Christmas market at the Eiffel Tower, saw the Christmas tree at Notre Dame, put a lock on a Parisian bridge, and visited the Champs Elysees to see Paris’ most famous street all lit up for the holiday. Quite a relaxing start to our vacation… until jet-lag kicked in and Joseph spent most of the night watching Lord of the Rings in French while I peacefully slept.
I have wanted to visit Spain for some time now, I really felt like it was one of those places I had to visit while I was young. Spain was delightful. The food, the drinks, the colors, the sunshine… really lovely.
One of my biggest surprises concerning Spain was its aversion to speaking English. As a language person, and a fairly experienced traveler, I like to think that I can get myself around fairly well in a foreign environment, and that I tend to respect the language and cultural barriers that travel brings. However, knowing we were visiting two large cities, Madrid and Barcelona, I was expecting little to no difficulty communicating despite my lack of Spanish.
Had it not been for Joseph and his high school + 1 UD semester of Spanish, I'm not sure I would have known what most of the menu said, would not have been able to order my coffee at breakfast, ask for directions etc. I was quite impressed with his Spanish skills!
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| We're not married yet... but he already knows coffee is the necessary start to my day, even if he has to order in Spanish |
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| I am American. I am a King/Queen of the world. Speak my language. |
Most of Europe has truly embraced the dominance of English- sometimes in large cities in France I will speak French and because of my accent the response will come in English. My Spanish friend here mentioned that she thinks that the Spanish, including herself, have a “block” when it comes to speaking English. She took classes in school, even at the university level, but the only time I have heard her try to really communicate in English was when she met Joe in our foyer. After a beer or two she once asked me why Americans think they are the kings of the world and that everyone should speak our language- ironically we were with an English friend who was not blamed for his native language’s dominance in world culture. The world has an interesting opinion of us… and I can only hope that I do not fulfill every American stereotype out there. I’m not saying that Spain’s aversion to using English is a good or a bad thing- it’s not like America goes out of our way to learn world languages to welcome people to our country and make their travels easier- I’m just commenting on my surprise in finding that even in the large cities language truly was a barrier.
As far as our other opinions of Spain, Joseph preferred Madrid and I preferred Barcelona… although both were wonderful. In Madrid we went to a soccer game- a huge part of European culture that I would have missed out on had it not been for Joseph’s interest. It was so fun to be there, to see the waving scarves and hear the whistling boos when the hometeam did not perform as hoped. We acted as the locals, taking large lunches (usually involving wine), going home for an afternoon siesta, and eating dinner late, around 9 or 10pm. We drank a lot of sangria, ate a lot of paella, had a lot of ham or seafood tapas, tried churros con chocolate (delish).
We also walked through the old medieval part of town, visited the Royal Palace (included a visit to the armory and the pharmacy), the Cathedral, and visited a bull-fighting themed bar, complete with taxidermy Bull Heads on the walls and graphic photos of gory bullfights.  | |
| We like sportz and we don't care who knows |
Barcelona brought on long walks on La Rambla (the most important of which was when we saw a bulldog), morning visits to the market for fresh fruit juices, more tapas and sangria late night, and a day dedicated to the architecture of Gaudi… something I’ve been wanting to see in person for years. I found a “Free”/pay what you think is appropriate at the end Gaudi tour… Joseph was a good sport and agreed to this… and we spent one of our mornings learning about the greatness of Antoni Gaudi’s works with 15 Asian tourists, some of which were studying accounting. Despite it taking a bit of time to get there, I think Park Guell was my favorite. I just really enjoyed the coloring and the mosaic works there. But Sagrada Familia was also completely overwhelmingly amazing. There are things I wish we would have had more time to see in Barcelona, and I wasn’t quite ready to leave when we did… but I tend to feel that way about a lot of Europe.
Coming home to Nantes brought the fun of calling our good friends and giving them our engagement news. It was a special treat to call my college roommate in Morocco- I haven’t heard her voice in almost a year and I am so thankful we got to actually talk with her. Of course it was a little hard to understand her, as well as some of my other college roommates, over their excited high-pitched congratulations. Another favorite involved trying relentlessly to get a hold of my best friend from high school, finally calling her boyfriend who thankfully answered, and who she was with at the time. I demanded why she had not been answering her phone, she asked me what was wrong and if I was ok, and when I reassured her everything was fine she screamed “well then you’re engaged!”
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| Looking like a native Frenchman |
Our four days in Nantes were very relaxing…we did some city specific things like visit the castle and the machines gallery, but we also spent a lot of time going to the market, watching movies, playing bananagrams/cards/pingpong. Our Christmas this year was probably the most relaxing one we will ever have, as we had no where to go, and not much to do but skype our families, eat delicious food, and drink a little too much wine :)
I’m looking at a few lonely days here at the foyer, seeing as my good friends are European and not coming back to Nantes until work starts up after the New Year. The day Joseph left I did what any normal recently engaged girl would do in my situation… cried in bed for half the day, then decided to cook myself one of my favorite meals (duck Mmm), bought a bridal magazine, and attempted to make cookies in my toaster oven. The cookies could have been better, but they have mysteriously dwindled in number since yesterday nonetheless…
Féliciations on making it to the end of this long long post. Did you figure out what was more sparkly than the Nantes Christmas lights, the Eiffel Tower, and the Spanish Sunshine?
My ring, duh.
Bises Bises,
Steph
