Happy St. Nicholas Day!

Wow, yesterday was an absolutely great day. Ever since Ultimate practice on Thursday night I had been missing my Under Armor leggings and Joseph drove me over to the field where we practice so I could look for them. Sure enough they were in the parking lot, thoroughly soaked from the rain but other than that just fine. I am really glad I found them! Then we drove up to the Mont Afrique, the highest point in the area. Unfortunately it was pretty gray and foggy outside, so we couldn't really see Dijon. But the elevation itself was pretty impressive. When we were ascending the hill we past a number of hunters in their bright orange reflective jackets. I asked Joseph what they were hunting and he told me boar. There was a boar dish on the menu at Bistrot les Halles on Friday night, maybe I should have gone for that instead of the lamb...

Anyway, after we got back home I read "Oscar et La Dame Rose," the French-language version of the American book which was recently turned into a movie. At our diner des adieux Dr. Barbour gave each of us a book in French as a going away present. Mine is by Tahar Ben Jelloun, a franco-moroccan writer and it's about growing up in Fez. The one I read yesterday is actually Kara's, but she let me borrow it while she's gone in Germany for a few days. I am ambitiously planning on reading both hers, mine, and another book before I come home in a week. I absolutely loved the book - although the subject was anything but light it was hopeful and joyful and I was in a cheerful mood all throughout the rest of the day. The book takes place during the last 12 days of December, so it was the perfect time of year to read it too. I highly recommend it, it took me an hour and a half to read it in French, so I'm sure it would have taken less than an hour in English. Time well spent.

Then I met Carolyn and Mary-Kate who wanted to have kebabs for lunch (I think I'm the only one in our group who just really isn't into kebabs). Afterwards we went to a movie. A little background:

When I look up movie times online, I use Google's "horaires des séances" (movie times) function, which lists the theater's name, the movies which are showing along with their respective times, and gives a general category for the film (film d'amination, aventure, comedie, fantastique, drame, comedie dramatique, thriller, etc). So we went to see "La folle histoire d'amour de Simon Eskenazy," which I thought was a romantic comedy. It was, but just geared towards romance of a different sexual orientation than my own. In it's defense, it was tastefully done (no real nudity or sex), but I was expecting a heterosexual love story and got a homosexual-transvestite one. Ooops. Carolyn, Mary-Kate and I laughed a lot (we were supposed to be laughing, it was a comedy after all), but next time they'll probably make me verify the plot before we go to see a movie. The picture on the right is one from the film. One cool moment was when Simon, the main character and Naim go to the hotel Le Meurice in Paris and have breakfast in the grand ballroom, where we ate with Mimi M. As they walked along the Rue de Rivoli Carolyn pointed out, "hey, that's right down the street from Angelina!"

I got home around 5pm and helped Noelle prepare for the big dinner to celebrate St. Nicholas Day. In case you were wondering, here's Wikipedia to help you out with an explanation of Mr. Nicolas (as they spell it here in France) and his day:

"The tradition of Saint Nicholas Day, usually on 6 December, is a festival for children in many countries in Europe related to surviving legends of the saint, and particularly his reputation as a bringer of gifts. The American Santa Claus, as well as the Anglo-Canadian and British Father Christmas, derive from these legends. "Santa Claus" is itself derived from the Dutch Sinterklaas."

The tradition isn't really French at all, but apparently they celebrate it a lot in Alsace, which is the region where Noelle was born. So she and her family have always celebrated it with a big dinner and treats. And a husband and wife, family friends, came over as well. They arrived around 8pm and we didn't finish celebrating until midnight. We started with champagne and little hors d'oeuvres (French and Spanish sausage slices, little hors d'oeuvres I helped Noelle prepare). Then for dinner we roasted andouillettes and ate them with white beans and a white tubular vegetable I could not identify. Throughout the whole evening we munched on a petit bonhomme brioche, a giant version of the treat Dr. Barbour bought for us in Kaysersberg. Noelle prepared the dough and Gaspard shaped the bonhomme (think a giant gingerbread man, but made of a sweet, milky-flavored dough). There were also lichi fruits, walnuts, gingerbread stars, and mandarin oranges as part of the center piece.

The first red wine was a Chateauneuf-du-Pape (really cool, since now I have seen Chateauneuf) and the second was a St. Jacques, a Burgundy Pinot Noir which I was pleased to recognize by its aromas. Of course we had a cheese course and then a kind of deconstructed struedel for dessert, along with a sweet white wine from Jurascon, which is a city near the Pyrenees in the extreme south-west corner of France (and not, as I guessed, in the Jura mountains in the north-east corner).
Anyway, the dinner guests were very pleasant and interesting to talk to. She works in Strasbourg and brought us some Alsacian cookies to have with dessert (yum!) They showed us pictures of the recent renovations they have made to a 16th-century chateau (he is a neurologist and a history buff). Arcene, my host family's oldest son, is home from Paris for the weekend so he was telling me about his art history classes at the Ecole de Paris - he is specializing in engravings and film. His three year program of general courses covers all of art history in three sections: the first year is dedicated to everything before the Renaissance, the second year from the Renaissance through the early 20th century, and the third year from the 20th century onward.

Well I'm still not sure exactly what I'm going to do today. Everyone was so busy getting ready yesterday that I didn't get to ask if I could throw my running pants in with someone's laundry (I don't have any other darks to wash myself), so I can't really go for a run or a bike ride. Hopefully we'll go for a walk in the country together as a group. Maybe now that it's almost noon I'll give one of the Ultimate people a call and see if they want to throw. It's pretty cold and rainy out, so it might be another day of reading.

Lots of love to you all!