Vacances de Noël

Christmas in France

Making the gifts

In France, they celebrate Christmas on the 24th of December. Julia (my American friend) stayed with my host family and me for  the whole winter break. It was really nice having her here, we spent a lot of time together. The day before Christmas, we spent 6 hours in the kitchen baking. We did 5 different sorts of cookies and my ''Grittibänz'', which is a tradition in Switzerland.
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Grittibänz

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Julia with one Grittibänz

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me packaging the cookies

Daytrip to Germany

On Wednesday, December 21st my host parents took me and Julia to Köln( Germany). We left at six in the morning by car  and arrived there about at 11 o'clock. Köln is known for its gigantic Christmas market. It was really weird for me hearing German again. I even responded in French (haha)!
We shopped around a bit and visited the Dom, the different markets, ate German specialties..
 

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The Dom

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Julia and me

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tons of people at the christmas market

Christmas!

So on Christmas Eve, my host family, Julia and I went to my Italian grandmother, who lives 3 minutes away. All together, we were 21 people. My host dad has three sisters, who all are married and have two kids. So there were a lot of cousins there and aunt and uncles :) I have a little cousin, who is 3 years old. That’s why the Père de Noel (like a Santa) passed by and gave out all the presents. It was really funny, because actually it was my uncle who dressed up like Santa. The whole night was really fun. we played card games, showed each other magic tricks, talked and ate a lot. We started appetizers around 10 o'clock at night. We continued eating until 4 in the morning. First we started off with seafood after that potatoes with meat, then cheese and bread and then a whole bunch of dessert. It was crazy. Julia and i almost fell asleep at the table. :) After dessert we start playing games like Poker and Rummy cube. Some of the boys played Fifa on TV.

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Christmas tree :D

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My host family and me

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Julia, me, Louise and Théo

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my little cousin and père Noel

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Christmas table

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seasnails yummy haha

3 Day Trip to London

On December 27th my host family took us to London. It was my first time in England, so that was really cool. We left at six o'clock in the morning and drove two hours until Calais. Calais is on the northwest coast of France. There, we went under the English Channel, arriving in Folkestone.
It was really exciting driving with our car on the train under the channel. First we had to pass the French customs, after that the English ones. After a half an hour train ride, we arrived in England. But we had still an hour of driving to get to London. 


In the tunnel

When we arrived in London, it was just so awesome! It was exactly how I imagined: taxis, telephone booths, buses, Big Ben, Tower Bridge..


In front of a telephone booth

It was about 9.30 am when we arrived, because we gained one hour thanks to the time difference. So we drove directly to our hotel, the holiday inn. It was situated in Camden, which is a district of Inner London. We dropped off our luggage and went out to breakfast. It was delicious, I had an omelet with bacon in it :D. After that we went back to the hotel, checked in, and took the metro to the Westminster station. It was totally awesome to see Big Ben, the London Eye... Later that evening, my host dad, my host brother, Julia and i went on the feris wheel. It was so cool, you really saw almost all of London. It was beautiful with all the lights. That evening we ate in our hotel and went to bed early to be in form the next day.

Big Ben on the left( Picture from the London Eye)

Me in front of the London Eye

 December 28th: My host mom called me and Julia in the morning around 9 o'clock to wake us up. We got ready and went to a breakfast place right next to the hotel. After that we took the underground and went to see Buckingham Palace. Unfortunately we didn't see the parade with the horses. But we saw a couple guards, who stood there for I don't know how many hours without moving:D That was really funny.

Our ''home'' Underground Station

Louise, Julia, me and Théo in front of Buckingham Palace

One of the guards

After that we took a walk in the park and took the underground to Tower Bridge. That's really impressive. The bridge is built really nicely and you have a fantastic view up there.

In front of Tower Bridge

In the afternoon, my host dad and Julia did a tour of the Tower of London and my host mom, Louise, Théo and i went shopping. We went down to Oxford Street, where there are tons of great stores. Because it was right after Christmas, there were a lot of sales. In the evening we met up and drank a coffee and ate a little snack. Our feet hurt really badly because we had been walking the whole day, so we decided to go back to the hotel and get a little rest. Then for dinner, we went out for Indian food, which was excellent.

The next day we stayed in Camden and my host mom showed me this huge market. I found a lot of stuff there and the prices were really interesting. For lunch I ate Mexican, which was delicious:D  
Around 4 o'clock we walked back to our hotel, packed our stuff and took off. The ride back home was really fast, I almost slept the whole way. They were just 3 great days in London, I really enjoyed the trip!

Happy New Year! 2012

New Year’s Eve was a bit like Christmas. Just that we were with my host mom’s family and not with my host dad’s. There was my host grandmother, my host uncle, his wife and her parents and my little baby cousin. We started off around 10 o’clock eating the appetizers. After that we ate seafood like shrimp, salmon and snails! When we were about to finish that, it was already midnight. So when it turned 12, we all gave each other the famous ‘’bisous’’. (On kiss on the right and one kiss on the left cheek)  But my friend Julia, I gave her a big American hug ;)
Around 12.45 we started to eat the main dish, which was potatoes and chicken. When we finished around one thirty, I really almost fell asleep at the table. To wake up a bit, I played Zumba Wii in front of the TV with my aunt and sister. (Zumba is a dance fitness program, which I actually do every Thursday with them. My aunt picks us up and we go to this gym and dance with about 60 other people. It’s really fun :D)
After that we went on to dessert. We had 2 different sorts of Ice Cream log cakes: Chocolate and Vanilla. As usual, I ate Vanilla, my favorite J