bonne année!

Translation: Happy New Year! That is what people say in France until the end of January I'm told...and the reason why it's ok that this blog didn't come until January! I came back to my host family's house today after two weeks of break, and that's the first thing all of them said to me. It's also what everyone in every shop, boulangerie, and ticket window says whenever I talk to them. I like how New Year's is continuing past midnight on New Year's Eve here. However, I don't think deux-mille-onze (2011) is as fun to say as deux-mille-dix (2010)!

There has been some serious Emilie-Paris bonding time in the last two weeks. I went to the Louvre twice, back to Musee d'Orsay, to Sacre Coeur and Montmartre, to La Defense, to Christmas markets, and to all of my favorite parks. Everything was decorated for Christmas, but it didn't really feel like Christmas. No one in Paris says "Joyeux Noel" as much as they say "Bonne Année!" I wasn't planning to go to mass until Christmas Day, but at about 10:00 on Christmas Eve night, I decided that mass was the only thing that would make it feel more Christmas-y. So I was lucky to find a little church really close to my friend Chelsea's apartment where I was staying that had a mass at 10:30. It was called Saint Georges, and it was a really short walk from the apartment in the 19th arrondissement. I walked there and sat down in time to get a good look around the church and hear some hymns. It was interesting to see the decor and notice the differences between this church and American masses. For example, there are no pews. There are rows of chairs stuck together with boards, and there aren't any kneelers. The mass is pretty much the same (but in French of course!), but there are many more hymns. Maybe that was just because it was Christmas, but it was also the reason why it was almost two and a half hours long! Everything was very serious, especially for Christmas, but I should have expected that since it's Paris! There was everything that made church feel like church at home to me--shaking hands and a crying baby specifically. The thing that surprised me the most was that there were a lot of single people there and almost no families. While it was strange, it made me feel kind of at home for my first Christmas away from my family.

On Christmas Day (a rare sunny winter day in Paris!), I went to walk around the Seine and ended up visiting Notre Dame. There was a huge Christmas tree outside, and it was all very photogenic. I walked around the inside many times on a "tour" which was free and self-guided. I wanted to go up to the top, but of course it was closed because of the huge amount of snow (an inch maybe) that was still on the ground. Oh those French! So I stood in the back and listened to an organ concert. I had a nice Christmas different than any Christmas I've had before!

On New Year's Eve, Chelsea and her friend Gary flew in from Chicago. We went to the Champs-Elysees before midnight to ring in the new year. It was completely filled with people and cars from one end to the other. We walked from the Place de la Concorde end almost to the Arc de Triomphe end and stood in the middle after the police closed it off to cars and waited for midnight. There was a lot of excitement but no countdown to midnight, no real fireworks, and almost no sparklers. We got out of there just as the cops finished lining up along all of the side streets preparing for whatever might happen after midnight. We made our way to the first metro stop we could find and got into the most packed metro car I've ever been in and hopefully ever will be in. It was free from 5:00 on New Year's Eve until noon on New Year's Day, and I guess everyone in Paris knew that! Finally, we celebrated the new year with our friend Mickaël who had just finished his shift at Disneyland Paris. I don't really know what the new year will bring, but I'm pretty sure it includes free tickets to Disneyland!