'Tis the season!

And thus I will be spreading the happiness this time around! Do not expect the same soon, I have some serious real world issues floating around my head that I wish to discuss.

Today, Wednesday the 19th of December, sees only two more sleeps until I hop on board many trains to carry me home for Christmas. Having acquainted myself with a new, second-hand iPod, the Christmas songs are all uploaded ready for the eight-hour journey to the Midlands and I am raring to go. I am so proud to have spent this long away from home without a single trip back. It's a breakthrough, and it has had many little breakthroughs to go with it.

My petit sapin de Noel!

It has been nearly twelve and a half weeks since I dragged my world across the Channel in two suitcases to Normandy. Sometimes it feels like really rather a long time, and other times it has flown. It has been up and down, for sure, but the downs have never been so low I've struggled to drag myself out of them, and in the process I'm sure I've already changed.

Just this week I've been able to finally express my annoyance at speaking so much English to someone who speaks no English and had them begin to correct my French. It didn't frustrate or embarrass me. This is a first - I just want so much to be able to do this that I accept any help offered to me. I like speaking the language, and I no longer think twice about the basic tasks such as emails, checking in to hostels and hotels, and shopping. (If you want to know a fact, when working out how to phrase the above iPod sentence, I actually thought in French first. On the ladder to success.)

I think it is this which I need to remember in the New Year when the time rolls around to return to Normandy. I will be returning in my car which gives me ever so much more freedom - if you've ever felt trapped without your car at university you ought to try a week in Bolbec. Although I am currently more concerned about driving on the left at home than driving on the right here. I have to imagine very hard how roundabouts look in the UK.

Enough of the self-analysis, what have I actually been doing? My classes so far this week have consisted of repetitions of that famous Coca-Cola advertisement, the 2012 John Lewis advertisement, vocabulary including "holly", "snowman", and "crackers" and a description of Christmas pudding. Another class has discovered that I speak and understand French, and when asked if I understood "everything everything" of what they were saying, I replied "presque" ("nearly") which may have been overstating it a little bit. Never mind, they were a lovely class this week, and one of the often-troublesome students was actually angelic and I liked her very much.

French people drive through Christmas markets.

Last weekend, my last weekend in France of 2012, I spent in Amiens in the region of Picardy, north of Paris with Lauren (Australian), Leanne (semi-British), Niamh (Australian) and Suzie (British). We wandered round the Christmas market, hid in shops from the rain, ate more burgers than I care to remember, and had in general a very pleasant time. The cathedral was magnificent and I was incredibly touched to read a placard thanking the troops of Great Britain and Ireland for their work in occupied France (which includes Amiens and Normandy). Unfortunately I had said half an hour before, "Well the French don't like to acknowledge anyone else's presence during the Wars, do they?" but I took it back when I saw there was a separate one for every nation, and the Allies in general. A full weekend trip is planned for the Normandy beaches next year and I cannot wait.

The other Allies join in with the French
war memorial.

So here I think I will be signing off on the French adventures for 2012. I doubt I will have much to add in the next two days, although I suppose you never know... Instead, it's food, family, friends, fun, and probably some alcohol and TV to go with it. Merry Christmas everyone!

Patriotism in earring form.

French translation to follow...