My reci-passé is in my hand!

Well, for all my worrying, getting the reci-passé actually turned out to be quite easy. On Wednesday I got a convocation from the muncipal police saying that my reci-passé had arrived from Soissons, so this evening I went by and picked it up. I made a reservation at a hostel earlier this week, so now I’m on track to go to London. Right now I’m working on my list of JM Barrie sites to visit in another window.

I left my Christmas shopping until the last minute, so the last two days have been absolutely crazy. I spent much of today and yesterday shopping, and it took forever, but I did manage to find something for everyone. I usually wrap Christmas gifts in newspaper because I feel wrapping paper is wasteful, but this year I did things a little differently. I saved the box and the wrapping paper that Grandma’s gifts arrived in, and I stayed up late last night wrapping all the gifts I bought in Grandma’s pre-used paper. Today I finally got to the post office just before it closed and mailed everything home in Grandma’s pre-used box. I couldn’t decide whether to mail it to Mom or Grandma’s house, but I finally settled on Mom’s house, even though there are several presents in it for Grandma et al. (I doubt if it will arrive in time for Christmas.) I’m so happy to have all my shopping done with that I celebrated by eating an entire buche de Noël by myself. I really wish we had these buches de Noël in the United States. The one I had was cake, but Nathalie told me there are ice cream ones that are even better.

Yesterday Mom’s Christmas box arrived. I loved everything, but I have to admit that there was a clear favorite. Sparkly rainbow gloves and socks! I have already gotten compliments on them, and this weekend I’m going to look for a more colorful scarf to wear with the rainbow gloves and the purple-striped hat Aunt Connie sent me. I’m going to scream of multi-colored geekiness so loudly that you’ll hear it in Louisiana!

My room is an absolute mess. Every surface except my bed is covered with clothes, groceries still in their shopping bags, trash, or bits of wrapping paper and tape. I had meant to clean it this evening, but I’ve been so busy these past two days that I was just too tired. I also didn’t make the pecan pie muffins and bacon & eggs that I had wanted to make for Nathalie, but I’ll do that sometime this weekend.

The lycée isn't Hogwarts, but it does have its own Hagrid.

Four random snippets of my life in France...

#1) I am fascinated by French children; I've been studying the language longer than some of them have been alive, but they still speak it better than me. Conversation with the little girl who was too short to reach the straw dispenser at McDonald's...
Me [handing her a straw]: Do you want a straw? Here.
Her: Yes, but I need four.
Me: What?
Her: I need four.
Me [handing her three more]: Oh, four. Here.
Her: Do you know where the napkins are?
Me: What?
Her: The napkins.
Me [looking in one napkin dispenser]: Oh, the napkins. Well, that's empty.
Her [as I start to look in another napkin dispenser]: No, that one's empty too.
Me: Oh. Uh, I don't know where the napkins are.
Her [wandering away]: Daddy, where are the napkins?

#2) Just when you think your French is improving, this happens. Conversation with the woman at the front desk of the town tourism office, during my hunt for my reci-passé...
Me: Excuse me, where is the Mairie, please?
Her: The what?
Me: Uh... the Mairie?
Her: Oh, the Mairie. Just leave our office, turn left, and it's next to the church.
Me: But... that's not the town hall next to the church?
Her: The Mairie is the town hall.
Me: Oh! They're the same thing?
Her: Yes...
Me: Oh, okay.

#3) Further proof that Nathalie is Hagrid: Hagrid's official job is keeper of the keys and grounds at Hogwarts; Nathalie is the gatekeeper at the lycée. Both of them live on their school grounds, both have big dogs (Fang and Mowgli), and students come to visit them for no apparent reason. Conversation with Heather at lunch...
Heather: Do you know exactly what Nathalie's job is here?
Me: I think maybe...
Heather & Me [in perfect unison]: ...she's like Hagrid.

#4) One day when Heather, Marlene, and I were in the kitchen, we watched part of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets in German on TV. I translated line for line from memory alone...
Me: Oh, and now Harry's saying, "It's not Hogwarts without you, Hagrid."
Heather: Wow... you must really love this movie.
Me: No actually, I don't even like the first two movies that much. I just have a really good memory.
Heather: Yeah, sure you do.
Me: No, I really do!
Marlene: Rebecca, I think you could learn German just from watching these movies.