Happy New Year

Happy New Year everyone! I a took a break from my blog for awhile but now I am back. Christmas was really nice because I was able to visit my grandparents. I had to take a few buses and trains to get there but I made it. The day I left the weather in Lyon was not that great and there were many delays. As a result I wound up missing my connecting flight to Helsinki. Yet on the way to Frankfurt I saw a very beautiful sunset. The plane was flying right next to the alps and all the mountains were snow white dressed in a gown of purple lighting. It was an amazing perspective of a sunset. Upon arriving at Frankfurt I was able to be put on a later flight to Finland but I wound up arriving at 2am in the morning.

I spent spent a lot of time at the airport just waiting for the bus to come. The sad thing is due to bad timing, my sleepiness, and not knowing that my watch was 7 minutes slow I arrived to the bus stop , I'd guess 30 seconds too late. The bus left at 3:40 am and when I got to the stop the clock on at the stop said 3:40. Overall I was pretty frustrated and was hoping that the bus was late. After standing in the cold for 20 minutes I decided to go back inside and wait for the next bus.

Eventually I made it to my grandparents and were very glad to see them. My night of sleeping was not exactly that great so I took some more time to sleep at their place. Afterwards there was much talking, laughing, and plenty of food eating. The weather itself was rainy. One would think that for being in Finland it would be snowing but it actually rained for most of the time that I was there.

We a a really big Christmas dinner on both Christmas eve and Christmas. One thing that I thought was really neat was that I was able to see some pictures that I have never seen before. They were pictures of the family and I was able to see some pictures of my great grandparents as well as my grandparents when they were kids. I also found it amusing to see some pictures of my dad when he was a kid.

Eventually it was time to part which was sad because I was only there for a few days. I left on the bus and headed back towards the airport. The during most of the plane rides back I just spent most of my time sleeping. It was another odd schedule where I had schedule where I need to leave early the next morning so a basically wound up pulling an all-nighter. Sleep was the only option. I made it back to Chambery and shared some stories with my roommate of my trip.

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I have been spending most of my time while I have been back with my roommate. Over the break a few things in the house broke; we used each others support so we wouldn't crack under that "wrath" of Mme J. She can be a bit wild at times but she is always very caring at heart. Other friends have been out of town so I have spent the time with her. We have been having a really good time together and our communication ability with her is vastly improving. Her French is improving slowly as well but one problem is that I actually understand her now most people that speak French can't understand her because her grammar is terrible and she speaks Franglish more than actual French with outbursts of Chinese. I should really start correcting her more because it is rare to actually hear a proper sentence.

For example:
Key: English French Chinese

She parler avec me and others pas comprendre nàgè quand elle parler, language...quelquefoisfānù!

Keep in mind that even if there are two or three consecutive words that are the same language it might be following Chinese grammar rules so you still have to do some thinking. Her sentences are getting better but sometimes it's a little rough. Overall it is always amusing.

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For New Year's Eve we had dinner at our place there were guests over as well so we totaled six people at our place. It was a French-Moroccan-American-Chinese kind of crowd. Madame J pretty much supplied most of the food but there was also some Finnish cake a chocolate to be enjoyed. The meal included and appetizer, a main dish, and about five rounds of desert. An excellent dinner to put it modestly. Perhaps exquisite would be a better term.

Our original plans for the evening went out the window due but the alternative wasn't too bad either. For the past few days there have been some general stomach troubles that have been going around the house. So midnight was almost spent in the bathroom, yet my roommate and I made it to the Chateau just as midnight arrived. There was a celebration song played in the bell tower. I was really surprised to see that there weren't that many people out. I'd say that maybe twenty people or so at the Chateau. It was a quaint little gathering yet it included a mini fireworks show as well as singing and dancing.

We later checked out what was going on at Les Elephants (THE meeting place in Chambery) and it was mostly drunk highschool kids getting wild with fireworks and dancing. We wanted to go scope out the clubs but neither of our stomachs were up for dancing. We decided to just return home and spent some time discussing the spirit(s) that live in the house. Apparently everyone in the house senses some sort of supernatural presence but we all agree that it isn't a bad one. It was neat because we shared some of the weird things that happen in the house which is something I have never discussed with anyone before. I guess it is actually a common topic in Chinese culture.

Now I ready for this new year. Undoubtedly it will be filled with many memories.