Christmas in Bordeaux

My Chilean roommate has several Chilean friends who are also assistants in France, and since none of them are going home for the holidays, they all met up in Bordeaux for the week. She invited me and the Russian assistant to come along since neither of us were going home, either. It was a bit strange at times not being home for Christmas, but it was a really fun and unique way to spend the holiday … and it obviously helped knowing that my family was going to arrive on the 26th, anyway! So there were 11 of us (one Bolivian, one Colombian, the rest Chilean) staying in a 2 bedroom, 1 bathroom apartment … a bit tight at times, but the atmosphere was very lively, to say the least! And his apartment was located right in the main street of Bordeaux, full of shops and restaurants. It was one of those apartments that I’ve always wanted to have in a city … located above a seedy ethnic restaurant, with huge windows that open from the front room over the main street … very cool. And Bordeaux is a larger, more interesting city than I originally thought. The first night we went to a little bar where a Chilean band performed and then continued the party back at the apartment. After that we didn’t wake up until the late afternoon and then checked out the Christmas market downtown for the night. On Christmas Eve I did some last minute shopping with my Russian friend and then came back to the apartment to rest up for an all-night Christmas celebration! We didn’t eat dinner until about midnight, then they exchanged their Secret Santa gifts (and a couple of people who I had only known for 2 days even gave me a gift – just says a little something about their open hospitality!), and we danced/partied/played a little soccer until 7am! Quite a Christmas Eve night! The food was really good – several different types of salad, chicken, sausage, pork, beef, plenty of beer, and some Chilean liquor. Each night ended with tons of music, dancing, singing … and an attempt to teach me how to dance. Just another reminder that I will never remotely approach having the natural rhythm of South Americans J I’d like to tell you that I came away from 3 days of being surrounded by “Spanophones” with a few new vocab words, but nope, I just know a few bad words in Chilean, haha. But it was really a nice way to spend Christmas … it’s comforting to spend such a family-oriented holiday with other people who can’t be at home, either … and was such a good reminder how genuinely kind and generous people can be.

Pictures to come later because they are on my friend's camera ...