Wintertime wrap-up

So apparently Parisians suck even worse in the snow than Marylander's do, which is saying quite a bit (because Marylanders really, really, really suck in the snow). I mean, snow events here are few and far between, once every three years or so. When I say snow event, of course, I don't mean the several inches to several feet variety that would cripple the Baltimore County School system for a week. I'm talking about upwards of an inch, maybe an inch and a half, that for some reason has the power to grind transportation to a halt and cancel 75% of airport traffic, leaving the rest with significant delays. We've seen two of these so far, so it's been a record breaking year.

On that lovely note, I would like to say that our holidays were fantastic despite this being our first season away from home. Paris wasn't at all lit up like Clark Griswold's place...in fact, it was hardly lit up at all save for the Champs Elysées, all two miles of which were decorated in some sort of trickling icicle theme. The coolest part is undoubtedly the Christmas Village, different versions of which were scattered around the city. They were great for traditional-looking gifty stuff and authentic-looking regional cuisine. And how far could you go without the obligatory "vin chaud?" The answer is not very far.

Anyway, we spent Christmas eve with my friend Antonio's family, where we communicated in some strange mix of English, French, and Portuguese while devouring an entire piglet. Seriously, Europeans don't screw around with their holiday meals. We were seated and eating for about 4 hours straight (10pm-230am with a 30 minute present-opening break). Christmas Day brunch was spent with Susanna and Alex, a Berkeley history professor and her daughter in town for the holidays. In the next week, I managed to turn 27 and celebrate New Year's from our couch before getting Katie and her boyfriend Chris repeatedly tipsy for an entire weekend before seeing them off to Nice. The one night we went out to arguably the worst restaurant in all of Paris, apparently because it was named "Chez Robert." So what's in a name?

Since then we've settled back into the groove, and we're def. looking for another break to come soon!