Trolling the ancient Yuletide carols

So, while dancing at a soirée and singing "All I want for Christmas is you", a brilliant(ly absurd) idea occurred to me. Caroling. In the residences. If I am doomed to miss the traditional Lexington caroling with the Page family, the least I can do to ease my sorrow is bully some friends into humiliating themselves with me by performing English carols for various unsuspecting French students. Luckily for me, Jacquie, my fellow lectrice, was more than equal to this challenge, as was Zara, who also brought her poor visiting sister. We bribed, guilt-tripped and begged some others into coming along for various amounts of time, and went from module to module. I had made up some lyric sheets with a bunch of typical carols, and printed out copies for everyone we could entice, plus some extras. Call me an optimist.

We started with building A, bottom to top, mostly where we knew people, but also anywhere that was next door to a bell we were already ringing, and suddenly it seemed we were caroling almost all the modules, all the way to building E. We sang a song at each one, followed by the "we wish you a merry christmas and a happy new year" refrain. To one guy who said he had just turned 21, we sang happy birthday.

Reviews were decidedly mixed. Many clapped, many laughed, a couple peeked out and decided it must not be for them and closed the door again. One told us that her roommates were sleeping (it was 9:15), and we should be quiet. One guy offered to teach us the lyrics in French. Many thanked us and congratulated us on our beautiful singing (this may or may not have been slightly undeserved. Effort points?) But mostly, we got the confused face. Did we want money? (no) Did we want wine? (no) Did we want German truffles? (yes, definitely.) The looks on their faces asked why we would ever do such a thing, such a terrifically humiliating thing. The roommate of one of our friends told her this was one tradition she was very glad the French didn't have. We explained the tradition of caroling numerous times, with varying amounts of success.

In the beginning, we were six or seven, then slowly people begged off and went home. Eventually it was just Jacquie and me, but we were having too much fun to let it go that easily, so we perfomed a half dozen of duets and then headed to good old b34 for some Tisane de Noel which I got in Strasbourg. I had an absurd amount of fun, laughed harder than is polite, and generally enjoyed making a spectacle of myself in front of many acquaintances, friends and students. Love live the American traditions, and sharing them, however distorted they may become in translation, with the French.

Strasbourg etc.

So Lyon has this festival of lights, la Fête des Lumières, whereupon they illuminate much of their glorious architecture in technicolor, put little candles in the windows, and use the excuse to attract many tourists and sell mulled wine and crêpes on every streetcorner. There are many professionally designed light shows, and it is pretty cool, if somewhat of a mob scene. Half in honor of this, and half just to pay an old friend a visit, 7 members of Andrea's Italian childhood posse came to town Friday night via a rented minivan. You can imagine the craziness that ensued.
So this weekend, I also had the good fortune to weasel my way onto a trip to Strasbourg with the staff/teacher's association. Which meant that after a late night of enjoying the illuminated downtown with the Italians, I got up at 4 (after less than 2 hours of sleep) and stumbled to the meeting point for the bus. My fellow lectrice Adeline also came along, and it proved to be a glorious journey. We had a nice big tourbus, I slept much of the way there.
We were dropped off in Strasbourg, a lovely town in the Alsace region, which is known for its complicated history of alliance with France, then Germany, then France, etc. The architecture is charming, much more Germanic than French, with the exposed wood panels and cottage style dominating over the cement and stone of the typical French edifices. This town is also known for hosting the politicking of the European Union, as well as for its Christmas markets, which was what brought us there. They were indeed quite nice, I found some beautiful used books, and a few presents. We also enjoyed some café sitting (and thawing), as well as much wandering about the city and stopping in cute stores. Then we went on a tourboat along the canals (even navigating a lock, my first!), seeing the lights and buildings from a warm and watery angle. After, the group of us enseignants (teachers and staff) headed to a restaurant serving up the typical Alsatian fare - meal (if not the delicious Christmas beer) covered by the association. We had a great time and sat with some people I knew, one woman who joined my class to practice her English, and her partner, whom I had biked with. It was a wonderful meal, followed by the classic Alsatian Munster (I highly recommend it).
The next day, after the nothing special but damn was it cheap hotel, we went on a vineyard tour in a small village outside Strasbourg. The man explained that his land has been used for harvesting grapes since the 1300s, and had us taste approximately twenty wines of different ages, types of grapes, all from his vineyard. I liked his Gewurtraminers best, but they were a little out of my budget... After, we headed to the village of Riquewihr, for some more charming architecture, some lunch, and some more Christmas market. I bought some Hansi prints and smelly cheese for the roomies, and we were headed back home. A busy but fabulous Euroweekend!
Also, in two weeks, I will be stateside! Email (or call me after Dec 21), and I would love to see you all!