Christmas is a-comin'

It's December, and that means I feel legitimised in listening non-stop to Christmas songs and grinning in an overly cheerful manner every time I walk past Christmas decorations. There are a LOT of Christmas trees in pots in Orléans town centre and believe me, people seem to find it very odd when they see you walking down the street with a goofy smile on your face.

I spent last weekend in Paris with Josh on a mini-Christmassy-break which was extremely cold, extremely expensive and extremely awesome. I love Paris. I want to marry Paris and go on honeymoon with it in Paris at Christmastime. Oh, and spending time with my boyfriend is alright too I suppose.

We went to the Sacre Coeur which is my favourite church ever, walked through the Jardin des Tuileries where I had never been before, didn't recognise the Louvre until we were right on top of it, and decided to follow the Christmas lights to find somewhere to have dinner and accidentally ended up in a rather-too-posh area of town. I tried to persuade Josh to go up the Eiffel Tower but he is a baby and afraid of heights so we gave that one a miss.

That's not the Louvre, is it...?

In school for the past two weeks I've been teaching 'Jingle Bells' to my older classes because they're singing it at a Christmas concert they're doing in a couple of weeks. I feel there are both pros and cons to this endeavour. On the one hand, they know the melody because there's an equivalent Christmas song in French called 'Vive le vent' which goes to the same tune. On the other, bar the words 'jingle bells' there are some pretty complicated phrases which they have a bit of trouble putting together.

Me: Repeat: 'what fun it is.'
Class: 'What fun it is.'
Me: 'To laugh and sing.'
Class: 'To laugh and sing.'
Me: 'A sleighing song.'
Class: 'A sleighing song.'
Me: 'Tonight.'
Class: 'Tonight.'
Me: 'What fun it is to laugh and sing a sleighing song tonight'.
Class: 'What fun mumblemumblemumblemumble tonight!'

I also bought some Christmas decorations for my room yesterday (well, some lights and some tinsel and I made some paper snowflakes and put glitter on them). Last week I asked my landlady if she decorated the house and when she wasn't very enthusiastic, I told her we absolutely had to and I'd buy a tree myself if necessary. Apparently I am scary Christmas elf lady because yesterday she said that if I wanted we could go and buy one this weekend. So yay!

Alright, I think that's all my news. I'll try and de-Christmassify my next post a little. Actually, no I won't, because it's December and I don't have to for twenty whole more days!