Joyeux Noel!

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Hey Dudes,
Just a quick blog to mostly say Merry Christmas actually! It will already be xmas day over in NZ, but we still have a few hours to go.

I’ve had a most wonderful few days, and am hoping this continues into the festive period ahead. Judging by the amount of alcohol we just bought at the supermarket for tomorrow, I suspect it will 😉 Gosh 8 people need a lot of food and drink for one day!

In fact we just did our huge xmas supermarket trip, it took Torse and I the best part of 2 hours to get round the shop, even after having made a menu and a list at home! We saw these guys stealing prawns to eat as they went round the shop, and another guy who while leanign over to reach the green grapes, fell into the crate of red grapes....hehehe so fun to laugh at others misfortunes. It was actually pretty unexciting, far too many people, no tinned boysenberries L and lots of stressed shoppers. I’m very glad its done!

On tuesday I had to say goodbye to the great Aussies we’ve spent heaps of time with here, Liv and Isabelle and Anna. It sucked, as goodbyes do, but we’ve all made a pact to meet up next year in Melbourne so we don’t lose touch. Once we got that over with, Eamonn and I actually headed to Grenoble on the train to meet Camille, a french AFSer who spent a year in Dunedin. Mum and I were her liason family. It was so lovely to see her again. She is studying sociology in Grenoble, and still doing heaps of drama and violin playing. We drove to her parents house near Geneva that night, and had an amazing french meal before watching a soccer game with her dad on TV. Eamonn was very content!

The next day we realised we couldn’t go to geneva cos being the antipodean hicks that we are, unused to countries joining one another, we had forgotten our passports to cross the swiss border! Duh. So instead the three of us (Camille, Eamonn and I) plus Camille’s giant gorgeous fluffy white dog went for a 2 hour trek in the mountains near their place. The trees and ground were covered in about 10cm of fresh snow, the sky was incredibly blue, the air so clean (compared to polluted city grime anythign is amazing!) and the sun shone the whole time. It was quite magical. And so nice to get out into the country again, and especially the mountains.

We got home on the train last night, Torse’s friends Keiran and Mick had arrived for xmas, and we all have been quite hyper and excited since! We even have tinsel in the appartment now, so its all feeling quite festive. Esnes is arriving from belgium tonight, and we have a big day of eatign and drinkng ahead of us tomrrow. We are all full of colds, but I doubt it will hamper the festivites.

Well I suppose i’d better go, as having only two elements with which to cook, and no oven we will likely need to do some preparation tonight! Plus some present wrapping. Yay xmas!!!

Wishing you all an amazingly happy and special christmas, and a happy new year too!

Lots of love and huge hugs as always,
Samara xxoo

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Photos

Last Goodbyes :(
Jo, Liv, Isabelle and I at the Dog (a pub in Vieux Lyon).

In the snow
Eamonn and me with Camille's gorgeous puppy (!) in the snow in mountains of the border between France and Switzerland.

The suicide bridge
Camille and me on this very old and very high bridge above a drop (more than 200m) down to an angry looking gorge. Popular place for unhappy folks apparently...horrible thought for such a wild yet beautiful place.