Happy Holidays - Month Three

Galeries Lafayette - December 2004

It has been a pretty wonderful, frustrating, exasperating, joyous month three here in Paris…but the Christmas decorations are up, there are two beautifully decorated trees outside my metro station, and it just feels like Christmas! Every quartier here has different decorations, and I have been spending Saturdays walking around Paris and looking at them. They are simply glorious. Still, being on my own at Christmas isn’t my first idea of holiday cheer. And my first friend in Paris, Emily, is moving back to the States in two days! One of the goals for the New Year is to find ways to increase my social circle. Feel free to send ideas! And yes, I am sick.

Paris represents so many changes for me; how often does one get to essentially begin their life over? Nothing is familiar, everything takes work, and would it kill these people to sell Apple Jacks cereal? But I see it as a time to re-work the things in my life that need it, to embrace the things in my life that I cherish, and to learn how to let go of the stuff I have no control over. And no, it’s not much fun sometimes. But it’s Paris, and I can’t imagine being anywhere else right now. I wish you all a joyous Hanukah, a Merry Christmas, a Happy Kwanzaa and an amazingly holiday season. I will be thinking of each and every one of you! And thanks mom, for the Apple Jacks and Froot Loops!