The Fourth of several very, VERY Late Blogs: MARCHÉ de NOËL

OK, went a little out of order, but here goes this... The second week in December, there was a Rotary weekend for all of the Exchange Students in District 1640. The District was hosted by one of the 5/6 clubs based in Rouen, my city. Although the event was hosted in my city, I found out that I would be hosted by another family for the weekend, the idea was to get everyone to be able to pass the whole weekend together, but they put us in groups of 2 and even two groups of 1... how does that make sense. I didn't mind because I was hosted by a nice family and was with Willy, a cool kid from Chicago.

So the weekend started a little after noon on Saturday the 11, if I remember correctly. We all met at the Gare (train station) in Rouen and got our home assignments, then we descended the hill and approached a museum, which was closed; this was the first indication that the 'monsieur' who had organized the weekend was somewhat scatter-brained and had not really planned much of anything. From the closed museum, we walked halfway back up the hill to another museum, this time based around iron works and old signs. Being interested in this type of thing and having wanted to go to the museum, I was rather pleased, but I did not share the reaction with many others. The museum, upon entry was rather small and somewhat poorly presented. Converted from an old church, it was all kind of one room with stuff thrown in it. The actual iron work was impressive to look at, but after about 20 minutes, I, and everyone else, had had enough. I think we spent about an hour in total in the museum, that was too long.



Upon exit, we were told that we had some hours of free time, where we cold explore the Marche de Noël, which I had already been to countless times, and basically just chill amongst ourselves. All of the students were told to stay with one of the students that was 'native' to the city i.E. Myself of Hunter, that didn't last. About half of the group that didn't know Rouen just kind of peaced-out and went shopping. I didn't worry too much and decided to just enjoy myself. We were told to meet at a certain hour under the Gros-Horloge (Big Clock) so that we could take a tour of the inside, something I have yet to do. In the time between letting us go and meeting up, the group I was with got some good eats, listened to great street performers, rode a carousel, sat on santa's lap, and did countless other childish, yet very Rotary, things! When it came time to meet at the clock, about half the group was there on time, the other half was the group that broke off to go shopping, ya' know, the ones who had never been to Rouen before. I had to track them down via cell phone and a bunch of running, but I found them nonetheless and we all met up at the Gros-Horloge without problem... or was there a problem? Well, the second indication of poor organization revealed itself... the clock had closed for tours 2 hours beforehand. This meant extra time on our hands, the Rotary adults brought us to the Marche, where we had already been, and bought us each a cup of hot wine, the likes of which most of us had already drank 2 or 3... Mom and dad, don't worry, the alcohol is boiled off before sale.



After the hot wine, the whole group made its way through the streets of Rouen to go to dinner at a Moroccan restaurant. On the way to the restaurant, we made a quick detour to see the "smallest street in Rouen" it's a small alley off of a pedestrian street, but to be honest I have walked on smaller during my stay in Rouen, I think they may need to re-assess the sizes of the streets. Anway, we had a Moroccan dinner, it was actually very good! I was disappointed to not have some traditional French Christmas food, but hey, it was poorly organized. I can never complain about good couscous and pickled veggies that tasted like Taco-Bell! After the dinner, we celebrated the birthdays of the December babies and then it was off to the host families for the night.

Willy and I were the first to leave the group, our host for the weekend was an older man, a retired commercial printer, who still ran his own private print shop, making invitation and cards of all sorts, as well as specialty orders as well. He drove a PT Cruiser, never thought I'd see one of those again! It was nice to be in a "big" car! The house was nice, but decorated to the point of hilarity with different animal prints...EVERYWHERE! Even my hostess' slippers were leopard print!

We had a nice conversation with our host family, apparently they had an exchange student at their house in 2001 from Utica, NY! We talked about our experiences thus far, they told us some stories about her experience, then we called it a night. Willy and I stayed up for a little while longer and just talked about what had happened thus far during our exchange. It was a fun time. We were both exhausted, so we called it a night.

The next morning, I woke up in a pile of feathers, my, down-feather, sleeping bag had been ripped on the seem, and, in my normal nightly movements, had spread feathers all over! With limited time and even more limited patience, I took the sheet covering the bed I had slept on and shook it out, sending feathers loose all through the air. It snowed feathers for about 1-minute afterwards, but they were spread out enough in the room that it wasn't really as noticeable. I showered, changed, packed up my bags, then headed downstairs for a quick breakfast. After breakfast we said our thank you's and left for the Ice skating rink. There is a year round indoor rink at a sports complex on Ile-Lacroix, an island in the Seine in between the two banks of Rouen. We spent a solid hour at the rink then went back into Centre-Ville Rouen for a Sunday morning market and a little more free-time. After a few hours at the market, and a quick stop at McDonald's for those kids who live in the middle of nowhere and have no ability to get fast food, we all went to a café to eat a, mass-produced, meal of fried chicken, spaghetti, and the most pathetic dollop of red-sauce... needless to say, it was a very disappointing end to a great weekend.

Most of the students left directly after the lunch via car or train, but the gang that lives near Rouen, plus Matt Shor, a Texan with no annoying accent haha, spent a good portion of the afternoon in town. Matt had a mission to buy boots, so that was our first priority. Telling myself that I couldn't spend money, I lived somewhat vicariously through Matt's search. Between grabbing a beer with friends and walking around, the day was pretty good!

Going home after big Rotary gatherings is always very difficult for me, I feel like something big is ending, or leaving without me, and I just can't run fast enough to catch it. I know that everyone is going home alone as well, but I still feel like there is something that I am missing, or there is something that is missing. I think that my extreme want to not miss anything this year is stressing me out. It seems to work, but, at the same time, it is very frustrating.

Well, à bientôt.
Cheese and Paix!