Christmas Guacamole

WE ARE HAVING A CHRISTMAS PARTY! As you an see by all the capitals, I am very excited about this. There are Christmas tunes blasting, and we have already had a round of dancing (our first, but most certainly not our last). We ate some appetizers. We have at least two classic christmas movies lined up for this evening, and a delicious feast cooking. Our fridge is stocked with beer and clementines. I am even wearing earrings!! The party of course, is a party of two, and both Nick and I are having the time of our lives.

I write from Marseille, a beautiful city on the coast. We successfully made our way here, though we didn't even need to hitchhike! Tarek gave us a ride. What a great chap. He's far too good to us.... Anyways, so here we are in our very own apartment - for the time being - and have spent the past couple of days seeing the sights and doing many walk-a-bouts. There's all the typical big-city things, like a billion shops and a billion people, plus a bunch of crappy fast food joints. But in Marseille, it's amazing that at any given moment you might step into a street and be transported into another part of the world. These are streets packed with Arabian markets with its habitants speaking all sorts of languages. On these streets we are no longer in France. Walk past a convenience store and see 5 guys sitting in a semicircle around a t.v. drinking beers. Two stores up a man squats as he cooks some unrecognizable dish while his neighbour smokes a cigarette trying to sell walnuts and oversized loofahs. It's colourful and full of life, and so unlike the rest of the city.

Marseille is also in full blown Christmas Mania Mode. People are hustling and bustling, arms loaded with presents for all their loved ones. Lights twinkle overhead and fake santas ring bells for the Salvation Army. It's not quite the same as being at home, surrounded by snow, but I'm still wearing my long johns - it's that cold. Tomorrow we have plans to ride a boat to a small island not too far away and I think it might be pretty chilly. But I'm excited.