Hogmanay

New Years, also known as Hogmanay, is the big celebration in Scotland. Actually Hogmanay is just the 31st of december, but the celebration begins several days earlier. Edinburgh starts the holiday off with a torch light procession through the center of the city. It is led by people in viking costumes and bagpipers and involves a terrifying amount of fire. I loved it.
Then theres a street festival with rides, snack stalls, and concerts. You had to buy a wristband to get access to that part of town, it was all roped off. The night of the 31st i met several of Sophies friends on Princes street (she couldnt be there because her band had a gig in bournemouth). The crowds were insane. It took me ages to fight my way to the meeting place, and even then im surprised i actually found my party. There were also a lot of people in costume- my favorites were luigi, buzz light year, and a very convincing jack sparrow. at midnight there were massive fireworks fired from the castle and a laser show, then we went to a club, a kabob stand, and i stumbled home.

That brings me to January. I came down with a bad fever the day after getting back into Aix from Scotland. I spent a few days in bed trying to study for exams but thinking instead about how much my body hurt. Then the day of my first exam fate intervened and we had a freak snow storm. It snowed 14 inches or so, they havent had a storm like that here since 1987, and all of the exams for the next few days were canceled. It was glorious- the french didnt know what to make of it and did silly things like carry umbrellas and wrap their shoes in plastic. I built a snow man and got in a snow ball fight with some random kids in the park. may have still been slightly feverish.

Then elyse visited. We spent a day in marseille, where we watched the sunset over the mediterranean while talking to an australian about whether the french smell like cheese or cheese smells like the french. That night we filleted two entire fish. which were apparently pregnant. so first we had to cut off the heads and scoop out the eggs.
that night was fun.

The next morning we had some bus issues and almost missed our train to paris. I chewed off all of the fingernails on my right hand, i dont think ive ever felt so anxious. We ended up at the train station at 10:40 for our 10:42 train. which turned out to be ten minutes late. saved again.
Paris was wonderful. I could spend several weeks in the louvre! this time we hit up some ancient stuff- hamurabi's code! and the victory steele of naram sin, which i swear we wrote about in art history AP. sadly the islamic wing was closed.
We also rode a ferris wheel and a merry go round.

And here I am, back in Aix, halfway through the year and just now starting a blog.