Holidaze

Nothing like a long trip home to Grande Prairie mid-winter to provoke writer’s block. Don’t get me wrong, I was missing all you guys terribly but drawing creative inspiration in GP is like finding a redneck in Paris. And as great as it was to be my parents little girl for a few weeks over Christmas, I was equally reassured by my flight back to France and freedom. Now maybe I’m just getting old- but adjusting to the eight hour time differences in two weeks was not easy, in Canada I was so productive getting up at the early bird time of 3am and back to bed at 4pm. Upon my return to France, I was awake all night and sleeping all day. I finally realized there is something extremely gratifying at being awake when no one else is but it’s not exactly easy to live a day-to-day life on such a sleep schedule. The sleeping all day habit was not easy to kick either, school for the week had been canceled due to a skiff of snow that had fallen in Poitiers, the following week we were sent home early from school because snowfall had been predicted. Be it Canada or France, when school is canceled and it snows, there is nothing good to do but curl up in bed with movies and take a long nap. Winter in Poitiers is neither freezing nor balmy, but it is mostly miserable. I can very seriously recommend one thing if you’re spending winter in Europe- Boots. My feet have never been so cold. But one beautiful Sunday, Jess and I decided to get to know our city a little bit better and explore the wonders of Poitiers. With vacation in the 5-week prospectus, the 12hrs workweek was not hard to get through and like all my time in Europe, I’m finding that the second half of my year is disappearing even faster.