Another First Christmas
I’m spending the holidays away from home for the first time in my life. It’s a first for my family as well. We are close and usually spend Christmas with just the five of us, spending the day in our pajamas, trying out our gifts, eating, cooking, and watching old movies. My family visited for Thanksgiving and I will see them in February when I return to the States for my grandmother’s 90th birthday, so logically it didn’t make sense for me to go home now. But logic has little to do with that thing that sits in the core of us. Its that thing located somewhere in between our stomachs and our hearts which has been nourished by years of kisses, tears and squeals of excitement at finding a brightly lit tree surrounded by mountains of wrapped treasures. This is a quintessential ‘growing-up’ moment, for me and for my family.
So where am I going and what am I doing on my first flights away from the nest? Last weekend nearly all of my friends in Paris traveled home so I am largely on my own. One of my friends, Kate, offered to let me stay in her apartment while she returned to Minnesota. It was not hard to accept once I considered the inevitable loneliness that would pervade my residence hall as the majority of its 250 members left. I am currently curled up on Kate’s bed, enjoying her wealth of covers and speedy ADSL. Her cozy apartment with a well stocked kitchen happens to be right on the Seine, just a few hundred meters east of Notre Dame. The view as I walk to the metro stop in the morning is incredible.
I had planned to spend the majority of the break working because I have a new project which I am very excited about and because I have a friend visiting over new years and I want to get as much work done as possible before then. Consequently, I have been going to the lab as usual. However, Christmas cannot be spent at the lab so last week I decided to find somewhere to spend the holiday. During their visit my parents introduced me to a young French family who spent 2001 living at FermiLab. We spent two days with them and I immediately fell in love. Jean-Michel and Myriam are in their late 30s or early 40s; he is a physicist and she is a geographer (not geography in the US sense, it is more or less sociology or anthropology with an emphasis on where). They have three beautiful children, Davide, Diane and Dante, aged 12, 8 and 4 who are open, bright and as energetic as the corkscrew curls which sprout in all directions from each of their heads. The family is relaxed and natural and impossibly loving. They were exactly who I wanted to spend Christmas with. Unsure as to what the French etiquette was for inviting oneself to a family occasion, I sent Jean-Michel and Myriam an email proposing that if it would not be too much trouble, I could spend Noel with them. I finished it with telling them I would call them at the end of the week. They called me and left a message asking me to call them back so we could figure something out. Saturday night I nervously dialed their number and waited for someone to answer. “Allo?” was the response. I fumblingly asked in French if it was Diane, “Oh yes of course!” She excitedly replied, “Lauren, it’s you!” For some reason I felt an immense amount of relief when I heard her voice. Maybe it was the innocence or the genuine tone of happiness but it felt reassuring. Jean Michel got on the line and asked me if I would like to spend the next 10 days with them in the Alps, first at his father’s farm and then skiing. I was absolutely shocked by the generous offer but there was no way I could spend 10 days away. Its ok, he said, you can drive down with us on Tuesday and then return on the TGV whenever you want. I told him I’d think about it and would call them back.
I spent the next couple of days wallowing in indecision. I wanted so much to spend the holidays with them, but I also wanted my time alone in Kate’s apartment and there was also my work to do. In the end I reached a compromise. I would spend the morning of the 23rd through the evening of the 26th with time, TGV-ing it both ways.
So here I am, almost on my way to Grenoble. My train leaves in nine hours. I’ll let you know how it goes.
So where am I going and what am I doing on my first flights away from the nest? Last weekend nearly all of my friends in Paris traveled home so I am largely on my own. One of my friends, Kate, offered to let me stay in her apartment while she returned to Minnesota. It was not hard to accept once I considered the inevitable loneliness that would pervade my residence hall as the majority of its 250 members left. I am currently curled up on Kate’s bed, enjoying her wealth of covers and speedy ADSL. Her cozy apartment with a well stocked kitchen happens to be right on the Seine, just a few hundred meters east of Notre Dame. The view as I walk to the metro stop in the morning is incredible.
I had planned to spend the majority of the break working because I have a new project which I am very excited about and because I have a friend visiting over new years and I want to get as much work done as possible before then. Consequently, I have been going to the lab as usual. However, Christmas cannot be spent at the lab so last week I decided to find somewhere to spend the holiday. During their visit my parents introduced me to a young French family who spent 2001 living at FermiLab. We spent two days with them and I immediately fell in love. Jean-Michel and Myriam are in their late 30s or early 40s; he is a physicist and she is a geographer (not geography in the US sense, it is more or less sociology or anthropology with an emphasis on where). They have three beautiful children, Davide, Diane and Dante, aged 12, 8 and 4 who are open, bright and as energetic as the corkscrew curls which sprout in all directions from each of their heads. The family is relaxed and natural and impossibly loving. They were exactly who I wanted to spend Christmas with. Unsure as to what the French etiquette was for inviting oneself to a family occasion, I sent Jean-Michel and Myriam an email proposing that if it would not be too much trouble, I could spend Noel with them. I finished it with telling them I would call them at the end of the week. They called me and left a message asking me to call them back so we could figure something out. Saturday night I nervously dialed their number and waited for someone to answer. “Allo?” was the response. I fumblingly asked in French if it was Diane, “Oh yes of course!” She excitedly replied, “Lauren, it’s you!” For some reason I felt an immense amount of relief when I heard her voice. Maybe it was the innocence or the genuine tone of happiness but it felt reassuring. Jean Michel got on the line and asked me if I would like to spend the next 10 days with them in the Alps, first at his father’s farm and then skiing. I was absolutely shocked by the generous offer but there was no way I could spend 10 days away. Its ok, he said, you can drive down with us on Tuesday and then return on the TGV whenever you want. I told him I’d think about it and would call them back.
I spent the next couple of days wallowing in indecision. I wanted so much to spend the holidays with them, but I also wanted my time alone in Kate’s apartment and there was also my work to do. In the end I reached a compromise. I would spend the morning of the 23rd through the evening of the 26th with time, TGV-ing it both ways.
So here I am, almost on my way to Grenoble. My train leaves in nine hours. I’ll let you know how it goes.
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