Saint Nicholas Day
Mood:  cheeky
Topic: Saint Nicholas Day
December 6 is Saint Nicholas day here. Reserved usually just for the "petits" mostly candy and small gifts are given out on the days leadin up to it. Had it not been for Adriana's family, I would have known nothing about it, seeing my family did not even celebrate it. When I stayed at Adriana's house, her family would put little candies in our shoes for us to find the next day. "Oh wow, Saint Nicholas came!!!" Let me try to define the difference between Santa and Saint Nicholas, from what I understand of it: Saint Nicholas is some what of an impostor, looks similar to Santa (dressed all in red) and comes in December to bring gifts to children. But hes not alone, and I'm not talking about being escorted by reindeer either. He has a black man who goes with him to help him. When he visits the chilren, they must promise something for him (for example to keep their rooms cleaned or to be good or something like that.) If they have not been good, then the black man stuffs them in the big sack he has with him.

So Monday was Saint Nicholas day. I woke up and to my surprise... there was Corentin! Still at the house! But didn't Saint Nicholas come last night?! He didn't leave me any presents or anything! and how could the black man have possible over looked Corentin... And that was when I stopped beliveing in Saint Nicholas. But when I got to school, Adriana presented me with a huge bag of candy that Saint Nicholas had left at her house for me!!! Later she showed me the many presents that Saint Nicholas had left her: The DVD Mulon, two beautiful photo albums, a scarf and.... a big black whip. ... Uh... I didn't get it either. She explained that she had asked for it specially so that she could protect me from my CRAZY host family!!! Ahhh I strogly like that girl sooo much! Then she waved it around a couple of times for good effect.

That same day, in the morning time at the entrence to school, there were many kids (none of who I recognized... I think they were college kids or something) wearing white aperons and holding big bags of flour and eggs. I managed to get by them without being caught and egged, but when I got inside I realized that I was one of the lucky few. If the people didn't give them money then they would get egged... actually even the ones who gave money were egged and floured... but I didn't even give money. I just put on a really pitiful face and when they came my way said, Oh I'm sorry, I don't speak French, I don't understand. Then ran like hell for the school. LOL. Thankfully Adriana didn't get foured too because she is allergic so that wouldn't have been good. I asked later what they were raising money for... maybe a cancer fund or childrens charities.

Nope...

It was so they could go out and drink! The school allowed them to stand there and egg their students for money to go get drunk!? No, not possible... Crazy things happen here.

On Wednesday, (December 1st, the day Adriana and I had to go to the Airport to see Pedro off) the people were celebrating the coming of Saint Nicholas Day. (Because the 1st was the last Wednesday before Saint Nicholas Day.) It was only a half day, but actually I would consider it a quarter day because out of the 4 classes we have on Wednesday, the last two were cut so that the students could enjoy the visit of Saint Nicholas... It was strange and bizar to say the least... even scary sometimes. Many students came to school dressed with white aprons, and they were running around with makeup crayons in red and pink and tons of stuff. (So they were dressed like nurses and they were painting peoples faces to look like they just came out of World War 3... and this is supposed to represent Saint Nicholas how?) Then after 2nd block, all of the students went to the theatre room to watch a performance put on by the 12th grade class. (We call them the 6th grade here...) There were I.V. bags hanging from the ceiling and the fog machines were working... it was bizzar. They threw out tons of candy to everyone and had tons of crazy activities planed out to do. Like for example they called up 3 guys and 3 girls. Had 3 peeps sit down and blindfolded the other 3. Then gave them toothbrushes and a jar of Nutella chocolate. You can imagine how it went from there. There were tons of other things too. I'll post pictures when I get them developed.

After it was all over, Adriana and I rushed to the bathroom to try and get off the makeup so that we didn't look like clowns, but despite all the scrubbing, i still had a black line across my forehead for the rest of the day!

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Well sh!t, I tried resizing my photo of Adriana and me and now it won't work! Ok, this is my last attempt so let me know if it works: