38th email from France (Cannes)

Hey everyone, thanks for all your emails! This week was really good- it went by really fast. First off, I’m glad to hear your doing really good. That’s great that you like everything. I’m sure it will get more and more normal every day. Sounds like the house is really good and the people are nice. I figured they would be and Dad likes work so that’s super cool! Christmas was really good It was great just to be with the members. Christmas Eve was really cool. The family Gonzaco invited us to come eat. We actually got lost trying to find their house and didn’t even have their number. Finally after talking to all the neighbors we found their house but at first we weren’t even on the same street. The food was pretty good, well mostly The first thing we ate were big huge oysters. I didn’t like them that much but a had a few. Then they had a big duck wing- just like a chicken wing but duck. It was really good then just a bunch of other stuff- lots of salmon, then different sausages and cheeses, then to finish a big ice cream cake. I guess ice ream cake is common for Christmas dinners. Then the next day, Christmas Day we went to the church to eat with just whoever wanted to come. There was about 15 of us so that was really fun. This meal was a little more interesting. It started with these cracker things with different types of meat on top; one was some raw ham which was a little weird then tuna and some more salmon- that was really good. Then they brought us some potatoes with the liver in the middle wrapped in some kind of meat that looked like bacon but tasted a lot weirder. The liver wasn’t that bad but I don’t think I would want to eat just a chunk of it. After that we all had a huge steak of duck but this time it was like a real steak! It was really good meat but a little gross because it wasn’t really cooked at all. After I finished I had a huge puddle of blood on my plate then of course more cheese and ice cream cakes. We stayed there most of the day talking to people, it was pretty relaxing. Yesterday we went to St. Raphael for a meeting and when we came back we ran into the bishop and his wife who were getting back from Toulouse and they invited us to eat at their house tonight. They’re pretty young and cool so I’m sure it’s going to be fun. I’m excited. It kind of rained for Christmas so that stunk but it’s been getting better. We had a few days where it was pretty cold in fact I hear that it snowed pretty much all the mission except here on the Riviera but I’m not complaining because I really don’t like the cold. This week should be pretty good too. There’s going to be a big party thing for the New Year. Actually I might be in St. EvRaphael again for an exchange if so I’ll just go to the party at their chapel. Thanks for your Christmas box, all the gifts, money, all the candy! I’ve been eating a lot of it and the money I don’t know what I’m going to buy. How many people were Friday? Are there old people that live their or just workers? How was the mall or whatever? One guy we talked to said that it would be just horrible to live there and that it would be almost impossible but I was just like whatever because I knew he didn’t know the situation and all that. It’s not really like you just moved there like a normal person out in the country somewhere. Are you able to call people or will the internet be coming soon? How is the TV? Does it work with the channels from home? Do you have furniture or not much? Why do you have a yard boy to water was that like part of the deal or something? There are lots of little Arab shops for food like that here too. Was there traces of Christmas or not at all or does everyone just have "vacation"? I hope all the people come back soon. Do you know or have other neighbors? I would really like some pictures but take care of all the other stuff first. I’m sure your pretty busy you could always just email a few. Whitney thanks for the email! How do you like busses? I’m used to them, we take at least 5 every day! So your going to buy a car, what kinds do they have there? Love y'all! Happy New Year! Taylor