Happy New Year

Re-starting the blog in the new year, mainly for susan, but clearly you all are dying to know whats new with me, cuz im kinda a big deal and all. Just got back to Japan after two weeks of vacation. On December 19th I left out of Tokyo headed for Frankfurt to meet up with my mom, dad, aunt rita, and grandpa in Frankfurt where my uncle Mark currently resides in a town called Rodenback. I arrived that night after my 12 hour flight, stuffed myself full of cheese that mom had brought me and went to bed. The next couple days we relaxed and wandered around the area, went to kaiserslautern, trier, and luxembourg and enjoyed the christmas markets, drank gluhwein, beer, and ate loads of delicious brats. unfortunately rita had to head back to south africa early but in her place we got my cousin kayla, a fair trade if i say so myself. we picked kayla up in frankfurt in our rented mercedes van, classy, and walked around, shopped, ate more brats, and rita and i hit up a murukami museum, which is no less than bizarre that my favorite japanese artist is nowhere to be found in japan, but has a museum in frankfurt, go figure. Then we left for Paris and those four days were nothing short of fabulous. I have never been to Paris and can say that everything you hear about Paris doesnt even come close to the real thing. As predicted, I feel in love. We got in on christmas eve and went to mass at Notre Dame with the other 10,000 people who had the same idea. It was beautiful, one of the only times i can remember staying awake the whole mass, although my other companions cant say the same. On christmas we took a morning tour around the city in a mini van, stopping at le Tour Eiffel, Notre Dame, and Monmartre. Apres, we went shopping on the Champs Elysees and went to the Christmas markets on the street. All in all a wonderful christmas in Paris. The next day while kayla, grandpa, and mark went to Normandy and mom and dad off to the Invalides, I went to the Louvre and spent a short four hours running around trying to see everything, but getting my fix of Davids before I left the creme de la creme of museums. then i headed to the Orangerie that houses a pretty good collection of impressionist and post impressionist art along with two oval rooms with 8 huge paintings of Monets water lillies, absolutely stunning. Then met up with the rents and wandered around the latin quarter and stopping at a cafe for some french beer. the next day, saturday, i headed to the D`Orsay musee for some impressionist art viewing and probably could have stayed there all day, without a doubt the best museum i have and most likely ever will go to. then met up with the others for some shopping at Galaries Lafayette and other stores to search for non-existant bargains, it is Paris after all. at night mom, kayla, and i went up to the top of le Tour Eiffel, which was beatiful with all the lights but the beauty was over shadowed but the extreme coldness of the evening but totally worth it. on sunday we packed up to go back to germany, hit up a few last stops like the Hard Rock, some souvenir shops, and the latin quarter for one last panini and gyro, and headed out. back in germany we took a couple more adventures to see a castle in hiedelberg and shop in speyer. then in was back to relaxing, watching movies, eating, and playing numerous amounts of mexican dominoes. on new years eve we participated in the german tradition of lighting off fireworks at midnight, which was something new and exciting. but i did get to go on base for a day and eat some delicious delicious taco bell, oh how i had missed it. then it was time for me to leave, so on jan 2 we did a little last minute shopping and sight seeing in frankfurt and also ate a last brat and slice of pizza hut and said goodbye and flew back to japan. as of now i have still not gotten over my jet lag and have gotten a mean cold and am now more homesick than i have been yet :( but i shall live i think. its a new year and i plan to make the most of my time in japan and soon enough i have to decided whether of not to stay another year! hope all is well and much love from me!xx