The Social Porcupine

See the shadow in the background?  Before I left for Germany, one of my friends told me, "You gotta go to France." I'm afraid that as much as I pretend, I'm not actually always that adventurous. Deep down I want to go to every country. But, also, I have this thing where I want to only focus on one big thing at a time. Going to Germany was enough. France? Eh. Not this time. It's not really that big of a deal to go to other countries in Europe. It's like crossing state borders—I was told Europe doesn't have border control, except through airports. I didn't even need to show my passport when going to Switzerland which is not a part of Europe an Union. My view of France outside my hotel room Well, it turns out I went to France after all. With my Au Pair parents and their youngest son. I didn't even know we were going until maybe two days before. And I thought we were only going for a weekend, but the day before I found out we'd be g...

Only a few years ago I had made a name for myself as "the girl who didn't keep Christmas" or "the girl who liked arguing about Christmas".  For that reason, I have been putting this post off for a long time, despite having promised several people that I planned to write it and having those same people ask me, "When are you going to write it?" I hate this subject so much. It's not that I hate Christmas, or even wish that the entire world would stop celebrating. I could care less. But there are many bitter memories wrapped into my confession of non-celebration. Back when I was first a Ruby Girl, when I'd previously never even had a sleepover let alone stayed away from home over without family, I found my beliefs being challenged by everyone around me, but especially by a couple boys a few years younger than me. "You don't keep Christmas?" He asked. "That's stupid. Why?" I'll admit I wa...

I am the girl who used to debate heatedly about anything, but especially about Christmas. I had never kept it growing up and I couldn't fathom how anyone could be so naive to celebrate a pagan holiday in the name of Christianity. Not to mention the fact that it's a Catholic holiday (sorry to all my Catholic friends, but I was brought up in the sort of protestant movement where Catholicism was viewed as almost equal to paganism). Never would I have imagined I'd be writing a post about a Christmas I partook of. To be fair, I still don't like Christmas, and still plan to write a post and make a video explaining just why. For now, let's forget theology and appreciate differing traditions. I arrived at my new Au Pair family's home on November 25th, just in time for all the celebrations of a traditional German Bavarian Catholic family. One of the first things they did was take me to a Christmas Market (Weihnachtsmarkt). And then to another. And another. ...