Sanksgeeving

This week saw thanksgiving come and go. I must say that I had a very lovely time with some friends up in Bordeaux. We were at an American friend's apartment with about twenty people. Of this group, I think only 4 were American, but hey, celebration knows no nationality! Everyone brought a dish which made for a rather untraditional Thanksgiving dinner. I brought mashed potatoes, which were apparently 'super bon' (hooray), and instead of a Turkey Chenoa, the American hostess had three chickens, there was stuffing, provided by an American couple, and then there was eggplant parmasean, a quiche, Indian lentil soup, spiced Indian yogurt, stir fry, and probably other things that generally don't accompany this particular holiday, but were still very delicious!

I would say the definite highlight of the evening was when we went around the room and made everyone say what they were thankful for in English. All but one person managed to do so in English, and while some were more gramatically correct than others, it was really interesting to hear everyone's version of 'thankful.' Laurent gave thanks to my family for letting me move to France with him! The night eventually ended with karoke to 80's French songs, and while I didn't recognize a single one, they eventually did play the Saved by the Bell theme song so everyone was appeased.

Happy Thanksgiving everybody!

Spain is a crazy place

My birthday has come and gone, and it was a lovely celebration in Toulouse with Laurent's mom, sister, and aunt. We had three birthdays to celebrate at once so it was a very compact weekend! We went and saw the city as well as spent an afternoon in the country at a house we rented out to fit everybody.

This weekend, Laurent, his Dad and I went on a little visit to Spain. We ate at a restaurant unlike any I'd ever seen! The tables were set up like a cafeteria and the food was served family style. However, the really unusual aspect was that they had eight ENORMOUS barrels of wine built into the walls with a tap. You turn on the faucet from where the wine shoots out like a fountain, finally landing in a bucket about four feet from the wall. Then, you catch the stream of wine with your glass and fill your cup. This was an 'all you can drink' concept. Laurent's dad ended up plastered which left him grabbing at Laurent's step mom a little more than we would have liked to have seen, but in the end it was entertaining! After that, with Laurent at the wheel, we continued our tour of San Sebastian by visiting the port and then the shops downtown. By this time, everyone had returned to normal, which was a relief.

Today is a terrible day weatherwise, but that's probably good because I have to prepare some lessons for my students who will be coming tomorrow!