What's cookin' good lookin'?

Turkey, that's what! That's right, I cooked a whole thanksgiving dinner (Friday night) for my French friends and family: Nicole, Beatrice, Danielle, a friend of Nicole's who gives me French lessons, Emma, and my friends from school Marie, Axelle and Roxanne. I made a turkey, mashed potatoes, green beans, carrots, cranberry sauce, gravey, and a pumpkin pie!

Thursday evening, I did the grocery shopping for the "grand repas". Who knew it would be so hard to find the things I needed for a Thanksgiving dinner? The hardest to find were the cranberries for the cranberry sauce. After about ten minutes of trying to explain what cranberries were to the sales associate, we found some dried cranberries, so I decided to settle. The next was the pumpkin for the pie. I went to four different stores searching for a "citrouille", and by the last "épicerie" I just decided to go with some butternut squash. It wasn't exactly like the classic pumpkin pie, but it was still delicious (if I do say so myself :)).

Friday afternoon, I started cooking at 3h and didn't stop until after people started to arrive at 7h30! I had never cooked a turkey before, let alone a whole Thanksgiving dinner, so starting off I was a little intimidated. Once I got going though, things went smoothly. It's really amazing how many things can go wrong with a thanksgiving dinner. It's truly a miracle that everything went smoothly for me, in fact it didn't just go smoothly, it was fantastic! Everything was perfect (which is amazing, considering how lost I am in the kitchen.)

When people arrived we had appetizers and I showed people a little bit about my life back home. I showed everyone my school yearbook, and my scrapbook, and everyone had a fun time looking through them. I also recounted the classic story of Thanksgiving that we learned in second grade to everyone.

When the time for dinner rolled around, I explained to everyone that it's traditional to go around the table before you eat and say what you're thankful for. It was at the point where I realized how thankful I was to be sitting in France eating a Thanksgiving dinner with my French family and friends. To me, Thanksgiving is about being with the people you love, and I was. I really couldn't have asked for a better night.

La Dinde!

In other exciting news, two weekends ago was the AFS weekend! I love getting together and seeing all of my AFS friends. Our AFS PACA (Provence-Alpes-Côté d'Azure) group is really close, so we all look foreword to these get-togethers. At the weekend, there was also AFS returnees, and AFS hopefuls. It was really neat to see the "three generations" of AFS, as well as disconcerting to realize that I was in the AFS hopefuls' shoes a year ago. It seems like so long ago!

awesome groupness<3

Today, Nicole and I decorated the sapin de Noël! It was a bittersweet moment, but it really turned my day around to get into the holiday spirit! It's really crazy to think that it's already December! Christmas is right around the corner. That's a scary thought! It's hitting me that I've been here for three months, which is so hard to believe! The time has flown by!

There's no place like home

Sorry for the late post (I've been trying to update every other Sunday) but it's been a crazy past few weeks. Vacation ended last week and thursday was my first day back to school (yes, it was Thursday, and yes, I think it's weird too). The vacation was really nice. I was off from October 23rd to November 4th. It was a nice break to catch up on rest, hang out with some friends, and catch up on school work. On the weekend, I had a party for Halloween/birthdays of some AFS friends. Most people from the PACA region (my AFS chapter) came and we spent a couple days in Marseille. It was very interesting to celebrate Halloween in France. Halloween isn't a big deal here at all. Some of the younger kids will go out trick-or-treating, but not all houses participate. Most teenagers get together for a party or just to hang out, and adults, unless they have children, don't really participate.

The party with the other AFS students was great though! It's amazing how comforting it is to have someone to talk to who know's exactly what you're going through. We traded experiences and made sure that everything we were going through was normal. Nicole gave us our space by going to Greg and Tashina's for the night. I was so surprised by the amount of freedom we were given. All we had to do was have the house looking the same when when she got back the next day, and we had the house to ourselves. I wasn't used to so much freedom, but I wasn't about to abuse it!

I went for a bike ride around Marseille the other day, and I realized that Marseille is my home now. When I think of home, I think of Marseille not Maine. Don't get me wrong, Maine is still my home but for the time being, I live in Marseille. In Marseille there's my home, not just any old house, my school, not just a school I go to, my favorite park, not just a park near my house, and my favorite stores not just any old shopping center. I can make my way through the city on my own without thinking twice. I've setteled into a schedule and it's nice to think that what once seemed so bizarre has now turned into my daily life. I've come to accept the good and the bad about Marseille, and I thnk that allows me to be able to call it my home. I'm past the honeymoon stage where everything is amazing, and I realized that Marseille has it's faults just like anyother city, and that's what gives it character. Despite the bad parts, I still like Marseille because it' my home.

School is slowly getting better. Bad grades are slowly being interspersed with some good ones, and that always boosts my confidence. Every day I get comments on how my french is improving! I'm starting to even think in french! Parts of the grammer that I thought I would never be able to understand are slowly but surely making sense. There are times when I have a full conversation with someone without having to ask them to repeat something, and (as far as I know) them understanding me, and it just makes me feel great. It's one of the greatest feelings to finally be able to communicate (somewhat) competently.

While my french is progressing, my english is digressing. It becomes really apparent when I know what a word means in french, but I can't think of the translation in english (if that makes any sense at all).

I'm off to study for a maths contrôle (math test), but I'll update again in the next week.