officially ready to be a housewife

i am growing soo much here in france. i am, like, totally ready to be a housewife! oh my god! why? because thanksgiving is awesome and rocks my socks (but only here in la france, chez moi i could generally care less about football and turkeys).

so of course teaching about turkey day is obligatoire for us assistants, since it's something super typical-american. again my Jean Zay angels were the most interested, or at least the most receptive to my lessons, which consist of a brief history, vocab, and various games. we played hangman with thanksgiving words and i have never seen such excitement. they were shouting cornucopia and wampanoag like nobody's business! they think pumpkin pie and stuffing are nasty ideas, that black friday sounds divine, and were very concerned about my being away from home on the holiday. one girl was asked if i felt funny...i was confused, and she elaborated "well, you must be very sad, being here instead. but maybe you can have a party with some of your friends to feel better?" and she breathed a sigh of relief when i said that in fact a bunch of us were going to cook together on saturday. thanksgiving day i had 2 classes to teach, and then i got to chaperone a trip to the cinema to see "North by Northwest," so that made up for having to work on the holiday.

as for our american-in-france turkey day....it was pretty much the best thing ever. (how many times have i said that?) the idea was conceived in a bar in strasbourg, when will, mandy and i were waxing nostalgic about what we would do fend off homesickness during the holidays, and we decided that we ought to have an get-together for the americans. luckily mandy's renters were all too willing to let her host, and we put together the invite-list, with 6 of us assistants, plus Sophie (mandy's renter), in attendance.

sat morning i work up at the crack of dawn, aka 8am, to go for a run before heading to the market. Bruno, my renter, was already up and working and said i was crazy for getting up so early, and laughed when i explained that it was bc we'd be eating a ton for our belated thanksgiving celebration. when i left the house at 10am, isabelle and bruno were amused to see me dressed up for a change (new shoes!! usually they only see me on the weekend = cords and tee shirts), and wished me a happy thxgiving. i met mandy in town to buy fresh veggies, flowers and some kind of poultry. i thought it was pretty hilarious that i, the vegetarian, was a constant presence in the search for a turkey (the french eat turkey for noel, so no luck finding it in the stores this early)/chicken...and of course in france they leave everything attached, so we had to ask the lady to chop the head off (BERK!!) - and i (!!) pulled out the innards (heart, gizzard, liver, kidneys) at home!!! omg. it was like AP bio all over again...and awesome. of course before going back to mandy's to cook we had to stop at t et g for some holiday coffee and consultation on the finer points of cooking a bird. what can i say? theres no time to learn how to host thanksgiving like when youre living in france, non?

so we prepped the bird, mandy buttered it up, and popped it in the oven...all the while, her renters were being super sweet - they cleaned the apartment, brought in extra an table and some chairs, candles...dominique, who's starting a new career as a chef, helped me slice the mushrooms (i made salad with roasted FRESH walnuts - aka, cracked all those buggers open myself, blue cheese and pears, classic, as well as sauteed mushrooms and green beans), and sophie took copious notes on the traditions, history, and food of thanksgiving. and Webby, the cat, kept a watchful eye on the chicken.

so the bulk of the afternoon was spent in the kitchen, as per the best way to spend any dinner party...kelly came over around 14h, and mary and andrea came over around 16h30...we had warned sophie not to eat lunch, and she was super cute and kept asking when we were going to eat...finally around 17h everything was prepped and we had our apero (muscat), and then piled all the food onto the table and served buffet-style. we did a pretty good
job - we had the chicken ("tastes like turkey!"), stuffing (some cooked in the bird, the rest just veg-friendly), green bean casserole, ocean spray canned cranberry sauce, my veggies, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, gravy, veggie quiche, corn bread, baguette...wine...fromage...apple pie, tarte au citron, vanilla bean ice cream...eating a real, homemade meal was exceptional, and eating with a bunch of great friends (oh, will finally dragged his butt over from romans around 17h30) and music a la andrea was even better.

the evening stretched out until midnight, since we HAD to watch a movie, since there was no football. kelly and will had to leave early to catch trains home, loaded up with leftovers, but the rest of us hung out and watched "Love Actually" to get into the holiday spirit. super fun, super proud that i co-hosted a successful thanksgiving far away from home, and super excited that i have housewife potential. i mean, i pulled that nastiness out of the chicken like nobody's business!