Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone, whether you're in the States or abroad!

This is going to be my first "English" major holiday this year. I'm kind of looking forward to it, even though I can't really eat anything. Pray for me to stay strong, hah. Because dessert and cranberry sauce are my weaknesses.

Oh and, don't let me find out that any of you woke up at 4 a.m. to go shopping tomorrow. Or I'll make fun of you for the rest of my life :)

Thank GOD I'm missing "Black Friday"

Alright, I'm sitting at my desk, listening to LIVE 105 on iTunes, eating an ENGLISH MUFFIN and drinking French chai tea -- so not the same, don't bother with it -- thinking about how I've made it to this point. Here I am, in France, with a group of friends established enough to celebrate a traditional American Thanksgiving!

Needless to say, last night was a trip. And now after looking at pictures, I've fully decided that the SECOND my leftovers are gone, I'm going crazy into a diet and not cheating any of the days. I also should get back into running when I'm no longer sick. Seriously, I've gained so much weight here :( This always happens to me.

But back to Thanksgiving. It was amazing! Everyone brought something typical to what we're used to in the States. The only thing missing was the pumpkin pie because it's a bit difficult to find here :( So instead we got our fill with pumpkin soup and had to make do with an apple and a pecan pie. Fine, I guess.... hehe.

I got to play hostess, which I guess is totally in my genes after watching my mom every year on Christmas and for all the other dinner parties she hosts. So, my first Thanksgiving and I didn't mess anything up!! Actually, the nice part about cooking and playing playing hostess serving drinks is that I didn't have to sit at the table and eat mindlessly in the middle of conversations awaiting the actual meal. So, I guess that's a good thing. Um, and I think I accidentally invited everyone to California next year, haha. Kidding :)

During the dinner, we went around the table and said what we're thankful for -- in French and English! Mine was probably the shortest and most to the point, because I was the last one to go.

"I'm thankful for my family for supporting me to come here, the close friends I've made here, and all the wonderful food and drink we have tonight!"

Now that I think of it, I'm also REALLY thankful I'm not in the U.S. near any single mall today.

My roommate showed up and actually made an effort, which made me happy, but towards the end of the night she started doing the whole passive-aggressive thing again. As she went off to her room to sleep, she mentioned in passing, "Oh you guys don't have to be quiet, but Monique, I'm having three friends stay over for the weekend. They're leaving on Sunday. Good night."

Oh Christ, what does that mean? Since we were up since 1 a.m. I have a feeling I'm going to be getting it back in the next two days...

Whatever, it was worth it! Thanksgiving is such an important holiday. If I can't spend it with my family, I'm going to at least do something else worthwhile.

It was just kind of hard to get up this morning ;) Thank God I don't have class until 1:30 p.m. today, because I'm hurting bad right now.

Oh and P.S. now there's NOTHING standing in my way of getting ready for Christmas!!!!

...38 More Days Until France BANS Indoor Smoking! :)

Wawaweewa! (Borat, nevermind...)

Man, these last two days have been a doozy! Yes, I just typed that, get over it.

It all started at Carrefour. I told Sarah when we were checking out that I kind of felt like I had been drinking. You know that feeling when you're so congested, from blowing your nose/sniffling so often, that everything kind of becomes fuzzy around the perimeters? I just felt like I was going through the motions in someone else's body, all dizzy-like.

Promise though, I wasn't on Nyquil or any other alcoholic substance. She said she always gets super overwhelmed at Carrefour -- which my dad's boss said is the second-largest grocery store in France and I believe it! -- that she kind of feels like that normally.

But the feeling lingered. After scarfing down my dinner, then proceeding to feel really nauseous and dizzy, I put myself to bed at 8 p.m. No joke.

Upon receiving a text message at 11:23 p.m., I seriously thought it was 4 or 5 in the morning. I was almost getting ready to wake up for the day, when I realized I'd only been asleep for a few hours. Oops. Then I kept tossing, turning and sweating, until I changed into lighter p.j.s and browsed the iTunes radio library for an "ambient" station. Under that heading I found a "soothing piano" station and kept it on all night. When the rain started to drizzle lightly, it washed away the traffic noises below, I finally gave in to taking some Nyquil and fell asleep.

Then my day began at 6:15 a.m. when I popped out of bed on my own accord. After starting off the *ahem THANKSGIVING* morning well by talking to my family, I picked out the best outfit I could find for the occasion and proceeded on my merry little way to school. Yep, I still have to work. Except, when I got out the door, I was pelted with heavy rain. And wind. And then that wind so graciously flipped my umbrella inside out multiple times. Once it even hit me on the head, grreeeaaat. So I arrived at school sick, manish-sounding and soaked.

But when I got home for lunch it was all worth it, because I got to set up for my Thanksgiving dinner tonight!! And then I made a really blistery day-friendly lunch: hot oatmeal and coffee! The oatmeal idea came to me after buying an "American mix" of nuts yesterday, Oceanspray cranberries, pecans and almonds, mmmm. So I boiled that in some water, added oats and cinnamon and warmed myself right up. Plus, knowing what's coming tonight, I didn't want to eat too much.

Then -- this is the best part of my day, no joke -- I got to break in my brand-new EIGHT-CUP cafetière à piston!! That's a French-coffee press for all you at home. So I used my new Brazilian grinds and whipped up some coffee, then used the press to froth some milk, added in the rest of my cinnamon and boy am I satisfied.

Now off to class I go for three more hours and then it's back here to prep for the big international American fête!! Surprisingly enough, the Thanksgiving lesson has been one of my best thus far, because the kids are all interested in the colonists and Indians story, while we in the U.S. are a bit, uh, ashamed of what happened after.

That, and they get to make hand-traced turkeys. Can't go wrong there!

OH YEAH (edit): I got my récépissé TODAY!!!! Meaning, all I need is one more apointment and then I have my carte de séjour -- long stay card. So I have the receipt, I'm just waiting for the actual thing. Good start, because very soon I'll get my social security, medical insurance and housing assistance money!!!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Visible progress!

Day five or six of my diet (sans tricher -- without cheating, no it's not continuous, I haven't cheated during 5 of the last 8 or 9 days).

I am now down to 58 kilos, when once I was at 61!!! That means I've dropped over six lbs! However, I'm going to keep cheating all weekend and then obviously next Thursday.

Only one or two more kilos to go and then I'm happy and fitting nicely into my clothes again :)

And since I'm on the subject of Thursday, I think I'm going to have a six- or seven-person potluck style Thanksgiving at my apartment next week. My mom and I were looking up fun recipes online all day yesterday, so I'm very, very excited about this prospect.

Like I've already said, Carrefour has cranberry sauce and I already have pumpkin soup ready to prepare. I think I'm going to give it some French flair and make some kind of autumn tarte, like of the pumpkin, apple or nut varieties.

Check out some of these recipes I'm looking at:

• Paula Deen's pumpkin cakes (AKA, let's add a pound of BUTTA to that)
• Pear Tart, from the tartelette blog
• Caramelized Nut Tart
• Apple Galette
• Apple Walnut Torte
• Caramel Nut Tart
  

And WHOA on Barry Bonds. The greatest thing about that article on MLB.com is now Dublin, Calif.'s shout out as "that jail cell to hold Bond's former trainer" for three months. Yep, I grew up in that city! We're now famous thanks to MLB.com -- questionable fame albeit, but I'll take it. He's an asshole and deserves whatever punishment he gets. I'm glad someone's finally cracking down on the rampant "under the table" use of illegal substances in the MLB.