Thanksgiving. Location: Paris.

Happy belated Thanksgiving! Last week was actually filled with Thanksgiving-related activities for me. Even though it's not a super important holiday for me, it was fun to get in the spirit. On Tuesday, Hal and I went to a store in the Marais strangely enough called "Thanksgiving" to buy the makings for pumpkin pie. Some people on my program are fond of this store, but there's something about it that I find sort of gross and creepy. It's a store that essentially is there to profit off of Americans' homesickness as you can find just about every packaged American food product there for absurdly high prices. The women who work there speak English to their customers and pretty much as soon as you enter the door, you feel like you're in an alternative universe. Since Paris is one of the places in the world with the best food including incredible baguettes and cheese and wine and fresh produce, it's weird to imagine someone really dying for a Twinkie or a can of Dr. Pepper... and yet, the store is always full of Americans marvelling at the fact that they can get their over-processed, artifically sweet and fatty foods all the way across the world in a place as charming and cultured as Paris. Even so, I do have to admit that it was a useful store for this particular occasion as many Parisians have never even heard of Graham crackers, let alone a Graham cracker crust. So Tuesday afternoon Hal and I made 3 pies: one for his host family, one for my host family and one for our American friends on Thursday. Wednesday evening then I had dinner with my host family which was lovely and they did seem to enjoy our pie. My host mom has since told me that she's expecting me to make her another American specialty that she's baffled by like yams with marshmallows or pecan pie. 

Thursday, Elizabeth organized a big Thanksgiving potluck at her dorm and it was super fun to meet new people and eat a ton of food. We really did have sooo much food. And, if possible, even more wine than food (guess which one we ended up finishing...). Here's a picture of all of us before we dug in.

November has been a busy month, but I suppose in a different way than October. I haven't had a ton of events or travels or anything, just a lot of work and running around the city. It's nice to feel like I really live here now and as much as other people's travel plans sound fun, I love not feeling like I'm wasting a day in Paris if I spend it just studying at my favorite café. That said, I am pretty bummed that in my last 3 weeks here I have so many tests and papers and presentations keeping me from savoring being here. I'm trying to make a list of things to do and see before I leave, but it's becoming difficult just from looking at websites like Timeout and other guides. I really have seen almost everything a tourist could possibly be advised to see! It's actually a point of pride for me in some sense that now I get to just revisit things I loved or see things really off the beaten path. One thing that I hadn't thought about before but Hal is really jealous of me for is that I've taken every metro line in Paris (he has yet to take the 10 which he reminds me of almost every time we plan a metro route). It's kind of sad that just as life is feeling so normal here I'll be off and running again soon. At least I know Paris is somewhere I'll revisit in my life, hopefully sooner rather than later. 

For now, I don't have any big plans coming up, just a lot of big tests. I'll try to post again sometime soon, though, with at least something interesting I've been up to. 

Love,

Anj