Thanksgiving in France

This is my first Thanksgiving I've ever celebrated without my family - and I sure was missing those guys all day!

When I think of Thanksgiving, I picture the center counter at 250 crammed with bowls and platters of turkey, potatoes, veggies, and STUFFING; and going to sit down at the big table; and Lil says something like, "Now, everyone, sit next to someone you don't talk to often!"; and we do; and I get asked awkward questions about my college life BUT HEY IT'S OKAY because I'm with my family and I love everyone and Thanksgiving is probably my favourite holiday :)

2012 will be the year of that-time-I-had-Thanksgiving-in-France-because-I-was-living-there. And that's something I'll always remember, too.

IAU was awesome and they put together this great dinner for us! As you can see, we sat at these huge, long tables and I had all my new friends around and we were just laughing and taking pictures and eating and drinking; and we kept marveling at the fact that "guys, we are in a cave in France and we're celebrating Thanksgiving!" Like, woah!

Not quite the feast that my family puts together, but God bless the French people for trying! There was turkey (a miracle), mashed sweet potatoes, green beans, creamed corn, meatloaf, and gravy. And baguettes of course! I inhaled my first plate and got seconds soon after. So hungry! And so happy! We had pumpkin pie for dessert, too. A lot of people said it didn't taste like pumpkin, but that's because in America we always have canned pumpkin pie with all that condensed milk and crap. But here, since they don't know that's how we do it in America, the used real pumpkin! So this was probably the realest pumpkin pie I'll ever eat!

 friends!

 beaujolais nouveau!

After dinner we walked to Cours Mirabeau to see the new Christmas markets that are set up. So pretty at night! But they were closed; I went home to change; and then we all went to see the huge fountain that has lights too.

what the rotunde usually looks like

We ended up going literally, inside the fountain (all the water is shut off, don't worry) and just hung out there for a while. For those of you who don't intimately know the layout of Aix-en-Provence, the fountain at La Rotunde is, well, huge. It is at the center of the main traffic circle and at the end of Cours Mirabeau, which is the main street... basically, in the middle of all the action. And we were climbing it like a jungle gym!

 

The police drove by a few times and a couple groups of people pointed and stared at us; but no one said anything! Ah, those Frenchys, they really don't care, do they? :)

 yes, yes. happy arms. i know

 
our fountain-climbing group

After a bit of a photoshoot :P we went to the Cathedral to rally the rest of the troops.

Then we went out to our regular haunt, the bar street, and hung around with French people for the rest of our Thanksgiving hours.

But for the most part, I was with all Americans! And all of us wanted to hang out and be together, since not with our families, for Thanksgiving, the most American holiday there is.

This year, I have a lot to be thankful - the most basic of which is that I am in France right now!

I am also thankful for my family, who has grown and changed so much over the years but never grown too big (impossible!) and never changed too much, who has been there for me at every moment big or small, and who I love dearly; for my friends, the new ones and the old ones, the close ones and the far ones, the ones I haven't met yet; for my education at DU and being able to live in Denver; for everything I've learned in the past year about myself and about the world; for all the teachers I've had in my life, lest they know it or not; and for my health.

Whew! What a list!

Anyway, Happy Thanksgiving everyone :)

xxo, S