thanksgiving à la française

So, before I went on my long homesick rant last week, I had no idea Thanksgiving away from home could be so good. I realized that this is, in fact, my first Thanksgiving away from home in New York -- because we always have the holiday off from school, and it's always too short to travel anywhere, so this is actually a big milestone for me. i was a little bummed that there would be no turkey or mashed potatoes or apple pie involved, but was determined to make the most of it and ended up organizing a dinner with an American friend of mine at school. We invited a motley group of friends - a Canadian, two Japanese girls, and three French students. I went grocery shopping after class today to pick up ingredients for a cranberry-corn bread side dish and a chocolate tart dessert. While I was pretty panicky during the preparation period (especially since I couldn't figure out how to use the oven) everything turned out great in the end -- the company was good, the cider was just the right touch alcoholic, and the food was delicious. My American friend is vegetarian, so we were turkey-less, but she made a delicious pumpkin soup, stove top stuffing and mashed sweet potato. And we got to explain the holiday to our international guests which made it all the more special.

And after getting off the phone with my parents, I realized how disappointed I would have been to be home where they're eating a pre-prepared meal ordered off the internet. I've complained endlessly about how my parents do that. And it's not that I don't miss my parents or being home on this holiday of holidays, but I now know that it doesn't have to be so terrible.

But my mother nearly forgot to mention that she and my dad got tickets to watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade from the ABC studios in Times Square. There's my mom for you.

Tomorrow I leave for Nice to visit my Georgetown friend Kristin, where another Thanksgiving feast will be had. But I can't be prouder of the event that I helped organize tonight and how wonderful my Thanksgiving turned out to be.

villeurbanne short film festival

Got my film festival quota in yesterday with a screening of four short films in the Francophone Competition category at the Villeurbanne Short Film Festival. Every time I've heard French people talking about Villeurbanne, it's with an air similar to that which New Yorkers might talk about the South Bronx - far away, dangerous, and not really part of the city. Turns out that it's actually about 10 minutes away from the Hôtel de Ville by Metro and home to an indie movie theater. I didn't get a chance to walk around to much because I didn't know the area, but I wonder if there are other treasures to be found in that scrummiest of suburbs (pretty sure I made that word up)...

what a beaujo-day

Wow. I'm officially a blogger now that I'm using ridiculous play-on-words for entry titles.

Yesterday at midnight was the release of the Beaujolais Nouveau, an event celebrated with a countdown, much like New Years (countdown to midnight, etc). I decided to stay here in the city instead of going out to the wine country with a group organized by the university. The crowd was absolutely crazy -- I was being pushed in on all sides and lost half of my free glass of wine as half the crowd was moving towards the tasting table and the other was trying to get out. Also didn't help that nearly everyone was drunk.

It's been a rollercoaster of a week what with my first real essay due this morning and Thanksgiving around the corner...I slept through my 8am class this morning that I really wanted to go to, and was my only reason for not going to the Beaujolais. And I finally talked to my roommate from back home and her life has changed so much and I feel kind of homesick. As a result, I'm trying to organize a weekend trip to the Côte d'Azur next weekend to visit my friend who's studying in Menton, a village that sits right up against the Franco-Italian border. And I'm going to try to keep myself busy this weekend so I don't feel too depressed and lonely...

a night at the orchestra

Just got back home from a lovely evening with two friends -- after dinner in Vieux Lyon, we went to the beautiful Auditorium to attend a free concert for students. The conductor is a woman from Estonia and she was very entertaining to watch and the music was just lovely. The first was a very modern piece (composed just last year, in fact) and the second was a classic Tchaikovsky. The Auditorium in the Part Dieu neighborhood, right next to the Centre Commercial and is a lot bigger inside than it seems. There must have been thousands of students there tonight making for a pretty amazing sight. A few weeks ago I bought a "Pass Culturel" which is only available to students and gives access to 7 theater productions for only 35 euros. Going to the concert tonight made me really want to start looking into plays to go to, so hopefully I'll be writing more very soon about the theater scene here in Lyon...

I really should have bought that pipe

Still recovering from a busy, but AMAZING, weekend in London. After flying in on Thursday night, Asako and I went out for Indian food and then stayed at the Oxford Street TopShop (the first thing on our to-do list) until closing -- aka long enough for me to find the most perfect dress in the world for 18 pounds! And so the love affair began...

The last time I went to London, I must have been 10 or 11 years old, and I honestly don't remember it all that well. I do remember buying the first two Harry Potter books at Harrod's and the lovely tea and scones at our bed and breakfast near Paddington Station, but aside from that, it's all a blur. This trip really made me fall in love with London - so much, in fact, should the day come that I have enough money to move there, I probably will.

It was great walking through the city and recognizing a bunch of places from my favorite mini-series 'State of Play' - I freaked out when I saw the media barricades outside of Parliament! Even more great was being able to see two of my friends - an Aquilana buddy who's now studying in England and a close Georgetown friend. Three days was really not enough...we spent literally 15 minutes in the Tate Modern before rushing into a cab to Victoria Station (also featured in 'State of Play'), and our cabbie was the sweetest person ever, only charging us 13 pounds for the ride when it should have been more because he saw we were panicking about being late. As if I needed anything else to convince me that London is the best city ever! If I can manage it, I would love to go back again next semester...