Thanksgiving...kinda

So, I just typed this whole blog out and then got disconnected. Argh!! I was basically saying that several people have requested to hear about our French Thanksgiving, so I will give all the details here. Basically, our host parents decided last week, spur of the moment, that we needed to prepare a traditional American Thanksgiving for them and some Rotarians. So Mark and I had less than a week to figure something out. Luckily I was able to explain what ingredients we needed and how we would prepare each dish, thanks to the French cooking class at MSU!! So after I got out of class on Thanksgiving Day (how many American students can say they were in class on Thanksgiving?!?), we worked all afternoon to prepare dinner at Christian and Carole's apartment. Christian is pretty good in the kitchen so he had prepared a few things the day before (like cooking and sweetening fresh pumpkin so we could make a pumpkin pie), and he had managed to find a whole turkey. There were 14 guests total; Mark and I were allowed to invite two friends so I invited a couple of my classmates. Christian literally spent about an hour deciding on the plan du table (who would sit where). It's weird how that is so important in cultural settings here. The menu was as follows: pumpkin soup (which is the French way to eat pumpkin) for a starter, turkey, pollenta, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, cranberry jam, and French bread for the main course; pumpkin pie made from fresh pumpkin and not that canned stuff and apple pie for dessert. It actually turned out quite well, considering how difficult I originally thought it would be to find certain ingredients. No stuffing or turkey gravy, but better than no turkey at all, right?
Other than that, we have been pretty busy with homework, Autour du Monde activities (like bowling, golfing, movies, etc.), Rotary speeches and other excursions. We were able to go to a Soriee Beaujolais a few weeks back, which was a party to taste the new year's Beaujolais wine before its release to the public. It was held on the ground floor of one of the castles along the Erdre River near Nantes, and it was pretty cool. There were tables set up all over the floor, and you just walked and mingled while tasting weird brightly colored foods and drinking wine. We also went to the opera at Theatre Graslin here in Nantes. It is a beautiful hall and the show was great. We volunteered at a food bank (banque alimentaire) this weekend, and I am still sore from carting tons (literally tons, they collected several tons of food) back and forth and sorting all the goods out into categories. I am almost done with my papers, and the semester ends in 3 weeks. Wow, already.
It is officially winter here, and cold. It is mostly rainy and windy; snow is not likely. A Christmas market opened up over the weekend that will continue through the holidays. They set up these small wooden cabins all along the main squares and vendors sell all the gifts, food, and drinks you can imagine. One specialty is hot spiced wine. It is quite good; a little like hot cider but with more of a kick. I will post pictures of all our French adventures after my classes end.