happee sanksgiveeng

or so the french might say. all this week ive been teaching about thanksgiving, sharing a bit of the history as well as recipes and pasttimes. researching for the history was actually quite informative, as i learned how turkeys came to be the main dish of choice(abraham lincoln sent them to soldiers in 1863 since they could feed more than a chicken could), how the 4th thursday in november was declared as the official date(originally the last thursday via george washington in 1789, moved to the penultimate by FDR in 1939 to prolong the Christmas shopping season and thereby stimulate the economy out of the great depression, and written into law as a compromise in 1941), and i learned that 45 million turkeys were consumed in 2003 on this one day.

i found that most students knew very little, maybe just the turkey bit, and didnt even know what a cranberry was in french. a neat aspect of this lesson was discussing Thanksgiving and multiculturalism, as a lot of the students come from other countries and backgrounds. one class today is mostly portugese, and quite proud of it. i have students from mauritius, guadeloupe, turkey, africa, middle east, asia, etc. and as i learned thanks to wikipedia, transplanted families often take up the traditional meal but with their own variations--italians may eat pasta, prime rib for the irish, etc. one variation that seems completely bizarre is a Cajun dish known as "Turducken". according to wikipedia and the salmon family website, turducken is a turkey stuffed with a duck stuffed with a chicken. check out the site if you're at all unclear. The Salmon family says its superior, but im not sure i want to break with tradition to try it.

last night i prepared sweet potato casserole à la Suzanne Levine. i was able to find the potatoes at my saturday market just behind my house, and the casserole seems to resemble my mother's. the proof is in the pudding, of course, so tonight at 7 we'll know how i did. i'll be sharing thanksgiving with some American friends as well as international friends. i think we'll be eating chicken rather than turkey, but as they served turkey at the cafeteria today, i got my bases covered. it should be neat to see what our brazilian, senegalese, singaporean, and dutch friends think of the meal. i'll be preparing the sweet potatoes again for a meal saturday night at the house of my pastor and his wife, which will again be a mélange of people.

as this day marks the official start of the Christmas season, tomorrow the lights on the Champs Elysées will be turned on, an event i may attend. and of course Christmas music and movies are now all fair game. the girls i lived with for 3 weeks before i found my place were hankering to start the Christmas music in October, to which i protested and they conceded when i wasnt around.

speaking of finding my own place, i had a housewarming party tuesday night which was a dashing success. about 20 other assistants and Fulbrights came over with wine in tow to toast my new apartment. my French roommates were there and had a really great time, so we've decided to have a big party in december and to invite each of our friends for a multi-lingual fete. i successfully made my own guacamole, and the Mayfield 17 boys would be glad to know i used Trends 1 for the music. housewarming in French is "pendaison de crémaillère" (literally hanging of the chimney hook), fyi.

the bell just rang for my next and final class, but i hope everyone has a very happy thanksgiving. enjoy the break and each other.

my home to yours