After a long day of class we (Todd, Bryan, Marina, Lauren and I) headed over to Lauren's place to get ready for dinner. We were so excited. We chattered over wine as to what we were going to eat and how much.
(Thanks Aunt EJ for the cameraaa!)
We (the UC students) were lucky to be invited to a Thanksgiving dinner put on by two clubs in Bordeaux named Bordeaux-USA and France-Etats-Unis. The cost of the dinner was luckily already included in the fees we paid when we first arrived in Bordeaux. (If we would have had to pay, me and mes amis would be celebrating over at cheapy mezzo pasta because the dinner was around 20 euros.) We were all so excited about the American-style dinner. We wished all of our foreign friends a happy Thanksgiving and we were met with confused looks, but we didn't care. I was not going to let french culture get in the way of my favorite holiday.
We arrived at 7pm and had an apéritif (finger food and an alcoholic beverage) around 8pm. This, obviously, wasn't very American and we were all on the verge of eating our arms off by the time the salad showed up around 8:30pm. The salad was a typical french style with that purple cabbage stuff, carrots and cucumbers. Then we received some baguettes in dinner roll shapes. Do you see where this is headed?
Just kidding, really, we got turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce and green beans. It was really nice; sort of bittersweet since I knew at home there would be some of my grandma's bomb-ass cooking. However, I was really thankful to be with my friends - my home away from home. We talked, drank lots of wine, ate some more. Then they came back around with wine and salad, and I remembered how much we were in France! We finished with this hazelnut pumpkin pie, kinda bizarre, but they really tried. It was really nice.
We talked with Nicole (one of our program directors) and explained to her our thanksgiving day rituals, which she found bizarre and interesting. Then we spoke with Joel our American consul (who just happens to be a UCD alum!) about being away from home and all the havoc going on at our home university.
We left around 11pm adequately filled with alcohol and food.
did you actually eat any turkey? i saw a pic of you with a burger. have you ditched your vegetarianism for a time being? i'm glad you had a good thanksgiving!
ReplyDeleteI did eat turkey! I am still staying away from pork and beef. The burger I had in London was my first veggie burger in months. :P
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