Overlooking la Vienne on Thursday.
Thursday was Thanksgiving! It was hard not being home for Thanksgiving, but it was really fun celebrating it with the family. I drew on the chalkboard in the kitchen as my way to celebrate. I waited until Saturday to make Thanksgiving dinner for my family.
I went shopping Saturday morning. I found a little Hopkins High School in Châtellerault. Letter sweaters are popular here, but what are the chances that I found a letter navy blue and gray sweater here with an "H" on it?
This store has a Christmas campaign, "Happy Christmas!"
It wasn't just on the ads either, it was all around the store and on the windows. It was hard explaining to my family that "Happy Christmas" isn't wrong, but it would be like saying "Merry Birthday" instead of "Happy Birthday."
Pigeons and Rabbits being sold at the farmers market in Châtellerault!
I still have no idea what type of vegetable this is.
FROMAGE! Miam Miam! There was so much cheese!!!!!!
These were so cute- little heart cheeses! :)
Kinda a random assortment from the weekend. After shopping in Châtellerault Saturday morning, I came home and Marine taught me some chords on the guitar. That's right, I'm learning the guitar! I thought it was going be a lot easier (because I play the viola) than it is! It's super hard! In France, they don't use the notes "A, B, C" when playing an instrument. They use, "Do, Re, Mi" instead of the letter names so it was tricky trying to learn using "Do, Re, Mi." I sound like Phoebe from the show, Friends. After practicing the guitar for part of the afternoon, I started preparing for Thanksgiving dinner. I had to make a lot of alterations to the food as some ingredients don't exist here, like a whole turkey or cranberries. I also had an adventure trying to find sweet potatoes. I finally found some at a local grocery store that were imported from the US! My family was curious about sweet potatoes and marshmallows and so I made sure to they tried it. My friend, Karolina, came over and helped me prepare Thanksgiving. However, she's from Sweden so it was her first Thanksgiving! It was so fun to share a little bit of American culture with my host family and friends. Karolina shared a little bit here Swedish culture by making these delicious Swedish (cinnamon bun like) rolls for dessert. Afterwards, my family put on a mini concert (they're not so unlike the Bessette family-making sure we have a talent show at every reunion). Marine and I (not so gracefully) played the guitar. Louis played "Do, Re, Mi" on his trumpet and everyone else sang. Karolina and I sang the english version and my family sang the french version. I'll attach a video of the french version below. Our concert lasted all through out the night. Karolina and I had to get up early the next morning to catch a train for Paris. On Sunday, we spent the day in Paris with AFS. :)
Haha. French rap...
A kid in my class posted this on facebook. Learn the animal noises in French!
...yummy?
(At the farmer's market).
