Thanksgiving Continues.

My classes are going well, although I still never work haha. No complaints. I love my days! They are so relaxing, and I am so happy. My lessons from last week and till today have still been on Thanksgiving, and they have all gone really well.. It is special to be able to share your maternal language with another, but to share your culture, I find it even more special. =) I'm pretty sure this is simultaneously my most anticipated Thanksgiving ever and the saddest Thanksgiving ever. With teaching about Thanksgiving a week before it actually happens and then celebrating the meal a few days after the actual holiday, the anticipation has been drawn out over a period of like 10 days! Usually the day just pops up around the corner and the excitement lasts for that one day and then its gone.

I'm SUPER excited for this Thanksgiving though because my good friend Jess and I are hosting a traditional Thanksgiving dinner this Sunday. My lovely parents have sent me a package with the essentials and today we special ordered the 6 kilo (13.2 lbs) turkey!! OH LA LA =). We are super lucky that we got the turkey because A) Thanksgiving is obviously not celebrated on any other continent than North America, so they don't have easily accessible whole turkeys like we do at home and B) It is a little late in the week, so we are lucky that the nice man at Carrefour placed the order for us. It's costing us 40 euros, which is mad expensive, but it will be worth it =)

I am very sad about this Thanksgiving at the same time as being so excited for it because I am not home with my family. And you know, last year I wasn't home either, but the thing is that I didn't celebrate Thanksgiving at all last year, so it wasn't really a big deal, cause it just didn't exist. But this year, with teaching all my students about the holiday and hosting the dinner myself, I have had too much time to think about it and it makes me really sad that I don't get to spend this special time at home with my family. It is okay though, it is times like these when you REALLY appreciate what you have and hopefully the next time I have Thanksgiving at home it won't just be another holiday to pop up and go away so quickly, but I'll be able to soak in the family tradition and really be thankful for my family and the my blessings in my life.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING FAMILY, FRIENDS and my home AMERICA.

The French might think we eat too much and consume too large of portions, but it is the holidays!!!!! I don't care!! hehe To all of you: EAT EAT EAT and be MERRY ;)

Bringing Thanksgiving to France

I taught the story of Thanksgiving to my children at school today. I love Thanksgiving.. it is such a great holiday, I mean it is a day to recognize all that you are thankful for and just eat eat and eat amazing food!! I was so proud to share this with the kids. hehe. And what was pretty impressive is that I taught the whole lesson IN FRENCH.. not easy lol.

Next week I should be receiving a package from my family, a special Thanksgiving package!! =) yayyy!!! I am going to attempt to make a Thanksgiving dinner for all my friends, so my family sent me everything I need! Can't wait! hehe =)

Lastly, I saw this french movie a couple days ago that was AMAZING! It is called "No et Moi," and here is the trailer. It is not a sad movie, but at the end I wanted to cry just because the story was soooooo good, and I get really touched when people are selfless and just want to help others.. I was so impressed by everything in the movie.. The story, the actors, the cinematography, the music.. *sigh* so good. Watch =) There are english subtitles.

Some Snapshots

Over the past week, I took some pictures with my new handy blackberry phone. Take a look.



Perhaps some of you have already seen the Nov 2 issue of the San Francisco Chronicle, but I find it SUPPPPERRRRR COOOL that I had it mailed to me all the way to France! =) My friend James mailed me a World Series Champs t-shirt, accompanied with this newspaper.. this is awesome. A piece of Giants history, love it =)

I had to take a picture of this because it is classic romantic French. Whenever I see "je t'aime" written/painted on any surface in France, I get all giddy inside.


Now THIS is hilarious. You tell me what you think of when you see a sign that says "ATOMIC PRICES." Naturally, I think of a bomb, an explosive, something enormous, and so when you call prices "atomic" doesn't that mean that they are large, hence expensive prices? Hmm.. I hope you are following my logic here, because I certainly can not follow Pimkie's logic.. See, what Pimkie is trying to do is advertise their huge sale ( hint: -50% on the left. )


Lastly, my favorite. Whenever I look at a calendar, I always turn to my birthday month, March, to see what the picture looks like, yanno, to see if I like it or not. I couldn't believe that this calendar had the most perfect quote for the month of March... my moto for life. If you know me pretty well, then you understand that I hate planning for the future and I always say that I take life as it comes. If you can read french, then you know that the words on this calendar say "Take life as it comes." I didn't buy the calendar, because I already have one for the 2011 year, but I thought is was picture worthy.

10 little indians

Today at the school, the teachers wanted me to teach numbers. They suggested that I bring some sort of song to help the kids learn. Well, the other day another teacher used this one song called, "Ten Little Indians," and it was perfect because the song is very simple, so then I decided to use it. I imediately regretted teaching the kids this song, because I find it a little racist, no? You tell me. haha

eleven eleven.

Today was a great day, but let me be honest, do I really expect anything less on the best date of the year!? November 11th -> 11/11

You see, I have an obsession with the number eleven, but even more so when it appears in double. This is à cause de my youthly, yet perpetuating obsession with the song "Konstantine" by Something Corporate.

Anyway, why was today amazing?

1) I spent the day with someone very special.
2) The weather was fabulous, so we had lunch in the Parc Tête d'Or.
3) The park had a wondeful surprise: La Fête des Feuilles. It is a public exposition - art meeting nature - in the middle of the park. There were objects constructed out of the very branches and leaves that surrounded them. It was absolutely beautiful, especially with all the different colors of fall. Just the idea of using natural materials in their natural setting like that really created a serenity that I have never experienced with any other sort of piece of art. Below is a photo of a butterfly, completely made from sticks and leaves. I'm sorry that the blackberry-taken photo does not do it justice =|


4) After the park, we went to the Contemporary Art Museum of Lyon. There was much to see, but my favorite exhibition was of the artist and dancer, Trisha Brown. Trisha is an American choreographer and can be described as "experimental." The quote that the curators used for this exhibition was perfect - she said, "So that the audience does not know whether I have stopped dancing." See Trisha finds her inspiration in natural human gestures and daily activities then turns them into a fluid dance piece. If one's daily motions are a dance piece, then like Trisha said, who knows if she has stopped dancing or not. Another reason I love that is because I find dancing as a resource for my happiness, and if I never stop dancing, then I never cease to be happy. =)

After the museum, the whether turned cold and rainy, but no complaints =) it was a great day!

J'adore ma vie

This past weekend has been absolutely amazing. First of all, it was Halloween weekend and I had the opportunity to dress up twice!! hehe which I did not expect at all. AAANND Melissa came to visit me!!! =D

Even though Melissa's stay was WAY TOO SHORT, I was so happy to have her here and we had a blast!! One day we just stayed in bed all day watching all the episodes from this season's Modern Family (obviously lol), including the awesome Halloween episode twice, making that 5 times that I have now watched that episode.. it is NOT embarrassing, okay!? That night was Halloween and we dressed up as matching black cats. It was quite simple because all we had to do was layer every black piece of clothing we owned (to stay warm of course), put on kitty ears, draw whiskers on our faces et voilà! I'll post pictures when I get them uploaded. The next day Mellie and I went on an amazing shopping spree together, which I don't regret at all because I don't think I have had so much fun shopping before hehe =) Then I took here to one of the most amazing views of Lyon from the Fouvriere Cathedral. After that, I showed her one of my favorite things about Lyon, which are the Roman ruins. Hopefull you all remember me talking about these specfic places in Lyon before, but I will also post pictures later with the Halloween pictures. At night she got to meet some of my closest friends from Lyon and we all just had a great night on the town. I'm sad she left this morning, but she'll be coming back. I mean, NO ONE can just come to Lyon once.

A friend of mine said last night that it takes a special person to not like Lyon, and I couldn't agree more.. so you know what that means? I need some more visitors!! Lyon is a beautiful and I will even say magical place and I know everyone would love it.

I just cannot get over how blessed I am. My life is so awesome and I am so happy.