Thanksgiving

The office kindly sponsored a Thanksgiving dinner last night for all of the program participants, at an actual restaurant! Classy! I wasn't going to go until Corinne sent everyone an email saying it was paid for already, then I was all over it. It was . . . really awesome. I wish I had pictures - I think Katy is going to send me some of hers and they shall be posted. Here's the menu:

Stage One: bread and water. The reservation wasn't until 7:30 and it took a little longer than that to get everyone organized and at the right tables. The waiters kept incrementally treating us; at first we had a pitcher of water, then baskets of bread, then a pitcher of wine. Hoo boy, fancy. At this point we were all so hungry we just ravaged the bread. I think that our bread basket got replaced four times. Embarassing.

Stage Two: salad. It was really good, but that could have been because I was about to start eating the plates. Pretty standard; lettuce, dressing, olives, onions, tomatoes, walnuts, etc. Tracey doesn't like olives so she gave hers to Katy. Katy doesn't like walnuts so she gave them to both me and Tracey. I don't like onions so I gave mine to Sam. It was like musical chairs. Oh, and there was corn! In the salad!

Stage Three: actual main course. Way good! The smiley host kept coming out to check on us and make sure his restaurant wasn't in shambles, and finally came out holding the entire turkey platter. We ooohed and ahhhhed and whispered to each other that it wasn't going to be enough to feed the entire group (there were about thirty people there). But aha! We all had generous heapings of delicious, delicious, tasty, pined-for turkey. Oh, and mashed potatoes! I even ate the green beans. I don't think that stuffing really exists here but they got pretty close; it was like if you took actual stuffing and pureed it in a blender and then dolloped some out to each person. It was an enormous plateful of food. I felt engorged.

Stage Four: dessert. Not pumpkin pie, alas, but something else - lemon tart. It had this meringue-y topping with whipping cream on the side, which was kind of different, but the inside of the tart was absolutely delicious. Mmm. Sam didn't want his lemon tart, and Tracey and I quickly went to work on it while Katy was off taking pictures of other tables.

So after that three-thousand calorie meal, I had to make it home somehow. Despite the feeling that I would have to be rolled all the way back, Sam and I walked to the tram stop, waited ten minutes for the tram (it was ten o'clock by this point), got off at Hauts de Massane, and trekked up the gigantic hill and across the fake lake to our respective houses. Oh, I slept so well! As a bonus, my grammar teacher cancelled today's class so I really don't have anything to do until the library later on. Oh, I should go to the bank and pick up the renter's insurance that's mandatory for anyone in an apartment. This is a pain in a butt. It's only one euro. I would gladly give them five euro to not bother me about it. I have to bring my passport, proof of studies, proof of financial means, bank information, blah blah blah. I'll probably forget some key document and it will all be a waste of time.

The library is still keeping on - Tracey won a hair care product set in the book sale raffle, congratulations. I had to lug it around for two days before I found her. Speaking of the book sale, here's what I picked up:

The Beast of Monsieur Racine by Tomi Ungerer
Images de France, lots of nice French pictures. Much countryside.
Monument International de la Reformation a Geneve
Frime et Chatiment by Jacques Faizant
The Magus by John Fowles
The Stand by Stephen King
Ginette la Reveuse by Willy
Black Beauty by Anna Sewell
Mind Over Matters by Mike Nelson
Paris: the Secret History by Andrew Hussey

I can hear Mom saying "you shouldn't be buying books! How are you going to carry everything home!?!?" True dat. I'll probably just leave the bulk of them at the office for future generations of students to enjoy.