I am zanksfullll for......

1:26 AM

Alas! Thanksgiving day has come and past and it has not been forgotten about here in France. My celebration of the holiday began last week teaching about the holiday in all my classes. Some of my kids knew a bit about the holiday, but, for the most part, it was something new for them. I began by teaching them about the historical aspect of the holiday, then moving onto modern observances, and then discussing the controversial aspect of the holiday if I felt the kids would be capable of understanding the ideas. After that, we watched a scene from "Smallville" where Clark Kent stands up to say why he's thankful, his mom cries, then dinner rolls are passed as early 2000's sappy music plays in the background. Afterwards (my FAVORITE part), I tell the kids about hand turkeys, laugh while the guess what it means, then force them to draw their own and then present to the rest of the class what they are thankful for. Some of them are really sweet and heartwarming, but also some of them were about cats, which is also nice I guess. Without fail, they all begin by saying "I am zankssssfullll..." There is no S in the word, and that's not even part of the French accent so....why? Anywho, it was fun and made me happy to be able to talk about this American holiday, and I even got a couple "HAPPIEEEE ZANKSGIVING!"'s yelled at me today in the hall, so at least a little something stuck with them, if only the date.
Um....? Also please note the white-out that covered up the "s" in thankful....WHY.

Other than teaching Thanksgiving in my classes, last night we made our own Thanksgiving meal to celebrate, which clearly all the other American assistants were on board with. I called dibs on making stuffing almost immediately. Stuffing has always been the dish that is closest to me because 1. it is the most delicious, and 2. I have nice memories of cooking it with my family, especially my Dad who was always quite fond of putting chestnuts in it in order to make it our own special recipe. 

 So a couple of days ago I e-mailed my Dad for the recipe, and within his lengthy response included this sentence:  "Packages of bread cubes for stuffing are usually inexpensive and contain some great seasonings." Good one, Dad. Like I guess I'll just mozy on down to the Peppridge Farm wholesale store next to the 15th century château in centre ville OH WAIT, no.  This is France. Let's be frank, if it's convenient, it probably doesn't exist here.

 So, ignoring my father's advice, I went to the supermarket and bought loaves of bread labeled "American Sandwich Style" (um, ok) and cubed those suckers up.

I could literally feel my mother metaphorically rolling over in her grave as I cut this loaf of French Wonder Bread.
This past weekend I bought chestnuts at the market in Saumur where we were on a daytrip, and rallied my makeshift Assistant family in Angers to help me peel them on Wednesday.


After gathering everything, I was ready to go! I toasted my bread cubes, my flatmate helped taste-test them ("....you could have just bought croutons." was her response. UNHELPFUL.), then in went the various "mix-ins".

The cast

Unfortunately I didn't take any photos of the completed project, but I'm sure you all are creative enough to assume what a 12x15 inch pan of (semi burned) stuffing looks like. I stopped by my friends' apartment to have a glass of wine pre-fête, and we ended up arriving a classicly French 1 hour late. Once we arrived, everyone was waiting plate-in-hand excited for our arrival. The crowd was a mix of about half American, a little less than half British (which INCLUDES Irish, Scottish, and English, as I found out yesterday!), and a couple German and Chinese for good measure. I was so happy to see all the assistants in the same place at the same time, and it really felt like we were a family; some of them I see everyday, some of them I see at school, some I just pass on the streets of Angers.... After being greeted so warmly (mainly because we had the turkey, and they could then begin eating), I was so filled with happiness and eventually cried (what's a holiday if Ming doesn't cry?).

Although I do miss my friends and my family, I felt perfectly content with our family dinner last night. I really feel like I have a home here with so many interesting and international people, and I'm so happy and blessed to be one of them.

Our own hand turkeys! Guess which is mine.

ming.



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23 November 2012

I am zanksfullll for......

Alas! Thanksgiving day has come and past and it has not been forgotten about here in France. My celebration of the holiday began last week teaching about the holiday in all my classes. Some of my kids knew a bit about the holiday, but, for the most part, it was something new for them. I began by teaching them about the historical aspect of the holiday, then moving onto modern observances, and then discussing the controversial aspect of the holiday if I felt the kids would be capable of understanding the ideas. After that, we watched a scene from "Smallville" where Clark Kent stands up to say why he's thankful, his mom cries, then dinner rolls are passed as early 2000's sappy music plays in the background. Afterwards (my FAVORITE part), I tell the kids about hand turkeys, laugh while the guess what it means, then force them to draw their own and then present to the rest of the class what they are thankful for. Some of them are really sweet and heartwarming, but also some of them were about cats, which is also nice I guess. Without fail, they all begin by saying "I am zankssssfullll..." There is no S in the word, and that's not even part of the French accent so....why? Anywho, it was fun and made me happy to be able to talk about this American holiday, and I even got a couple "HAPPIEEEE ZANKSGIVING!"'s yelled at me today in the hall, so at least a little something stuck with them, if only the date.
Um....? Also please note the white-out that covered up the "s" in thankful....WHY.

Other than teaching Thanksgiving in my classes, last night we made our own Thanksgiving meal to celebrate, which clearly all the other American assistants were on board with. I called dibs on making stuffing almost immediately. Stuffing has always been the dish that is closest to me because 1. it is the most delicious, and 2. I have nice memories of cooking it with my family, especially my Dad who was always quite fond of putting chestnuts in it in order to make it our own special recipe. 

 So a couple of days ago I e-mailed my Dad for the recipe, and within his lengthy response included this sentence:  "Packages of bread cubes for stuffing are usually inexpensive and contain some great seasonings." Good one, Dad. Like I guess I'll just mozy on down to the Peppridge Farm wholesale store next to the 15th century château in centre ville OH WAIT, no.  This is France. Let's be frank, if it's convenient, it probably doesn't exist here.

 So, ignoring my father's advice, I went to the supermarket and bought loaves of bread labeled "American Sandwich Style" (um, ok) and cubed those suckers up.

I could literally feel my mother metaphorically rolling over in her grave as I cut this loaf of French Wonder Bread.
This past weekend I bought chestnuts at the market in Saumur where we were on a daytrip, and rallied my makeshift Assistant family in Angers to help me peel them on Wednesday.


After gathering everything, I was ready to go! I toasted my bread cubes, my flatmate helped taste-test them ("....you could have just bought croutons." was her response. UNHELPFUL.), then in went the various "mix-ins".

The cast

Unfortunately I didn't take any photos of the completed project, but I'm sure you all are creative enough to assume what a 12x15 inch pan of (semi burned) stuffing looks like. I stopped by my friends' apartment to have a glass of wine pre-fête, and we ended up arriving a classicly French 1 hour late. Once we arrived, everyone was waiting plate-in-hand excited for our arrival. The crowd was a mix of about half American, a little less than half British (which INCLUDES Irish, Scottish, and English, as I found out yesterday!), and a couple German and Chinese for good measure. I was so happy to see all the assistants in the same place at the same time, and it really felt like we were a family; some of them I see everyday, some of them I see at school, some I just pass on the streets of Angers.... After being greeted so warmly (mainly because we had the turkey, and they could then begin eating), I was so filled with happiness and eventually cried (what's a holiday if Ming doesn't cry?).

Although I do miss my friends and my family, I felt perfectly content with our family dinner last night. I really feel like I have a home here with so many interesting and international people, and I'm so happy and blessed to be one of them.

Our own hand turkeys! Guess which is mine.

ming.



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