Pilgrim

1:03 A.M.

Ugh, I'm so stuffed. Me and the Americans had a late Thanksgiving dinner tonight at Cyril's house with 2 Germans and 1 Brit. We had a turkey (which had to be ordered from a boucherie, haha), cranberry sauce, mashed potatos, yams, apple tart, and a pumpkin pie complete with vanilla ice cream. Just like home! The Europeans seemed vaguely amused by the whole thing, but who doesn't enjoy a holiday dedicated to eating?? (Er, except for anorexics...) After dinner, we lazily sat in front of the TV and watched the Asterix movie. Burrr... cannot move.

I spent the day making an apple tart and sweet potato casserole. The frustrating thing about cooking in France is not having all the proper ingredients. It seems as if brown sugar doesn't exist in France (my room mate disagrees, but thinks cane sugar is the same as brown sugar, which it is NOT!). Then there's this whole metric system business. Roomie #2 says I seem like a little girl when I ask if 1000 grams is a lot.

On Thursday (Thanksgiving), the Americans and I had dinner at a restaurant with Cyril and his parents. I tried frogs' legs for the first time! They were actually quite tasty, covered in garlic and served with mushrooms. For my main dish, I had veal with potatos. I never eat veal in the U.S., but I figured I should be trying new things while I'm here. Frogs legs and veal, that sounds like an adventurous dinner for a picky eater such as myself (but I had a safe choice for dessert: the best tiramisu ever, drool). I called my mom after dinner and heard all my relatives chatting in the background with the doorbell ringing every so often. Sigh.

Ooh and it's been a while since I've posted. I went to Lyon last weekend and stayed with Amanda! It was so strange being back, like one big deja vu. I've missed the city for the past year and finally there I was. I visited my old apartment building (even punched in the code to enter the first door but obviously didn't have the keys to get through the second one, so I just kind of stood there looking into my old mailbox), visited my old epicerie and the owner still remembered me and my favorite cereal!, ate salade lyonnaise at Black Lion with the same regulars sitting at the bar, had beers at the Wallace, popped into the Smoking Dog, coffee at Cafe de la cathédrale, etc... Some things have changed, there's a new H&M, Monoprix, and Starbucks. Weeeiirdd... Oh, Lyon, you will always be the city of my heart.

I was sitting in a café with Amanda before taking the train back when it started to snow (living in California my whole life, it seems strange that snow is even a possibility). On the way back, the train got stuck in Dijon for an hour because of the snow on the tracks. It was 1 A.M. by the time I got into Metz and I felt like shit. I called in sick the next morning, but in France, you have to go the doctor to get an arrete de travail saying that you can't work. The doctor prescribed me 4 different types of medicine (1 spray for the nose, 1 spray for the throat, capsules for fever, and a cough syrup). I feel like American medicine is so much stronger than French medicine. I took it all and still felt like crap!

Gaahh it is fucking cold here. I miss California weather and suddenly being harassed by Christmas everywhere after Thanksgiving. They've put up tons of lights all over Metz and the Christmas markets are up and running, but it's too damn cold to stay out for long!
Anyway, this post was so unorganized, but I'm too tired and full to care. Mmm, time to sleep in.