Thanksgiving in Paris

SO one of the benefits of having American friends in Paris is that I get to celebrate both Canadian and American thanksgiving with friends :) Although the American thanksgiving was on the Thursday, we celebrated it on the Friday. We headed over to Michele's house for a wonderful meal. I got there early and we started cooking. For any of you who know Michele, you know her apartment is quaint but small and therefore it was difficult to cook everything at once so we had to do almost everything one at a time!! Eventually it all got done and the others started showing up. Jasmin made hot wine, which was delicious. We had stuffing, gravy, turkey, the stachell green bean casserole, corn bread, mashed potatoes and of course pumpkin pie!!! Fantastic! Man did it feel like home. It was really nice. Instead of the typical sporting event we headed out to a bar (or two). It was a great thanksgiving, even if it was in Paris and on the American holiday !! lol

Halloween in Paris ( a little behind but none the less)

So I know I am literally a month behind on this post but here goes anyways.
The night before Halloween some friends and I went to a scottish bar for a pumpkin carving event. It was organized by an american who has lived here for awhile and this is the second annual pumpkin carving event. We got into groups and paid 10 euros for the group to get a pumpkin, a knife and spoon and markers. We were then given about an hour and a half (even though it was only supposed to be an hour!) to carve the pumpkin. We then placed all the pumpkins along the bar and they bar staff judged them for us. My group was made up of the two girls I had gone with, and four or five other people we just met there that evening. Gotta love who these things bring foreigners together. We decided to carve a ghost into our pumpkin. It didn't look too bad, but unfortunately didn't win. Oh well, maybe next year.

The following evening was Halloween!! Halloween was interesting out here. The French don't actually celebrate halloween out here. They are starting to send the kids out trick or treating but it is dificult when almost everyone lives in apartment buildings. As for the young adults, they don't mind going out to celebrate especially since it was on a friday this year. However, and this is the big however. Most French don't actually dress up!! That is part of the whole fun of the evening is getting dressed up into a costume and acting like someone other than yourself. They even have incentive out here. Bars were offering free shots or cheap drinks if you showed up in costume, yet still the number of non-foreigners dressed up was minimal. It even got to the point where some people came up to us and asked to have their picture taken with us because we were all dressed up!! It was odd, we were like stars, simply for doing what ever normal north american young adult does on Halloween evening!!! I was dressed as a bunny and we decided to do a little pub crawl. We had a blast. Met some really interesting people and a lot of foreigners. It was pretty clear when we were out to see who was north american and who was french and who was from elsewhere in europe based on their costumes. We saw everything from Kid Rock to the flinstones to snow white to elvis. We had a lot of fun and that is all that really matters isn't it :)

the french movie experience

Twilight (the second chapter) came out on wednesday night here in Paris. Some friends and I decided to go see it. What an experience let me tell you! We waited in line which was actually more of a clump! Out here they don't know how to line up for a film but rather cram as many people as possible between two velvet ropes which are set a good 30 feet apart. So everyone sortof clumps together and pushes and complains about everyone else pushing them, etc. and waits. Finally about 5 mintues before the film is supposed to start they start letting people in. They barely check tickets and they just usher everyone in. I must admit I felt very much like cattle! lol We headed up the escalator in no real order and basically in chaos and then headed to the theatre. Then more chaos rained, the doors from the theatre opened and people shooved through. It was literally a mad house. Finally we found seats (together which was lucky). It was craziness, people yelling at others for saving seats, people pushing people. An actual fight broke out! lol I love the movies. Then the advertisments start. Out here it is literally 25 minutes long and that is before it starts the actual upcoming ads. And then the movie begins. I have to say, watching an English movie with french subtitles in France is different. They don't laugh at the same things the rest of us do! lol it was a good movie, and a fun experience. I enjoyed the film and loved watching it with a bunch french (men and women). Another great french film experience! :)

the experience of watching a French Wild West film

Out here in France they have a comic strip about a Wild West character named Lucky Luke. Or as the French pronounce it 'Louky Louk'. The comic strip isn't too bad, funny and has some big wild west characters in it. So during the school vacation I went to see the film with a friend and three boys she babysits for. My friend and I were surprised and slightly disappointed by the film. It wouldn't have been so bad, except for the horrible rendition of the wild west characters. They had Billy the kid who acted like a 5 year old, and was psychotic. Jess James spent most of the film quoting shakespeare, and not the typical character from our Wild West stories. Even Calamity Jane was present but one of the most ugly and oddest people I have ever seen. None of these characters were presented in a way that was typical of their north american wild west personalities. The film would probably have been good if I didn't know the North American version of the Wild West. It was a very typcial french film and was definitely an experience. Too bad, it wasn't better but it was still fun. :)