Thanksgiving!

Before I came here, I was worried about spending Thanksgiving alone, in a foreign country. Not so much Christmas, because I had plans to travel during the vacances, but as Thanksgiving falls quite literally in the middle of a random week in France, I was particularly anxious about celebrating toute seule.

Thankfully :) I didn't have to! An American assistant from a nearby city came to Jonzac, and we spent the day cooking, stressing out about cooking, and cooking some more. 3 hours and a lot of mess later, we laid the table with turkey breast, mashed potatoes, stuffing, cranberries, greenbean casserole and delicious corn bread, all made completely from scratch with French ingredients. not completely orthodox, but delish anyway. A few other UK assistants stopped by, as well as some French friends, and we were able to celebrate Thanksgiving in the usual fashion by enjoying good food and good conversation. And I've now got enough enough leftovers to last until December...!

Anyway! There's less than three weeks left until I leave for Madrid for Christmas vacation. We still haven't planned what we're doing there (at all...) but I imagine it will work out. Although a group of assistants are planning a weekend trip to Paris in December, I'm planning on sticking around Jonzac, despite how boring it might prove to be. I need to save as many centimes as possible to make this vacation to Spain work, remembering also that I'll have my own long weekend in Paris in mid December when Eric (le copain) gets here.

Although I feel guilty and depressed doing so, I am definitely counting down the days not just until vacation, but until he arrives. I should be happy that I've been given this opportunity to live in France, and I AM, it's just difficult to enjoy in such a small town, alone. There's not even another assistant here. So by thinking about January, when he arrives, I'm able to envision a time in Jonzac when I won't be feeling as lonely or depressed. Just having someone to make food with, or to take a walk with will make all the difference.

In that vein, however, I'm making attempts to reach out and meet people. Jonzac has a BTS program in Dietetique, and I recently went to one of their French classes with the hopes of meeting some French students. Turns out there's 30 or so of them who live in Jonzac, and are close to my age! They've invited me out to a party this evening, and I hope it goes well, so in the future, I can have some French friends with whom to talk, drink, and hang out.

On a final note, I realize I've never posted any photos of where I live!!Bedroom Kitchen!