Thanksgiving!!

This had to be the craziest Thanksgiving week ever! It started off usual with school and watching the kids. Then Thanksgiving came around and I didn't have time or plans so I invited over a couple of my American friends for the weekend. WELL…. that changed. In class on Thanksgiving, I was nominated to tell everyone what Thanksgiving was and what it means to Americans. Most of the Colombians and Brazilians knew about the holiday but thought it was just an American holiday before the Christmas season. In other words, they think it has no meaning and we just want to celebrate something before Christmas. Then all the asians in my class had never heard of it before, which I guess is okay since they live on the other side of the world from us and we don't know their traditions either. SO I was nominated to explain Thanksgiving. I went with the whole Indians and Pilgrims (the usual stuff we all learn in elementary school even though such a dinner probably didn't happen) then with how most Americans celebrate the holiday to get together with their families and just spend time with each other. My whole class was like oh we have holidays like that in our countries just at other times of the year. After class I was talking with another American in class (Patrick) and was just asking what he was doing for the holiday. He is here with his wife and three kids for two years. His wife is the head of the French twitter account so they are well off but they came here for two years because of her job. So he told me they were having Thanksgiving at their place since their friends who invited them over in for the holiday have a small apartment and the turkey they bought didn't fit in their oven. Well he was like I would invite you over but I don't have permission to invite people over. I was thinking you don't have permission?? okay….. So I was eating my sandwich outside of the building and he comes up to me and was like you know what you can come over if you want to. (He must've got permission? i have no idea) But I said sure since I didn't have any Thanksgiving plans for the evening. I got there around 730pm since I still had to pick up Hugo and watch him. The apartment Patrick lives in is right by the Eiffel Tower. They are on the ground floor and they have a back yard that goes right into the park attached to the Eiffel Tower! So they have a view of it every day! And the apartment is HUGE! Like one of those apartments that you see in movies that the super rich live in cause its got high ceilings and moldings that are very typical of the 1900s Parisian style. There was a kitchen, dining room, living room, four bedrooms, three bathrooms and the hallway was like a library cause it was lined with shelves and books.  So anyway, I got there around 730 and there was at least 20 some people there. Mostly couples with their kids but the kids were all in middle/high school. There was another girl her name was Stephanie about my age who is an O'pere. So she lives with a family and is their nanny so she has to get the kids up in the morning and take them to school then pick them up later and give them dinner and baths. She has the weekends off so she at least has some time for herself. What was crazy was that she was from Troy, Michigan! So we talked during the evening and she told me some crazy stories about the things her family does. She is pretty much the nanny but also the house keeper cause the mom has her do other things that are not related to the kids. During dinner, we sat next to a French guy Nicholas who works with Patricks wife. After dinner, it was around 930ish and everyone left because the kids still had school the next day. So Stephanie, Nicholas and I were like the night is still young lets take a walk around the Eiffel Tower.

This is what it looked like that evening. Very very foggy. Well Nicholas was like I have never been up in the Eiffel Tower when its foggy want to go? Stephanie and I were like well its kinda expensive (14 euros to go to the top) and we both didn't have the money. Nicholas was like I will take you. So Stephanie and I got to up in the Eiffel Tower!!

Here's me in the elevator!

So this is the view about half way up, not bad right!

This was so funny! Obviously you should beware of pickpocketers but the photo is so funny. Its just so obvious and I don't think thieves are that obvious.

This is the tip top of the eiffel tower and thats the cloud aka fog

Like the view! Its of Paris I promise!

Here's me in front of the west side of Paris! So pretty… haha

This was Nicholas, he was hilarious! He was walking around asking everyone else who was on the tower how they felt about being on the Eiffel Tower in a cloud. He kept saying its like a spiritual being above Paris in a cloud. But he made a bunch of fast friends, except for the Germans who had no idea what he was talking about.

So this is me taking a picture of this cute couple on the Eiffel Tower, Stephanie had my ipod and thought it was a good shot. I have never had a picture of me taking a picture so its cool to have my first picture like this on the Eiffel Tower.

ME! trying to find Paris through the fog

Patrick trying to blow away the fog with a caution cone. lol so funny!

This is Stephanie, she made a Thanksgiving head band with the kids she watches. She got a lot of looks but we had fun!

So their is a light on top of the Eiffel Tower and when your at the bottom you think its a continuous light but its actually 4 lights and they connect with each other to make it look like its one light. I did not know that.

At the stop of the tower was Gustave Eiffel's office. Apparently Thomas Edison came to visit him here in his office! 

The level right under where you could see Paris was this wall of how tall the Eiffel Tower is compared to other buildings. The dotted line is the hight of the Eiffel Tower. 

Finally, on our way down we could see more! This is the view from halfway up the Tower.

This is the machine that works the elevator. Looks very old but it still works!

I love this picture, this is at the bottom looking up. Can't see a thing but it looks very majestic.

Over the weekend, I had over two of my american friends for dinner and I made Thanksgiving dinner!. I forgot to take the picture until after we had to take our portions but I still documented it. I made turkey with mushrooms, onions, carrots and green beans with an herbs de provinces spices. It came out so so well! The turkey was so moist and delicious! Then there was a tomato, mozzarella, cucumber salad with balsamic vinaigrette. My friend Katie brought the garlic mashed potatoes. Everything was so good! Then for dessert I made the inside of apple pie since I didn't have time to make the crust but I got some vanilla ice cream and it was so good! Warm apples and ice cream…yum! Needless to say my Thanksgiving here was unexpectedly great!!