I love Thanksgiving, it's definitely tied with Christmas for my favorite holiday.  I was determined to have a small Thanksgiving in France even though it would be my first time cooking anything Thanksgiving related. You see, I'm blessed with a large family so I never had to cook on holidays. The kitchen was so jam packed with mothers, aunts, and grandmothers that it was easier to just wait for the food to magically appear on the table rather than try to stick myself into that hubbub to try and learn. For my first ever Thanksgiving I decided to stick to the staples: turkey, stuffing, green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, gravy, and my great aunt Mae's apple krisp.
          I started my shopping the week of and quickly learned being in France would make everything much more difficult. I started at the Monoprix in center city, comparable to a small Walmart, and ended up going to the Géant at the mall after Monoprix failed me, comparable to a large 24 hour Walmart. For instance they don't have roasting pans with racks. I had to buy a pan and then build a contraption out of an old cooling rack for baking and some string. They also don't seem to have thermometers for checking food temperatures which I found just absolutely bizarre. I even asked a sales associate and while he knew what I was talking about, they didn't have any in stock. They weren't sold out, they just didn't even have them in stock. They don't have basters. They have similar syringes for pastries but they were way too small.
          As for pre-prepared food stuffs, just forget it. I had to make everything from scratch. No canned cream of mushroom soup, breadcrumbs, or fried onions for the green beans, no precut stuffing size bread cubes, no half and half, no poultry seasoning, nothing. The smallest turkey the butcher had was 12 lbs, cost 45€, and it didn't come with giblets!
          There were tons of people I wanted to invite but a lot of our friends have family and I would feel weird inviting someone but asking them to leave their spouse and children at home! But we just don't have enough room for families, we only have a counter for a table and it only seats 4, plus the apartment is definitely not child friendly. I plan on buying a fold out table to set up in the living room when we have more people over, but my small scale Thanksgiving was already quite expensive so I didn't want to add extra expenses on top. In the end we invited JN as he was our first friend we made coming here and helped us out so much in the beginning when we were overwhelmed and lost. He was bragging about his Thanksgiving dinner to his friends and our mutual friend, Martin, jokingly asked if he could come over. Considering the amounts of food we had leftover, we said sure, why not, and that's how a fourth person entered our Thanksgiving feast.
          All in all, everything came out okay. Considering this is the first time I ever did something like this, I would say it came out amazing. I forgot about my casserole in the oven so some of the fried onions got burnt and I left Jeremy in charge of mashing the potatoes and he over mashed so they were a little "gluey", and my gravy was a little bland since I didn't have the giblets but they were all very minor errors so the end result was still very good. Our friends loved it, and JN said it was the first time he ever felt drunk off food, which is a huge compliment to me! The one weird event was the next day the mashed potatoes tasted weird. My hypothesis was that since I had to make half and half out of whisking together whole milk and light cream, that maybe over night they kind of separated again because you could definitely taste the cream. I had never tasted cream by itself before. Due to the word being used the way it is, I expected something, well, creamy tasting, like milk but more buttery. In actuality it kind of tasted like something between yogurt and sour cream. On the night I made the mashed potatoes, it tasted fine, but the day after you could definitely taste that yogurt/sour cream taste. I also had half and half in the green bean casserole but that didn't change taste the next day. Maybe because the half and half actually gets cooked with the casserole while with the mashed potatoes it just gets warmed up and added in.
          When everything was all said and done, this Thanksgiving cost us about 80€ ($85) and I spent literally an entire day prepping and cooking, but it was worth it. Next year will be a little cheaper since this year also included buying cookware and accessories we didn't have. It was definitely worth it and so nice to have a Thanksgiving instead of being depressed and missing home. Next blog I will go back in time and finally talk about Halloween!

          Move over, Jason Voorhees, there are worse killers claiming this day. I'm sure people have been checking my blog since that day to see my opinion. I purposely waited longer to gather my thoughts and see the opinion of French people before I posted.
          The thing is, the French in Besançon aren't really talking. At least not to us. There could be a multitude of reasons. It happened on a Friday night, so by the time Jeremy went to work Monday, people weren't talking. They had probably discussed it all weekend with friends and family and figured it was moot to keep talking about it. Maybe they didn't want to talk to a foreigner about it. Maybe they figured they couldn't express their feelings well enough in English and we wouldn't understand them in French. So no one said much of anything to us besides a few words of grief. Not only that, but we feel tentative bringing it up as we are outsiders. So since they're not bringing it up and we're not bringing it up, nothing is said.
          From what I can see and feel when walking around town is that people are sad, but determined to keep living life the same as always. There are rallies and the centers of some of the squares have flowers and candles, but people are still going out to cafés and drinking with friends. The few French friends I have on facebook all posted something along the lines of "Keep living free and carefree, because that's what their jealous of and want to destroy." They have the feeling that if this turns them into hermits who are afraid of everyone, then Daesh has won.
          As for the Muslim population, I haven't seen much hate. I've read articles of Muslims allegedly fearing for their lives now but at least in Besançon that doesn't seem to be true. Muslims are a huge part of France. I would go as far as to say that they are almost not a minority. There are kebab stores on every block owned by Muslims. There is one corner near me that has three right on that corner. Outer city limits where apartments are cheaper are mostly Muslim. What I'm getting at is everyone personally knows Muslims here so I think it's easier for them to understand that comparing Daesh "Muslims" to normal Muslims is like comparing the KKK and Christians. There are 1.5 billion Muslims in the world. There are 30,000 - 50,000 Daesh members. That means 0.00003% of Muslims are a part of ISIS. In reality it's even less because a Daesh campaign is to convert vulnerable or angry people from outside of Syria, outside of the Muslim religion, and convince them to join their cause.
          In fact, not a single one of the terrorists from Friday so far have been Syrian. They were all European nationals. One Syrian passport was found but proven to be fake and one Egyptian passport was found but proven to be of an injured tourist. All the terrorists identified so far were European nationals, mostly French and Belgian, who joined Daesh. Remember I said that was one of their campaigns? It has also been theorized that the Syrian passport was planted on purpose to cause fear towards refugees.
          And why do I keep referring to them as Daesh instead of ISIS, ISIL, or IS? Well for one it's because that's what the French call them - although it's Daech due to differences in translation. It's an acronym for the group's full Arabic name, al-Dawla al-Islamiya fi al-Iraq wa al-Sham. The second reason is that it's what many political leaders are urging people to do. Calling them ISIS (Islamic State in Iraq and al-Sham), ISIL (Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant), or IS (Islamic State) not only makes them sound larger by calling them a "state", but it blurs the lines between this group, Islam, Muslims, and Islamists. Daesh wants to be a caliphate (a form of Islamic government led by a ruler called a caliph) but has been denounced. Calling themselves a state makes them feel like a caliphate and gives them legitimacy. Why are we giving them what they want? The third reason is the best. It's because they hate being called Daesh. Depending on it's conjugated in Arabic, Daesh can mean "to trample and crush" but it can also mean "a bigot who imposes his view on others".  It's for this reason they hate it and have declared they will cut out the tongues of anyone they hear calling them that.
          I am also deeply saddened at America's response, the response of wanting to now turn away all Syrian refugees. Like I said before, none of the terrorists were Syrian refugees. These people are just trying to flee the same group we fear and fight against. In fact, not a single Syrian refugee has ever been arrested in the US for plotting or performing terrorist attacks. In the past 18 months, nearly 70 people have been arrested in the US for plotting terrorist attacks. 6 were Bosnian refugees, 1 was a Somalian refugee, and 1 was Cuban. The other 60 were Americans. People you would never expect like a nurse or a pizza shop owner. In fact, just as many veterans were arrested as refugees. Do you fear all our veterans now that you know this? Should they all be turned away or arrested when they come home after risking their lives for our country because 0.0000007% turned into terrorists? After all, it's a greater percent than the number of Syrian refugees who turned out to be terrorists, which is 0%.
          I'm glad Francois Hollande, the president of France, has not ceased effort in aiding Syrian refugees. Processing has become more strict, which I understand. Even though there has been no Syrian refugee terrorist yet doesn't mean there never will be. Caution is warranted, even fear is warranted, it's the factless and irrational fear like banning an entire population that should be in check.
          Everyone is entitled to an opinion, and this is mine. If you personally don't want Syrian refugees in your country, that's fine too. But don't call them terrorists or sleeper agents because the facts just aren't there. Just keep in mind that Albert Einstein, Max Born, Claude Lévi-Strauss, Michael Marks, Current Dalai Lama Tenzin Gyatso, Jackie Chan, and even Jesus are/were refugees.

          Well, if you don't know me, I'm the type of person who doesn't go out often. If I am dragged to some party or the other, I will be in the corner playing with the host's pet(s). This has all changed in the past month or so, and now I find myself with some social event or another almost every day!
          It all started with an ending. Jeremy's company decided that I have had enough tutor lessons for French. I don't blame them, it was very generous of them to pay for someone who doesn't even work for them anyway. I couldn't afford to continue lessons on my own so I started seeking an alternative. France is great in that it has tons of places for like-minded people to gather. There are tons of locations that can be rented out for very cheap for "loisirs" (hobbies) as well as numerous youth and culture centers that offer courses in things as serious as finance to things as lighthearted as dance and music. In France no matter how odd your hobby, you will find a group to do it with. As an added bonus, fees for such events and courses are very cheap - I assume because they don't have to charge you out the wazoo because unlike the US they don't have to worry about insurance fees and getting sued if someone gets hurt.
          So while I was trying to find a substitute for my tutoring, Jeremy's coworker told him about dance classes being held at MJC - a youth and culture center. We decided to sign up and when Jeremy went to the center to pay, he saw a flyer for French as a second language course! Perfect! He tried to sign me up then and there, but the woman said I have to contact the woman on the flyer first and courses were in less than 2 weeks, so act quickly.
          I call on a Friday and there's no answer. I hadn't mentally prepared myself to try and leave a voicemail and I don't even know my own phone number without looking anyway so I have to hang up. By the time I translated what I wanted to say it was too late to call. Monday comes and I call twice, leaving a voicemail the second time (I just don't like leaving voicemails, okay?!). She called back two days later and I was immediately intimidated because of how fast she was speaking. I asked her to please speak more slowly to no avail. I had told her on the voicemail I don't speak well, asked her on the phone to slow down, why is a woman who is teaching French as a second language not getting the hint? It didn't matter anyway because our call got disconnected. I waited a bit for her to call back but she didn't. Over the course of the day I called back a few times and they all were just dial tone noise. I kept calling each day and then two days before the class was to start I found her e-mail address on the MJC website and sent her an e-mail. You probably don't have to guess, I got not response from that either.
          I could't find any more courses similar. Now with the tutor cancelled, I've lost my one reason to get out of the house and I'm starting to go stir crazy. Dance lessons are okay but it's only one hour a week and since you're being active, it feels like it's over so quickly. And while it works me physically, it doesn't work me mentally since there is no talking besides the teacher teaching dance steps.
         Jeremy decided to check out onvasortir.com, a website dedicated to people meeting up and hanging out, typically in large groups. For instance this Friday, there are currently 35 events on onvasortir for Besançon. There are quite a few for dancing and swimming, billiards, zumba, football (soccer), a drink before dinner, some concerts and plays, a documentary about the origin of the apple, a girl who is looking for other girls to go clothes shopping with, karaoke, qi cong, bowling, and a couple dinners. A person creates an event, a time, how many people they are looking for, and some paragraphs about the event and if you're interested you sign up. Jeremy found an event were people go to practice their English and decided we should go.
          It ended up being really fun although I don't get to practice my French as it's a group for practicing English and they want to hear us speak it. But now we go to that every Friday night and the woman who organizes it, upon hearing I crochet, invited me to her knitting group that meets up on Saturdays. Then three other people gave me their numbers to meet up outside of the English meet up so they can practice English and I can practice French. I also got a hold of my old tutor so we could meet up from time to time for lunch and one thing turned to another and now I am occasionally babysitting her kids!
          All of a sudden I went from doing absolutely nothing to being busy almost every day. So Friday I met up with my tutor, Marie, for lunch and then had the English meet up that night and then 7 of us decided to go out for dinner together afterwards, Saturday was knitting, Monday was a meet-up with two people from the English group, Séverine and Benoit, Tuesday was a meet-up with Benoit and then babysitting Marie's kids, today is a classical music concert with a couple other people from the English meet-up, Marion and Loz, and then dinner at Marion's house, tomorrow is dancing, and then we're back to Friday with the English meet-up! I am a busy girl, but it's giving me more experiences to write about, so stay tuned!

          There was a weekend I'm dubbing "European Heritage Weekend" because that's what Jeremy called it. I don't know what it was actually called. The problem with a lot of events in Besançon is that they're not very well publicized. For instance, a couple weeks ago I was walking around center city only to find about a quarter of it blocked off from vehicles and a huge market filling every street. No banners, no ads, nothing on the Besançon facebook page or tourist website. Another example would be the city-wide music festival from this blog post. I suppose if it happens the same time every year, they assume word of mouth is good enough.
          On this weekend, every government owned or maintained property is open to the public. Every church, military building, school, government building, museum, and so on, opens their doors and is free admittance. This is country wide, even Le Louvre is free! We took the opportunity to see three churches, a military building, and some Roman architecture. If we had known about it earlier, we could have fit in a bunch more.
          The Roman architecture was in the underground parking lot of a government building. When digging the parking lot, they unearthed Roman aqueducts from way back when Besançon was part of the Holy Roman Empire. Instead of destroying history, they decided to forego a section of parking spaces and preserve the aqueduct.
          The military building we just happened upon while walking to a church and decided to wander in. They had some old jeeps and motorcycles on display in the courtyard and inside were mannequins wearing uniforms from each each war. There was also a holding cell where prisoners of war were temporarily held during WWI and they had preserved the one wall where prisoners had etched in drawings, names, etc. with their aiglets (the hard tip of the shoelace). Of course, this is what I picked up on during a tour given in French, so some of my info may be slightly off. I didn't take any pictures because it was super intimidating. There were on-duty soldiers posted in every room, in the courtyard, even on the staircase. This place looked fancy. Like, just the rug in one room probably costs more than everything in my living room fancy. So I just kept my hands to my sides.
          We mainly used this opportunity to see the churches. Churches here are gorgeous, but most are usually only open for services and we felt uncomfortable just walking in to gawk at the architecture and art. We saw three, though one was admittedly not impressive and no pictures were taken, so I won't cover that one.
          First we saw St. Maurice. When we went in there were no members or visitors. It was gorgeous but it seemed as if it was no longer used for services and looked to be more like a giant storage room for religious art. I unfortunately don't have many pictures as it was dark.

          The second church was St. Magdeleine. This church was amazing. It doubles as a tiny museum for religious art and history. Downstairs was paintings and statues and upstairs was old artifacts and robes. The upstairs was too small and crowded to take pictures but I have most of the downstairs. There was also an ancient old man who played the church's two century old pipe organ and we were allowed to go up and see him, which was just absolutely amazing.

          My next blog post will be all about why this blog post took so long to write! I accidentally became a social butterfly and have different events almost every day now!