Preparing for the Feast

Wednesday was not a very busy day. I caught up with Julie on HIMYM and bummed around though I did manage to squeeze in a run before Italian class in the afternoon. Italian was delightful because it's Anna and she's always a treat in the lull of the afternoon. After Italian and a tiny hint of homework Pepperoni, Tom and I went to Le Fate for dinner, even though our beloved Kat is in Siena. It's wonderful and slightly embarrassing but Gabrielle knows our orders without asking us now. After dinner the boys stopped over for a quick minute to watch some SNL with Sophia and Sam and I then trooped back to Prati.

Thursday was Thanksgiving!!!! In the US. yeah, nothing changed in Italy. It was really nice to go grocery shopping without all the lines and hustle and bustle! IES cancelled our Italian classes so we could enjoy Thanksgiving dinners but most people took that as a sign to skip class on Thursday and travel for the long weekend. Since my Conversation class had already met on Tuesday we didn't have class in the morning and I only had two hours with my man Gianni on my academic schedule. We all nerded out on virtual reality simulations of ruins and how they originally looked, then discussed our class pizza dinner. After class I brought Hope home for some lunch and chatting. I wanted to go up to St. Sabine again, which is very close to Hope's homestay, but I couldn't rally any troops. So I walked Hope part of the way home for her, learning new back streets and stopping in the confectionery by Circus Maximus for a mimosa cake with her (Nico's was much better). There we split and I walked off towards Trastevere.

In Trastevere I met up with Julie to look for the international store to buy canned pumpkin. We found it with a little help from a friend and then saw many more IES students finishing up their shopping and dressed to the nines for their holiday dinner! We found brown sugar and pancake mix (for colazione per cena with Izzy) and pumpkin. We stopped at Despar on the way home for the rest of our ingredients and hurried home to start cooking. Sophia made something similar to scalloped potatoes but it included apple slices also, plus her mulled wine. Julie made delicious stuffing and a pumpkin pie (thank goodness! It's not Thanksgiving without one). I made an apple pie again. The boys brought mashed potatoes and salads and buff.chick.dip and green beans. We had bread from Fillippo and wine! It was a feast. Aven's family and Sophia's family both joined us along with Anna (from IES) and Chris who both go to Santa Clara with Mattly and Aven. There were candles all around with laughter and fun. It was exactly what I think of when I think Thanksgiving.

Mattly and I

Julie and Sophia: the Duo

Tom and Mattly

SO CLASSY!!!

Turkey hands of what we are thankful for

This is what friendship in Rome looks like

Supermodel Julie

These kids make me smile
every single day

After a few failed tries I finally made connect with my family back home in time to say hello to Gran. I even got to chat with the -Er's and Reeds briefly. I miss you all and am sad I couldn't be home for dinner but I'll see you in less than a month!