The Weekend Review - Thanksgiving

The weekend was good. Was still sick at the end of the week (same stupid cough, but starting to hit me during classes), so I went back to the doc on Friday. He tried to give me 4 days of medicine, but I argued my way to a 10-day supply and am actually feeling better (and should kick it soon).

We also had our big American Thanksgiving celebration (a few days early), officially organized and hosted by Tam. The table was also furnished with amazing and delectible dishes from the 30-something other folks that came, BYOB. We were originally going to do a din at Tam and Clayton's place, but the size of our group has grown considerably in the last year (there were maybe 10 at last year's dinner) and we didn't have an oven to cook the turkey (22lbs of gobblicious goodness!), so we ended up renting out the kitchen at the Nambu community center. I think this is the first Thanksgiving I have celebrated outside of the states where we were actually able to get our hands on real turkey (not chicken)... and a full bird at that.

I actually stayed in on Friday, baking of all things. My neighbor, Miwa, who...gasp!... owns an oven (a truly and strangely rare thing in this country...but sure to be taken advantage of again!) helped. We made a pumpkin pie from scratch (happy I brought over the American measuring cups for the recipe), muffins (got an awesome new silicone tin at IY), jello (although the Minnesota-shaped Jigglers melted into a mushy blob before I got them to the meal) and some other small things. The pie was delicious and it was fun to spend some quality time at the 住宅。

Not much else going on. Got a haircut on Saturday. Not a big change...slowly working out the Posh Spice cut. Went for a nice walk on Sunday. Not doing very well with finishing the apps and studying Japanese (no internet at home is taking a toll in the submission process and Japanese is interesting, but don't have the zest for studying kanji that I have had with other languages in the past... still have to push myself for drive), but it's going. Still no running, either (lungs can't handle it), but hopefully soon... I feel like my body is begging for it (and so is my mind... it is seriously great meditation).

Anyways, I'm gonna head out, but I hope all of you at home have a very
HAPPY THANKSGIVING this week. I am thankful for all of you:)

I'll leave you with a little collage Tu made from the dinner (and karaoke after)... Cheers!