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“I don’t have arms, but I have friends”

                -speech bubble from an armless stick figure on a poster about discrimination in one of my schools.

I apologize for my absence of over a month, I have absolutely no excuse, besides that so much has happened that once I missed a week, it just seemed too daunting to catch up. So rather than try to recap the entire fall season, I’m just going to tell you about my friends – I’m lucky enough to have both arms and friends.

Last night those of us who are still around gathered at Carly’s place for a white elephant exchange. The east-coasters (both the residents of the house) call this a “Yankee swap,” which was appreciated by our british friends. I spent the day going to various groceries to find ingredients for Russian tea cakes, my holiday classic (snickerdoodles have far too many non-french ingredients, so I didn’t even try). Powdered sugar is sold in a plastic jar here, and costs nearly 4 euro for no more than a cup. Don’t even get me started on Pecans. I finally gathered everything that I needed and whipped up some teacakes in the foyer’s kitchen, then headed over to Carly’s. We ate treats and enjoyed the Christmas spirit, and I introduced the gang to Cointreau-cocoa, which if you haven’t tried, you should. It’s much like a chocolate orange, in a glass. Delicious. So we’re all sitting around in Carly’s room, sippin on our cocoa, and then the lights dim, and I look up to see Carly walk in carrying a cake, candles and all. All my friends are singing me happy birthday and I’m left speechless, caught entirely off guard. I’ve never been surprised for my birthday before, and I can’t even begin to express how happy this made me. I was planning on a pretty terrible birthday, basically all alone in France, but my friends went above and beyond to make sure that didn’t happen. I blew out the candles (or tried to, as it turns out French trick-candles are impossible to put out, even after pinching with wet fingers they light back up), and then was showered with presents, each one a new surprise. I can’t believe how many people got me gifts, when I was only expecting to walk away with a candy bar or plastic trinket from the white elephant. As it turns out, one of my gifts was a tiny elephant that when blown into makes the sound you would expect a 2 inch elephant to make. I cannot say thank you enough to these people who have made my time here bearable, and my birthday wonderful. You guys are the best, you’ve completely outdone yourselves.

Another gift was broccoli to go with the Ranch dressing that Misty brought. They don't have Ranch here, and I  had told Misty that I liked cooked broccoli with Ranch. Now everyone else does, too.

After the birthday festivities were through, the white elephant began, and having drawn number 1, I picked my package and got some chocolate eggs filled with toys. This was one of the more polite white elephants I’ve been to, with very little stealing, and even less crappy gifts (aside from the package of screws, everything was pretty excellent). In the end I came away with a chocolate santa, which I promptly ate the head of, and because whoever had the eggs forgot to take them home, I got those too. A few people went home at this point and the rest of us started singing Christmas carols. When ‘Away in a Manger’ came along, we all started singing, but soon realized we were singing two different tunes. Apparently in England, they use the traditional hymnal tune. Same for Little Town of Bethleham, I think. This led us to ‘God save the Queen’ vs. ‘My country tis of thee,’ which of course resulted in the Americans trying to remember all the words to the latter. Once we hammered that out, we all headed home. I couldn’t have asked for a better birthday surprise, thanks again, team.

Things that have happened since I last updated, which I can tell you about if you’re interested:

A trip to the LC club, the biggest dance club in Nantes. Power week – ten straight days of going out. My neighbor letting us into a church at midnight to listen to him play the third biggest organ in Nantes. Karaoke, twice. A trip to Ancenis. Iceskating. Hosting Thanksgiving for 35 of my friends. Thanksgiving in Angers. KeriAnn's gangsta birthday, durag and all. Last weekend in Angers before the kids leave.

I may write about some of these things anyway, but let me know if you want an update on anything specifically.