The Delights of Dulce de Leche

Without a single doubt, the best thing about Chile (but only one of the best things about Argentina, since for that country there are many wonderful things!) is the manjar, called dulce de leche in Argentina, (and I think the rest of the world). It has the same colour as caramel or butterscotch, but it is infinitely infinitely better - better taste, better texture, better richness, and I could go on. I'm lucky that grocery stores (Loblaws in Toronto, Provigo in Montreal) carry it, because it allows me to still have it even when I'm not in South America. The first time I found it at Loblaws, I brought it home and before I had even put it in the cupboard I found myself eating it by the spoonful directly from the jar. After about 4 very big spoonfuls, I managed to put it away. But it was hard!

In Chile and Argentina, desserts (pastries, ice cream) are everywhere, which must be why I came back about fifteen pounds heavier after I studied abroad in Santiago. My sweet toothness goes back a long way. Dulce de leche/manjar features prominently in most pastries sold at bakeries. Within the first few weeks of my six month stay in Santiago I discovered manjar, and then proceeded to spend the following five and a half months eating entirely too much of it. My absolute favourite were mendocinos (called alfajores in Argentina – see picture below, sometimes they put powdered sugar on the outside) which is a two layed cookie with a lot of dulce de leche in the middle. This little café I went to all the time had both big ones and tiny little bite sized ones (called Mendocino chicos, in Argentina called alfajorcitos - also a picture below), of which I used to eat on average four a day telling myself that since they were so small, they really weren’t that bad. At the end of many a long day (or sometimes in the middle of the day) I’d stop on my way home for a little mendocino treat. I may have felt like I didn’t belong in Santiago, and I may have spent far more unhappy days than happy ones there, but when it came to a love of desserts and manjar, I fit right in.

Buenos Aires has the best ice cream of any other city I've ever been to (it also must have one of the highest percentages of ice cream shops per capita of any city in the world), and the main reason I believe that is because of the dulce de leche ice cream. Haagen Dazs also makes a dulce de leche ice cream which consists of a light coloured dulce de leche base with swirls of real dulce de leche mixed in. It's very good, but it doesn't come close to the dulce de leche ice cream in Buenos Aires. For starters, there's the colour. The Buenos Aires dulce de leche is a darker colour (a mix of tan and brown) than the Haagen Dazs, and the colour alone is enough to tell that the ice cream’s flavour is just pouring out. The ice cream is also very rich, but not an overwhelming or too rich rich, instead, it has a richness that is just right. It’s perfectly balanced, and perfectly delicious, and makes a person want to have ice cream every day.

Though I do miss the authentic dulce de leche filled pastries and ice cream of Argentina, fortunately, I have been able to find ways to eat dulce de leche back in North America which do not involve a spoon and a jar. Last year, I began mixing dulce de leche into my buttercream cupcake icing to great success. And for my most recent birthday, I had a dessert party at my apt where by far the most popular dessert I served was a homemade dulce de leche cheesecake. Happily, everyone really enjoyed it and it was the only dessert I didn't have any left overs of (much to my chagrin...) I'm glad it was such a success, and I'm also pleased to have found another way to eat dulce de leche.

Just before I left Berkeley for good, I had a dinner party on the summer solstice at my Hilgard apt where I served (what else??) spaghetti and wine. L. brought dessert and surprised me by baking these wonderful afajores. They were delicious, and such a treat! That was before I really got into baking myself (or rather expanded my baking beyond cake mixes) and writing this has reminded me that I should really either ask L. for the recipe, or search for one online myself. I may not be able to indulge in Argentine alfajores whenever I want, but I can at least try my best to make my own version, and to bring a little bit more dulce de leche into my life.

To Eat In or To Eat Out...

My love of take out food goes way back. During high school on the nights my parents both worked late, they'd leave me money to order pizza, or get Thai food from the little place near our house, or whatever other take out I felt like getting. Looking back now, I realize it never occurred to any of us that I should actually cook something for myself, with some left over for them too when they got home :)

Once I moved to Berkeley, and, after my first year was out of the dorms and in an apt, my cooking forays were very basic: spaghetti and other kinds of pasta, and very occasionally pesto pizza (but on store-bought flat bread). Although, I had had high hopes for my first year living in an apt. Over that summer, L. and I went to this book store near her house in the Beaches and both bought a "How to Cook Everything" cookbook, which I unfortunately lost sometime that year, needless to say before I could cook anything out of it. So other than making spaghetti in Berkeley, I ate out. But luckily, Berkeley had really great places to eat. I wasn't eating gross, unhealthy fast food, I was eating giant salads (yeah Veggie Delight, A. and I's favourite!) at Intermezzo, good Mexican food with the best strawberry juice in the world at Cancun, really great Thai food at Cha Am, gourmet pizza at Cheeseboard, not so gourmet (but still appealing) pizza at Fat Slice, daal or chicken tikka masala and lots of naan (sometimes plain, sometimes aloo) at Naan 'n' Curry, the best aloo gobi at Tandor Kitchen, middle eastern food at La Mediterranee, California rolls at Party Sushi, and the list could go on and on. I often went to these places with friends, or I'd call ahead to order, then go pick it up and bring it back to my apt, or I occasionally ate at the place alone (an art I later perfected in Paris in the winter/spring of 2007). All in all, my eating adventures were really fun! And most importantly, I went to different neighbourhoods, and got to know Berkeley better.

I also very much enjoyed the culinary offerings of Paris when I lived there. Though I probably made my faithful spaghetti a few times a week, I would often just bring home a baguette (or a half baguette depending on how hungry I was) from one of the 3 bakeries on my street, and some comte cheese from the little cheese shop across the street and eat that. Or often I'd get an individual size quiche. They also have a lot of great little Lebanese places in Paris, so I would get falafel sandwiches a lot. I also regularly frequented crepe stands to either get my favourite nutella crepes or, ham and cheese if I wanted a more savoury meal. And of course I ate lemon tarts and chocolate croissants on a multiple times per week basis. And then, as I wrote above, I really perfected going to cafes alone, ordering a salad (most cafes in Paris have decent/good salads) and a kir, and writing letters, or in my diary, or just staring off into space (or discreetly at other people). I went all over Paris eating, and could probably a name a cafe or crepe stand to visit in almost all of the city's 20 arrondissements. In many ways, those days eating (and of course doing other things) in Paris were perfect...

Then suddenly in the fall of 2008, I decided I wanted to cook. Prior to really starting to cook, as I've made clear above, pasta (mostly penne, sometimes rigatoni) and always spaghetti, were the only things I ever made. I've always enjoyed having people over for dinner, but until I was 24, I could only ever serve them one thing: spaghetti. And I got tired of, and embarrassed with, the way I would always almost brag to other people that that was the only thing I could cook. I started fairly slow, but have gradually built up my repertoire of dishes. This past fall especially I got more daring and made many new recipes for the first time, usually to a fair amount of success. All in all, I'm really happy to be regularly cooking and trying out new recipes. It's a lot of fun and gives me a good sense of satisfaction. And I now feel quite confident as a cook, and have hosted many dinner parties with a variety of dishes that are not spaghetti! (Although spaghetti is, and always be, my ultimate favourite food, along with raspberries).

My developing cooking skills and repertoire aside, I firmly believe that a person can really get to know a place through eating out, and consequently I feel like I know Montreal way less than I would if I ate out more. And that's a bit disappointing. Since I came back here after the winter break I have made a point of trying to eat out a bit more, but so far I haven't really succeeded. Although I have been to several new bakeries and have tried their delicious breads, almond, and chocolate croissants. But, I'm still lacking on the restaurant front. When walking to the post office or the grocery store or anywhere really, I always see lots of cute restaurants and cafes which I want to try. My Berkeley/Paris self was the Queen of making sure I tried every restaurant or cafe that caught my eye. I need to get that aspect of myself back clearly! Most people make resolutions to eat out less, but mine is to actually eat out more. I think the key will really be to finding a good balance, and hopefully I can do that in the months ahead, especially once it gets warmer and leaving my apt is more appealing.

Delicious still, but Nutritious no longer!

I have liked Vitamin Water since I was first introduced to it in September 2006. My GRE tutor (I was taking the GRE that October) loved them and thought I needed to try them too! For my first ever taste, she decided I should try the Power-C (called Mega-C in Canada) bright pink one. The actual flavour is Dragonfruit (see picture below) which I don't think I'd even heard of until then. Now I hope I'll one day be able to taste it (apparently they're available throughout Central America) to determine if I like the fruit more, less, or the same as the drink. I sometimes wonder what would have happened had the tutor chosen a different one to give me, as I have become a die-hard Power/Mega-C fan and worry that had she first given me one of the boring yellow or orange ones I would never have tried Vitamin Water again. I've dabbled in a few other flavours, Focus - the light pink one (strawberry & kiwi flavour) which is too sweet for me, Defense (apple & raspberry flavour - both fruits I like but the taste is not good) and S.'s favourite XXX (acai, blueberry & pomegranate), which is pretty good and which I will drink if need be; but ultimately nothing rivals Mega-C for my affection.

I have to admit I've always been pretty smug about the fact that I don't like Coke, or pop in general (although I did enjoy taking the Coke Pepsi Challenge when I was a little kid, mostly because it was fun to a. see which one I preferred (I always picked Pepsi) and b. to get the prizes (usually gum!) they gave out). It's embarrassing, but it definitely made me feel pretty good about myself that I didn't regularly ingest sugary, wasteful calorie filled drinks. My little smug bubble, however, came crashing down recently when I read an article about how Vitamin Water actually has a lot of sugar, and is not that much better than Coke or other similar drinks. Sure, it has some vitamins (in my case, C and B) but it's also not just, as the label boasts "Vitamins + Water". It's not that I ever really equated it with water, but reading that it's the equivalent of Gatorade (a beverage I find pretty gross) disappointed me. Just recently, the Advertising watchdog Agency in the UK told Vitamin Water it is no longer allowed to use the slogan "Delicious and Nutritious" (which was only used in the UK) because the nutritious part is simply not true. There has been a similar case going on in the US as well.

My burst bubble aside, these developments actually just made me realize that I wasn't ever drinking Vitamin Water for any purported nutritional value. Maybe I wasn't aware it had a lot of sugar, but I was not under the impression that it was super healthy for me either. I just like the taste and it's a good way to keep hydrated every day. Recently I had a conversation with J. about how North Americans are obsessed with drinking lots of water and always staying hydrated. I have to agree. My first few years at Berkeley I was astounded at how many people I knew/saw who brought their Nalgene bottles with them everywhere - to class, to the library, for walks, to the movies. Fast forward a few years, and I had (and have) one too, and drink from it every day (although I really only bring it to school). I have definitely embraced this hydration culture, and I think Vitamin Water is just a part of it. People have decided they need to be drinking fluids all the time, and Vitamin Water is just another option. I do fill up my Nalgene with regular water every day, but it's nice to also have another non-water beverage every day.

In closing, I will say that Vitamin Waters are the absolute best drinks for long car rides, bar none. When S. and I drove from Austin to LA, and then from Austin to Nashville the next year, I always liked stopping in little towns in the middle of nowhere along the highway and buying a Vitamin water. It may not have been nutritious, but it was delicious, and it definitely brightened up the long hours on the road.

The Wonderful World of Podcasts

A. sent me an email a few weeks ago saying that he was a bit late to the game but had recently discovered podcasts and thought I'd like them too, if I didn't subscribe to some already. I wrote back saying I had come fairly late to the game too, and that he was right - I did/do love them!

My love of podcasts is tied to my love of the subject matter of the podcasts I subscribe to. For a very long time, until really only this past fall, I had no idea there was a whole world of interesting podcasts out there, just waiting for me to discover! It all started just under a year and a half ago when (a different) A. told me that I needed to subscribe to the 'This American Life' podcast since she was sure I'd love it. She was right. Learning about/listening to/reading other people's stories and finding out about other people's lives have long been some of my favourite things, and 'This American Life' combines all that in one perfect podcast hour.

Almost all of the podcasts I currently subscribe to are connected to each other. The 'This American Life' podcast led to me 'The Moth' podcast (where people tell true stories to a live audience, without notes) as they sometimes featured Moth speakers. 'The Moth' podcast is great because, as I said above personal stories are the best, and also because it's usually about 17 minutes long, which makes listening to it all in one go much easier than with hour long podcasts. In November I was telling L. about 'The Moth', and she in turn introduced me to the 'Story Corps' podcast, which is where regular people record themselves having a 1 minute conversation and then submit it to 'Story Corps'. This is a great podcast to subscribe to if you don't have much time because they're super short, but also usually quite poignant and thought-provoking.

Early last fall I decided to search for podcasts about history, another interest of mine. Some googling brought up the BBC History Magazine's podcast, which I promptly subscribed to and now enjoy. It's only once a month, which seems just right, and features interviews with historians who have published articles in that month's edition of the magazine. The topics are a good mix of recent & much older history. For example, one episode (I think October's?) had a feature on Mussolini's mistress whose diaries have recently been released. Another featured an interview about an English Queen from the 1500 or 1600s, which reminded me a bit of a Philippa Gregory book. The 'BBC History Magazine' podcast also led me, from their December episode where they had a special, short feature on it, to subscribe to the BBC's 'Witness' - a podcast released by the BBC World Service. 'Witness' is one of my favourite podcasts! Each day, there is a new episode which contains an interview with a living person who 'witnessed' an actual event in (usually fairly recent) world history. A few times they've broken with this and just interviewed a historian who did not actually witness the event his/herself, but usually they are from real events that took place over the last 50 years. The one I listened to today was actually an interview with the founder of Wikipedia, in honour of the 10th anniversary of the founding of Wikipedia in January 2001. There have also been super interesting ones on the Taliban, on the Iraq War, on the US invasion of Panama in 1989, and all sorts of other things. Since my time at Berkeley I have been really into oral history, and I love having the opportunity to now get a daily dose of it on fascinating topics!

The last two podcasts I subscribe to are also connected. My homepage on Firefox is the BBC International News and one Sunday in November one of the featured articles was a column I'd never noticed before called 'From Our Own Correspondent' which consisted of a series of vignettes written by BBC foreign correspondents stationed all over the world. The bottom of the article mentioned the podcast which I then subscribed to, and now like listening to every week. It's really cool because I love travelling and hearing about what life is like in other places and this podcast does exactly that! After of a few episodes of this though, it occurred to me that there must be a Canadian equivalent. So I searched CBC (kind of like a Canadian NPR) and found 'Dispatches'. It's also excellent - subtly different from the BBC show in that the host has more of a role, and often interviews historians/economists etc, which the BBC one doesn't do. In any event, it, like the BBC one, provides great stories/events/insights on things happening around the world.

The thing about podcasts are that there are just so many (an endless amount really) to choose from. The ones A. just recently discovered are ones I don't subscribe to, and other friends subscribe to other ones that sound equally good but right now I feel like I'm good with the seven I have. I'm sure I will eventually start subscribing to more in the future though because I really adore podcasts. They make things so easy, since though there's technically nothing stopping me from listening to 'Dispatches' on my own radio it's just much simpler to listen when I want, instead of at the exact time it's being aired on the radio. Plus, I don't get 'This American Life' or
'The Moth' or the BBC programs on the radio in Montreal. Additionally, thanks to my ipod, all my podcasts are transportable! My daily walks to and from school have this past fall become times where I'm transported to other people's lives in far flung countries of the earth. Listening to Witness, in particular, on my walk every morning is a great and, cheesy as it sounds, enriching way to start the day.

It's the year 2010 (but not for long!)

One morning in early December 2003 I woke up extremely relieved and glad to discover that it was in fact still 2003. I had just had a dream in which it was already 2004, and in my dream I was so sad because I had loved 2003 (particularly its fall) so much and I didn't want it to be over yet. December is an odd month in that way - it's usually a lot of fun and a good way to end the year; but it's also bittersweet because the year is ending, and even if there's lots to look forward to in the new year, it can still be sad saying goodbye.

I like songs that mention dates; that set themselves squarely in a certain period, such that whenever you listen to that song later you're taken back. The best two examples I can think of are Mariah Carey's Cruise Control which starts with Damian Marley (who was featured on that song) saying "2008...Watch It!" and then Mariah comes in. I love that because whenever I listen to that song now (or have listened to it since it came out) I always think about a. the first time I ever heard it in A.'s old apt in Kansas City in April 2008 and b. all those times that April and May I repeatedly listened to it. On their latest cd which they released in May 2010, Broken Social Scene has a song called "Water in Hell" which contains the line "It's the year 2010" - which I also love. It's so perfect right now... but in just a few days it won't apply anymore! Though it will still be cool to listen to it in years to come and look back nostalgically on 2010.

Though I usually spend a fair bit of time throughout the month of December thinking about the year ahead, I haven't had plans on New Year's Eve since I was 18 - 8 years ago! I like staying home, which is probably why one of my favourite scenes in the L-Word was from an episode in Season 5 when the power went out in LA causing Bette and Tina to get stuck in an elevator en route to their therapist's office. Stranded (at least for a little while) they proceed to sit facing each other, both leaning against opposite walls of the elevator, and discuss why they are good together and what their relationship would be like if they got back together. One of the points Tina makes is that they both like staying home on New Year's Eve. I loved that point! It's not that I don't think a relationship could work if one person loves partying on New Year's and the other likes staying home, but I do think it's easier if both people agree!

I cared a lot (read too much) about New Year's Eve in high school, and always had to be going to a party or doing something with friends because I felt like such a loser if I didn't. A guy at my high school, A.S.R. always went to the movies on New Year's Eve with his mom and her friend. However, they could never agree on which movie to go see, so each of them went to their own, all starting around the same time so they could arrive and leave the theater together. Even though I thought that was super cool, I still felt the urgent need to be doing something with friends. Happily, I now no longer care if other people think I'm a loser (and fortunately, I know they don't) and so I do what I like best and stay home. I'm not sure exactly why I don't like going out on New Year's though since I love champagne and like fireworks - two essential components of the evening. It's also not that I don't like socializing. I enjoy having or attending dinner parties or bigger parties for that matter. Maybe, and I think this is probably the best explanation, it's the hype that surrounds the evening. There seems to be a lot of pressure to have a good time. It's not just a regular party or evening out, it's New Year's Eve !!!! (the exclamation marks are essential!) and everyone must have a fabulous time, or else, it is implied, the year is off to a bad start. All that said, if all my best friends happened to be in the same place on New Year's Eve, of course I'd want to get together with them and of course I'd stay awake until midnight. But when I'm just at home or on vacation with my parents, I like having a glass of champagne with dinner, another with dessert, and then getting into bed with my book, going to sleep in one year and waking up in another.

A bookworm's favourite place

I have always loved being surrounded by stacks & shelves of books, be it in bookstores, libraries or my bedroom in Toronto. Sometimes I think that in the future house I eventually live in I want to have a library, like those old-fashioned country estates in the English countryside that I've only ever seen in movies or read about in books always seem to have. But then I think that it's really better to have books spread out across every room of the house.

The libraries on the Berkeley campus were the best, and will always be my favourites! I like the law library at McGill. It's pretty nice and some of the rooms have huge windows which is great. But nothing will replace the Berkeley libraries. During finals time I used to love studying at different libraries throughout campus because the main libraries got too busy. My favourite was the business library followed by the music library. But during the regular semester, I stuck to Doe (side note: to this day my most favourite public bathroom is in Doe. It was always clean, had windows overlooking this main part of campus, and had the best, biggest and most flattering mirrors!). L and I would go to the library together all the time. We were among the small group of (proudly) nerdy students who were standing outside the front doors before 1 pm on Sundays waiting for the campanile to strike 1 pm, for the doors to open and for our studying to begin! I liked both the main and east reading rooms on the second floor of Doe. They were very grand, and distinguished, but still comfortable. But L. and I also loved studying in the stacks which went floors underground. Throughout the fall of 2004 when we both lived on northside, L. and I went to Doe together several nights a week. We especially loved being there on the nights C.M. worked (he was a check-out clerk) and we'd hear his voice reaching through the intercom that went throughout the whole library announcing the closing of the circulation desk at Doe (at 9 pm) but assuring us that the library remained open for studying until 2 am (although we usually left by 10 pm anyway). C.M. lived at my co-op and was an all-round super cool and attractive guy who L. and I both had crushes on despite his having a girlfriend. My favourite part of our evenings at Doe was always our walks home. We were happy because we'd accomplished some good studying and then we could just talk and laugh about other things. The following fall (of 2005) I missed L. (who was still in Santiago) the most the nights I studied at Doe, especially when someone else's voice would announce the circulation desk's closing time. C.M. had graduated (and presumably gone on to bigger and better things), L. was enjoying springtime (my favourite season, which I had missed that year due to my being in Santiago then too!) near the bottom of the world, and I walked home from the library on those dark fall nights missing how things used to be.

My love of libraries extends to city public library systems as well. At the end of July 2006 I went to New York for the weekend to visit N. who was there for the summer. I got in mid-morning on the Friday but N. was at work until 5 pm. I had originally planned to just walk around and maybe go to a museum but the bus I took in to Manhattan from La Guardia dropped me off in front of the New York Public Library. Fueled by both curiosity and a desire to keep reading my book - Julia Alvarez's In the Time of the Butterflies (if you haven't read it, you should!) I went in. After finding a reading room which reminded me of the East Reading Room of Doe, I sat down, read my book and occasionally looked up either to people-watch or to admiringly think about what a beautiful library it was. I emerged 3 hours later back into the bright afternoon sunshine feeling happier than when I'd gone in that morning. I've been back to New York twice since then but haven't gone to the library either time, being too busy shopping, walking, talking, visiting cupcake shops etc. But I don't mind; the library fit the circumstances of that July day perfectly, and I feel certain I'll one day go back.

Last fall after moving back to Toronto I discovered the awesomeness that is the Toronto Public Library system. There are so many branches all over the city, and two within easy walking distance from my house. Aside from checking out Red Hot Chili Pepper's Anthony Kiedis' memoir Scar Tissue (at M.'s recommendation!) one winter break while I was still at Berkeley, I hadn't gone into/used the TPL in years. Back when I was 13/14 I regularly visited the library to check out Baby Sitters Club books. But after I stopped reading those, I didn't use the library that much. I've always liked owning books just because I do re-read books from time to time, and because, as I wrote above, I like being surrounded by books. But last fall I started using it again. First because I needed a few books to help me with my classes at Seneca, and then because I started using it for books I wanted to read but just didn't want to own or buy. (Usually kind of trashy books like embarrassing to admit but Tori Spelling's autobiography, and then some other books I'd heard about and thought sounded good but wasn't committed to buying.) It was also very nice to discover that all of the TPL branches I've been in are very busy. Even in the middle of a weekday there are lots of people reading, using the computers etc. The TPL is actually one of the things I miss most about Toronto.

For this post I googled quotes about libraries and Jorge Luis Borges' was my favourite: "I have always imagined that Paradise will be a kind of library." That is a version of paradise I would definitely love to visit.

Missing American Thanksgiving

So while I only officially celebrated American Thanksgiving on the actual day (my aunt hosts a Thanksgiving dinner on the following Saturday in Annapolis, Maryland which I've gone to a few times, and am going to this year) once while living in the States (and even then we didn't have turkey or cranberry sauce or pie) it's one of things I miss most about living there. For starters, Thursday is my favourite day of the week and so I like that American Thanksgiving is always on that day. But more than that, I like its position at the end of November. Canadian Thanksgiving being on the second Monday in October just seems too early. It's too close to Labour Day to really need that holiday, and then it's so long to go without a holiday between Thanksgiving and Christmas. C. told me how his mom hated how close American Thanksgiving is to Christmas because she felt a lot of stress and pressure with two big family gatherings so close together, wanted to make them as successful as possible, etc. I can definitely see the (potentially limitless) possibilities for stress, but I actually like how American Thanksgiving kicks off this whole month long holiday period. It's a great way to end the year!

What I miss most though is actually a feeling, or a specific time period, more than anything else. Case in point: American Thanksgiving in Austin was never anywhere near as amazing as American Thanksgiving in Berkeley. Thanksgiving in Berkeley meant parties the Saturday before (where something monumentous, or so it definitely seemed to 19/20 year old me always happened) and red eye plane rides and the end of the semester in sight (which was always bittersweet). I loved going home to Toronto, and thus not even being in the US for Thanksgiving, and recharging for 4 days and then coming back ready to take on finals and enjoy all the fun that always encompassed December in Berkeley. So while it never (at least I don't think so) meant for me all the things it means to Americans, it was still something I looked forward to every year. I also think it says something that in a lot of ways November was my favourite month in Berkeley (tied with December and June, and then followed by March), which is odd, because it's one of my least favourite months everywhere else I've ever lived.

When I became good friends and started hanging out a lot with K. and her sister my last semester/June in Berkeley, they told me about how a few days before real American Thanksgiving they always have Friends Thanksgiving where they celebrate with their friends. I love that and it made me sad I didn't become friends with them until it was too late for me to go to it too! It's always fun to hang out with family on holidays but I think celebrating with friends is great too. N. and her roommates at the time hosted a big Thanksgiving dinner my last year in Berkeley exactly a week in advance and it was very cool - lots of food, lots of drinks, everyone in a good mood. It was more like a party in that there were too many people to have a sit down dinner but I think it was actually better that way.

In the vein of friends and Thanksgiving going well together, in 2008 I decided I better stay in the US for actual Thanksgiving day and celebrate it with one of my friends as after that year I wasn't going to live there anymore. So I went to Salt Lake City to spend it with S. It was great! While we didn't have the traditional food, we did spend a long time cooking (after watching movies all morning which was also really fun!)sweet potatoes, cauliflower, carrot cake, and S.'s best ever spanakopita, and just talking, lounging (I wore leggings all day) and hanging out. It seemed like even without the turkey and the trimmings we still got the basics of Thanksgiving - good food and even better company! - down pat.

So while I can't really say I miss American Thanksgiving as a holiday per se (which is actually a bit of a problem as I feel, in general, that I have way less holiday spirit of any kind than I used to; but that, I suppose, is a topic for another post... :)it makes me nostalgic for a very happy time and place in my life.