Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving, the traditional American holiday has made its way to Montpellier, France. We students had a lot to be thankful for on this special Thursday. Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday, and I always look forward to it each and every year. Usually, I spend Wednesday helping my grandmother in the kitchen in preparation for the big feast. However, this year I spent my Wednesday morning a little differently. Myself and a few fellow students from my school and the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill decided to volunteer at a local middle school Croix d’Argent. Wednesday morning we all met up at Croix d’Argent to make pies (or tartes if you will). I was especially excited for this volunteer project because not only did we make absolutely delicious pies (from scratch!!), we also had a chance to meet some amazing French students.

Wednesday morning after we all arrived at the middle school, we picked our sous chefs. Each student was just as excited and anxious as we were. The middle school students were learning to speak English and we were to only speak to them in English. This was nerve wreaking and fun all at once. My partner’s name was Sylvan. I will never forget him. He was an amazing individual. He was so eager to practice his English, which he was very good at. There was only the slightest problem with our recipe, it was written in FRENCH. So the sous chef Sylvan became the head chef, and I followed his lead. I was in charge of dough and he was in charge of virtually everything else, especially if it involved measurements. Together we made a chocolate-pecan pie. The first one turned out so beautiful that we were asked to make a second!

After the pies making festivities I decided to stick around and answer a few questions from the student. They were so fascinated by all things American. American music, American clothing, and especially American breakfast!!! The students and faculty decided that one day they would prepare an all American breakfast themselves.

The following morning, on Thanksgiving Day all the students returned to Croix d’Argent. Thanksgiving morning Dr. Bell, Tierra and I spent outside playing baseball with the students. This was a sight to see! Baseball is not a French sport, so many of the students didn’t even know how to hold a bat properly. Needless to say there was a lot of yelling and confusion, but all in good fun. After baseball and frostbite we decided to head back into the classrooms. Here, we helped the student with various thanksgiving worksheets which included crosswords, word searches, coloring sheets and more. My favorite part of the day was hearing all the students pronounce Thanksgiving as Thanksgivingz, gotta love that French accent. After word searches and coloring we were led into a larger room that was set up like a Thanksgiving exposition. It was obvious that the students took their time with these presentations. Many were so well crafted that I was taken aback. There was even a presentation on Georgia football, GO DAWGS! The next part was the best part. This is the point where we got to try our very own pies, which ranged from pumpkin pie, chocolate pecan pie, and apple pie. We were served by our sous chefs and joined by other teachers and the director.

  

This Thanksgiving was a day to remember. Although this was the first time that I spent a holiday away from home, in a sense I felt like a part of me was home. What a perfect way to treat homesickness! I never imagined to have so much fun. I am so thankful for the opportunity to volunteer my time in helping. This was one of my absolute favorite parts of the entire program and I easily would do it all over again!