A lot of Thanksgiving

November has come and gone.
It was a very full month, one that really made me realize how much I love my life here. It's been a time of good food. I hosted a Thanksgiving dinner one weekend and a taco dinner the next, and then the next weekend went to another Thanksgiving dinner. I've been ice skating, to the planetarium, and out walking around the city. In addition to all this, I picked up an Elementary English class and actually started taking Russian lessons: an hour and a half Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. It's hard for me to remember what a quiet month September was.
The Thanksgiving dinner was kind of crazy. Since we work until 9 each weekday, we decided it would be best to have it on a Saturday. We made it early November as a compromise with the Canadian holiday and to give more of the teachers a chance to come. I recall the afternoon and evening through kind of a haze. After getting off work on Thursday night, I made cranberry sauce (really easy to do, by the way). Then, Friday night the real work began. I had decided to make a huge amount and variety of food: pumpkin soup, pumpkin ice cream pie, dinner rolls, green beans, macaroni and cheese, corn bread, mashed potatoes, and probably something else I now, thankfully, cannot recall. I did almost half Friday night, fell asleep, then woke up and tried to finish cooking and clean at the same time. I was very grateful that Randy, the Canadian, took care of the turkey and stuffing. Then came dinner. We talked, gave thanks, played Apples to Apples, and ate a ton. I sent home doggy bags with those who helped me clean, but I still didn't cook for a week. Which was one more thing to be thankful for.
The taco dinner the next week was a lot less work, but still provided me with food for the week. I made tacos and guacamole, as well as found corn chips. The result wasn't really even authentic by any definition, but it was good. My advanced class had a great time, I think, though they almost drove me crazy asking if different permutations of salsa, guacamole, meat, beans, tomatoes, etc were allowed! yes, yes, you can just have cheese and meat. Or cheese and salsa, if you really want. Go for it. They supplied fantastic Russian deserts: blini and apple "pie."
The Russian lessons may kill me. An hour and a half is a really long time. I find myself in a constant struggle. It is very easy for me to see the value of the lessons, and I see clear improvement in my speech, reading, and writing, but after 45 minutes I just keep glancing at the clock. Especially on Friday, when my tongue is often aching from trying to make the palatalized letters properly. My teacher assures me that the way Russians say them is the same way they are supposed to be said in German. Which leads me to 2 conclusion: 1. My German accent must be pretty bad. 2. Everyone still understood me, so how important can the difference in sounds really be? Ha. I'll keep trying.