Dual Thanksgivings

Once again, another American Thanksgiving has come and gone.  While it has always been a special occasion for me as an American, it just happened to be our first American holiday we experienced as new foreigners living in a country where it was meaningless.  We shared it with our new French neighbors, and we’ve been sharing it with the French ever since.

This year, as last year, was interesting in that we were also guests as non-Americans put on a big spread, too.  Here’s how we enjoyed both events!

An afternoon choral songfest

As if conversing and reading in French weren't enough of a challenge, Doc Leo and I are now part of a local chorale.  Not only do we sing in French, but we've also had to belt out tunes in Spanish, Italian, Latin, Niçoise, German, and Greek! 

I tend to feel a bit smug at my perfect pronunciation when we get to sing something in English.  I also provide a bit of linguistic coaching, especially on our words that follow absolutely no grammatical rules at all.

Our group was recently invited as guest performers to a regional concert of five different groups.  I thought you might find it interesting.

Alpine trekking

Every year, our church holds a fall retreat at the camp we volunteer to help keep nice up in the mountains.  One of the annual activities is a fairly substantial hike on one of the numerous official trails.  As I belonged to a hiking club for a few years as part of our village activities, I look forward to participating in this scheduled activity.

Unfortunately, I’ve never been a very sporty person, and every year I keep getting older while there are always plenty of younger people, so it gets harder and harder to keep up.  But I continue to plug along, and I thought I’d share some of the views I captured at this year’s event last month.