The city of lights just got a bit brighter...

Snow is Falling

Last month I watched the leaves fall off the trees...

Last night Alison & I watched the snow fall! We got off the metro & next thing we know we were being snowed on. Since we are both from California this was a HUGE deal for us!

TURKEY DAY

Since I am hundreds of miles away from my friends and family this Thanksgiving, I decided to share the tradition with 75 of my new friends. This was a huge effort, but in the end it came together beautifully . We split all the Americans into teams "mash team" "cran team" and were able to put together a fantastic dinner, all homemade I might add!

I made homemade pumpkin pie out of this guy. Of course this was after spending 20E on some other orange veggie I though was a pumpkin, which I later learned really wasn't edible. This amused my French friends of course...

homemade apple pie!

It was like an army base pealing all the potatoes

cranberry sauce

mama Sarah

Yes Dad, my sweet potatoes are better & fatter than yours are!

Sarah & I rubbed, massaged, seasoned the daylights out of these babies & to think I was veggie last year??

I think the highlight for the Frenchies were the pies!

Traditionally, at home we go around the table & say what you're thankful for. Since we had 75 people and way too many languages, we made a "i'm thankful for..." wall.

The cooking crew

We also made a hand turkey wall. This was a bit confusing to the French/Spanish etc at first, but they grew to love it!

The dance party after. If i've learned one thing about all the other countries is that their celebrations always revolve around singing, dancing & drinking. I know we dance, but they take it seriously!

M I L K

Last year I had a lot of trouble getting around my neighborhood, because the Castro took a turn back to the 70's to film Gus Van Sant's movie MILK. The film is an account of one of the country's first openly gay public officials, Harvey Milk, who was assassinated in 1978, to invest the gay rights movement with mythic grandeur, as a successor to all the heroic social protest movements in American history. The film is finally opening today at the Casto theater. Wish I could be there to see it. This is good incentive for me to come back to the states.

OH, can we talk about the fact that my love James Franco plays Harvey's lover in the movie? LOVE IT.

Brando à Paris

THANKS FOR BEING AN AMAZING TOUR GUIDE;) !!!

Taught Me

My lurverly friends Taught Me from San Francisco graced us with a fun filled night of amazing musiq last week. Meggie & Andrew were awesome enough to join in the festivities. As always the whole gang put on an amazing show. It was the first time i'd seen Adam & Aubry play with Blake (the lead singer/master of the musiq), so as you can imagine it was a pretty sweet show. The festivities took place at La Mer à Boire- Café Animé, which is a hidden treasure in the 20th Arrodissement. There is the most beautiful view of Paris from this place, comparable to Sacré-Cœur, just minus all the tourists. All in all it was a magical night...especially since Meggie & I got a ride home in their super sick 'tour van'.





*Photo credits: Meggie M

dîner de famille

we started with this...

...and ended with this.

Blondes vs. Brunes

Last week my friends and I attended a Burlesque event hosted by Gentry de Paris. Gentry is originally from San Fransisco, but has been living in Paris for 10 years. She recently came to talk to my Gay Paris class about some of the expatriâte women writers of the 1920's. She is a very knowledgable & exciting women, so we were so excited to get invited to this event! The night went down like so: 3 blondes. 3 brunets; the best 'Brulesquers' win! Of course my people won! Brunets that is;)

Gentry & Lee

In France it's Nov 15, so get out & protest!!!

I know all of you are educated on the Prop 8 issue, so I won't go into it. I keep seeing all these protests in LA & SF & wish so badly that I could be there. Since i'm here & ya'll (we'll most of you) are in the states, please get out and protest today!

Details: Saturday, November 15th, all over America and Canada, concerned citizens will be peacefully demonstrating the passing of Prop H8te in California - and similar discriminatory measures in Florida, Arizona and Arkansas. The San Francisco rally against Prop 8 this weekend is part of a nationwide mobilization -- a peaceful demonstration in support of marriage equality in California. For a full list of rallies throughout the state and country, check out the Join the Impact website.

San Francisco rally details:

• Where: San Francisco City Hall
• When: November 15, 2008 - 10:30a to 1:30p

Equal rights are plain & simple. Please go show your support!

Amsterdam continued...

I had to be sly about this one. We saw a 60 yr old women almost get beat up because she took a picture!

food, food & more food on this trip...

My new friend