Turkey!

So I've decided to celebrate American Thanksgiving here in Geneva.

The real day is next Thursday. (We celebrate Thanksgiving on the 4th Thursday of November). However, as this is not the United States - Thanksgiving is not a holiday. So I decided to have it on this Sunday instead. I am very excited about it. Last time I hosted Thanksgiving, I was in France and it was a great success - however, I never found a turkey. We ended up eating Guinea Fowl and Chicken. This time we have a turkey! Sort of. I went to Manor - which is one of the more expensive Department stores in town which has a very nice food section. They had turkeys. Actual turkeys! The price said "1.98" I was hoping this was per kilo. It was per 100 g. Therefore, if a turkey weighed 8 kilos. (about 18 pounds) it would cost 160 swiss francs (remember the swiss franc and the US dollar are about even). So I decided that I could not possibly buy a turkey from Manor.

Then today I went to France. We went to the little market in the border town of Ferney. It's a great French Market. Somehow the French have managed to find the right combination of vegetables, cheese vendors and butchers (and kebab stands and clothing stores) that makes a market just perfect. I will definitely miss French markets when I'm back in the States. I asked all the butchers if they had turkeys. None did, some said they could order one for me for next weekend. But none. Then we went to the Hyper Champion (This is the equivalent of Wal-Mart) in the town. We looked and we asked and finally we found all the prepackaged chickens. Not pre-cooked - just wrapped. We found a large bird. It looks about the size of turkey. The picture of the front of it looks sort of like a turkey. But - it has in big letters "coq". Which means rooster in French! So my turkey is most likely a rooster - but I'm just going to let myself believe that it's a turkey. You have to have turkey for Thanksgiving!

I'm very excited about the meal. It should be great! It'll be as American as I can make it over here. (Although there won't be any pecan pie because I could't find corn syrup)

I'm glad I get to celebrate this holiday with my friends here in Geneva. I suppose that they are what I'm thankful for this year. (among a myriad of other things!)