Sort of thinking about Thanksgiving

We know there's lots of hoopla in the U.S. getting ready for Thanksgiving...airport security, snow storms, fresh or frozen, the typical holiday conversations. It's not a holiday (or holiday week) here in Canada. Our Thanksgiving was in October. Danielle has school on Thursday and Louis happens to have a teacher's ped day that day so he will be home. Everything is open and it's business as usual. It will be our third American Thanksgiving in Canada. How time flies.

Tonight we went into the city to a bookstore near McGill University to hear the hilarious author David Sedaris do a reading and book signing. The store was packed and it was hard to even see Sedaris. Fortunately, we did hear him as he read from his journal. Most of it went over Louis' head, thankfully. I waited to try and get my books signed when Paul and the kids went down the street to a diner. It was a great chance to chat with some of the people in line, most of them students at McGill. Two of them were American "girls" from the Boston area who chose to come to McGill over U.S. schools. As we've written in this blog before, McGill is a bargain, even for Americans. These girls are paying 26K a year for tuition and room and board, helping make their decision easy. They love Montreal and are happy with their decision. And they love David Sedaris.

One of my favorite essays is "Jesus Shaves" (google it and you can read it or listen on This American Life). I read it long before we moved to French-speaking Quebec and reading it again brings it to a whole new level. It's a very entertaining narrative about his French class while he was in Paris. It's a funny essay detailing the way things can get lost in translation, especially when it comes to religion and holidays. So funny! Check it out.

During the question and answer period one person asked Sedaris what he was doing for Thanksgiving. He's American,  from a very entertaining household, but now lives most of the time in Paris when he's not on the road. He paused for a moment after the question was asked, trying to remember what day it was since he had no idea where he was going to be on Thursday. He admitted that he hasn't really celebrated that holiday in years. I can see how that could happen. It is easy to get into the routine of whatever country you live in, even if it is only an hour or so from the border. Of course Sedaris had to elaborate about how he hates to travel during the holidays anyway because of all the airport issues and and amateur travelers. He did recall though how he has to go to Utah this weekend and of course everyone there has "like 8 kids" so travel will be a real pain in the ass.

So, for this week anyway, we're thankful not to be in any airports.