The trees are beautiful, the mountains are snow capped, the weather is cold, and it rains every few days, but I love it all. My heaters work fine now, they're quite consistent. The warmed marble floor is getting nicer every day. I've been hiking in the snow a couple times now, and that's been quite alot of fun.
I've met a wonderful young french woman, so that's been quite enjoyable as well. I'll be joining Angelique in her hometown in the northeast of France for Christmas, so I'll get to enjoy a truly french Christmas. I've heard from many people that Alsace is the best region in France to spend Christmas, so I'm really looking forward to it. Angelique has been fixing crepes and creme brulee for me, mm mmmm good!
The beer brewing is going well. We have a Thanksgiving ale that we'll open on T-day. We have about 65 pints of it, and there will be something like 15 of us at the T-day celebration, so there should be plenty! Angelique is coming with me, so I'll get to show her a little bit of the Thanksgiving traditions. That's fun, cause I can make up anything I want and say that it is a Thanksgiving tradition. We have a recipe for a Christmas brew as well, but it looks like the ingredients won't be here in time for the beer to be ready.
I've been making a swedish glug that a friend in austin taught me, and people here seem to like it quite a bit. It's a little sweet, but very similar to what they call 'hot wine' here. It has some of the traditional christmas type spices in it like all spice, cardomom, and cloves among other things.
I've actually gotten a few french folks to start enjoying cheddar cheese, and salsa! They'll be begging for tex-mex in no time!!
A few Jehovah's Witness guys were just at my door. They're everywhere!! This is the 4th or 5th time they've come. They speak english fluently, and seem to try to hit on the new american that doesn't speak french very well (me) cause he "might be so isolated that he'll invite us in". It didn't happen, and I think I convinced them not to come back this time.
I'm missing my family and friends a little as I look forward to the Holidays and wonder what you'll all be doing and hoping they treat you well. And I promise (yes again) that I'll try to get those pictures up soon!
Posted by Brian at November 17, 2003 12:22 PM