Gobble gobble meep.

One of the interesting things about being so far from home, and unable to really go back for all the short breaks, is that I get to cook Thanksgiving dinner. Not all on my own, of course - I have two lovely friends for sous-chefs this year, and it really is a relief not to be doing this on my own. Of course, it means there will only be four or five of us at dinner, and tons of turkey leftovers, but it's better than being here all on my own.

This is my second year making Thanksgiving dinner and, as before, I'm providing the turkey. What else is on the menu? Mashed potatoes, peas, corn, biscuits, stuffing, and macaroni and cheese. It's pretty standard fare, but for three college girls to step back, look at the table, and be able to say, Hey, we made that feel pretty good.

I miss my family. There's no question of that. If I had a choice, I'd only just now be sort of half-asleep on the couch in the living room, watching Kristen Chenoweth squeak out "Oklahoma!" as the Macy's Parade floats by. But there's something to be said for this: for the peace and quiet of the hall when there are only a few of us here, for getting my NaNoWriMo word count closer to 50 000 because there are fewer distractions, for looking out on a brilliant fall day that feels like California and knowing it snowed the night before, for feeling a little more self-sufficient. Because, y'all? I can make Thanksgiving dinner. It's a little bit like growing up, just a little at a time.

Now to go put on the turkey. (Hey, it's pre-cooked. I'm only so grown up right now.)

So let's give this a try now.

I've had a LiveJournal for ages now - all of three years, actually, which seems like a long time to a 19 year old - and I was at Diaryland before that. I probably would never have bothered coming over here if it weren't for a few of my new classmates (all first years) who seem to have issues with LiveJournal (mainly, from what I can gather, that they just don't want them, and mine is entirely locked).

It isn't pure vanity that drives me here, though there's that as well - there always is, when someone makes a blog, don't you think? It's also that I wanted to be able to share some things with them that I wouldn't have been able to otherwise.

I'm from California originally, but I'm living on the East Coast for school now. As a sophomore at a private, all girls', liberal arts college, I'm about to embark on a new program - beginning next semester - which will take me on trips to various sites of interest to American culture. I'll be studying what America is and isn't, and seeing the places that make it. The program will be traveling from the Jersey Shore to Celebration, FL, with a week long trip to Disney World at the end. I have to keep a journal for class, but it's meant to be a largely academic one. I'd like to keep one for myself as well, and for the girls, in which I can keep the more personal musings about what I learn through the course of this program.

After that, I'm hoping to study abroad for a year in Reading, England, where I'll be pursuing the last requirements for my Creative Writing major and French minor - and a number of attractive young men (the girls are already making lists of what they'd like me to find for them). I'm pretty bad at correspondence, though I've already promised postcards, but I'm good at keeping an online journal.

I don't expect much from this, but I figure it's worth a try. It'll probably be very quiet over the next two months, right up until classes start again next semester and the American Culture Program begins its journey.