Fourteenth week of college and Thanksgiving! 11/25/12

I was very sad that I chose not to go home for Thanksgiving this year but I was fortunate enough to go home with my friend Chelsey to her house in Harvey, ND. I know now that I will not make that mistake again of going home for this holiday. I was "adopted" by the Marchand family for the weekend and had such a great time. They were so kind and friendly which made me feel very welcome and happy to be apart of their family. We had our Thanksgiving "supper" Thursday evening with one-half of their family and then another Thanksgiving lunch with the other half of the family on Saturday. Both meals were amazing and there were a few dishes I had never tried before which I really enjoyed as well. I had deer for the first time and I would have never noticed the difference between deer and beef if someone wouldn't have told me. When I asked how they purchased the deer....they explained how it was a deer they had killed. That was kind of startling for me to hear because I have never eaten or been in a situation like that where I was eating a meal that was killed and prepared without the help of others. But either way the meal was delicious. (I still had turkey and all the other standard Thanksgiving meals on top of the exotic ones too)

Harvey, ND

As for the town itself, it was nothing like I have ever lived in/experienced before. The total population of the town was only about 1800, smaller than my whole high school, and a little....old fashioned?  It's not that they didn't know about all the current technology but that it just simply hasn't been introduced greatly in this town.  I'll give an example; the use of checks is still very big there and using my debit card in the movie theater was not possible. I can't remember the last time I wasn't able to use a debit card to make a purchase but I guess I did live in So Cal my whole life....I'm so used to how everything flows there that I don't realize there are plenty of other places in the country that don't all live the same way as I do. (did?)

Going to the movie theater was so enjoyable and it was the smallest theater I had ever seen. Only one theater, with one movie showing, one time a day, on the weekends. (If that makes sense) They also only got digital projection this last year which I thought was an interesting fact as well. 

Lastly, it was awesome walking around town with the family and noticing that everyone knew each other. The environment was so much friendlier and you could easily get stuck in a store for 30 minutes just because you start talking with someone that you know. How often does that happen back home? Maybe once in awhile you see someone you know at a store but for the most part you get in and get out and move on with your day.

I went a little backwards this week starting with Thanksgiving first...but it was the most recent and I didn't want to forget to talk about any of the interesting events that had gone on over the weekend. Last week of school went very fast, only having two days of classes then showing up to my one class on Wednesday to have about 7 people in the class of about 50. However, I did get some good news in my math class when my professor mentioned to me that there was a mistake with my test and I actually got a 92% instead of an 82, so that boosts my grade up to an 86 and I can't decide if I want to try really hard to get that A or just settle with my B. :P  Let me know what I should do! 

Hope you all enjoy the pictures and had as an amazing of a Thanksgiving as I did. We are just about on a two week countdown (17 days to go) before I am back in YL. Can't wait to see my family and friends.

Cameron

My whole drive to/from Harvey. Nothing but flatland.

A few fun phrases that people use and like to say down in Harvey:

**"Neck of the woods"

      Ex: You don't see much of this down in your "neck of the woods" do you?

      Ex: We will have to come down and visit your "neck of the woods" sometime.

The one street in town with a majority of the stores.

**Order of meals for the day

     -Breakfast

     -Lunch/Dinner

     -Supper 

**There is a siren that goes off EVERY DAY at 12 PM and 6PM. When I asked what the meaning of the siren was, I was given the answer "it lets everyone know that it is time for lunch(12pm) or supper (6pm)"