Canadian Thanksgiving.

So just an update on what's been going on in my life between all the traveling.  As most of you know, this past Monday was Canadian Thanksgiving.  My idea for celebrating it was to in some way consume a pie, preferably pumpkin.  At first I was going to make it, but that turned into something that sounded like a little too much work for me in my present condition, busy and limited in kitchen supplies.  So I decided I would cop out a little and buy one.  Morning of Canadian Thanksgiving, off I go to the big grocery store.  I pick up all the groceries I need so I could eat for the rest of the week and head over to the bakery section, only to discover that Hungary is not big on pies and does not supply them to the general public, at least not at this grocery store:( A little bummed and a strange stomach ache starting, I head back home.  It does not get better.

I had been sick with a cold the week before leaving for Venice.  It had calmed down during my travels, limiting itself to my nose, but it wasn't done with me yet. Apparently it was time for back aches along with chills, stomach cramps and the occasional fever. After napping my way through the afternoon and sitting through my night class, I was ready to officially call it the worst Thanksgiving ever.  One of my friends, Tanya, was stopping by the smaller grocery store on the way home from class and said she would look for pie on my behalf.  I was grateful for the gesture, but pretty sure she wasn't going to find anything.  Well, she didn't find pie, but she didn't come back empty handed either.  She had stocked up on short cake, pie filling, whipped cream, and apple strudel with the aim to make a substitute pie.  As she presented me with all these lovely things, everyone else around our dorm sang "Happy Thanksgiving" to me (sung with the tune of Happy Birthday).  We then proceeded to the kitchen to find as many different ways as we could to construct something pie like from short cake, pie filling, and whipped cream, all by candle light.  So I was able to go to bed feeling that I had had a pretty good Thanksgiving after all, but it still wasn't done yet.

1:20 am and one of my roommates boots it past my bed to her with definite concern. I get up and look at what she had rushed to and see a dark spot on her mattress.  At first I wasn't sure it if it was blood or vomit, but neither of those would call for a rush to a bed, more like a rush to the bathroom. Turns out both my guesses were wrong as the strong smell of something burning reached my nose and I noticed the smoke in the room.  My poor roommate had been getting ready for bed and so as to not disturb those of us already in bed, had turned her lamp aiming at her bed.  Apparently she pushed it a little too far and it ended up touching the mattress.  She had left for a few minutes to the kitchen when she smelled something burning and, luckily, realized what it was, resulting in her mad rush to our room while yelling at another of our apartment mates that she had burned her mattress down.  Fortunately, nothing was burned down and we all survived, with a little less sleep but another good story of our adventures in Hungary.