I have been in a food coma since American Thanksgiving last week.

Being a non-US transplant in California has certainly been an interesting experience over the past couple of years. Although Canada and the USA are geographically close (note: but not ACTUALLY the same country, thank you very much) there are just enough cultural differences to constantly remind me that I am indeed in a foreign nation.

Over the past couple of weeks, the only topics of conversation seemed to be Thanksgiving and Black Friday. No, not the poker version of Black Friday but this strange day which sounds ridiculously ominous but is actually just an extreme and slightly frightening version of the Boxing Day sales you non-Americans might be more familiar with. People camp out with real tents and everything and line up in front of stores like Walmart ALL NIGHT in order to be allowed in early to pick up deals on merchandise. People get really wound up about Black Friday and the news has been full of stories of people going a little bit too far in their shopping zeal. One lady even used pepper spray to fend off purchasing rivals who were approaching things she wanted to buy. I really don't understand the whole thing and I'm sure there must be more to it that I'm missing, because it all sounds utterly bonkers to me.

Thanksgiving though, now THAT I can get behind! This is a holiday created for nothing short of gluttony - something that I'm quite fond of as a pastime. Some friends of mine invited me over to share their dinner, along with about 15 family members and other friends. It was, in a word, awesome. The taste and variety of foods was staggering although of course Turkey was the centrepiece. And the amounts, dear god, the sheer volume of food that we ate. It was really lovely to be able to watch her family dynamic as everyone teased and told jokes and caught up on each other's lives and they welcomed me in like a long lost Canadian cousin. I endured a lot of 'eh' jokes but we bonded over the humour from the classic Canadian movie Strange Brew.

They are a great group of people and if they don't invite me back next year for some reason, I might just camp outside their house pre-Thanksgiving in my own version of crazy Black Friday consumption madness.

I hope you all enjoyed your November, whether Turkey was involved or not!