Friday I went to see The Ring. It was originally a Japanese movie that Hollywood stole. But in this case I think hollywood did a decent job. I was scared out of my mind. Poor Addi had to sit next to me. I had a death grip on her arm for the whole movie. I watched the original Ring in Japanese, but it wasn't as scary (possibly because I didn't understand most of the Japanese).

Saturday I went to see Harry Potter with some friends (this was the movie weekend). I love love love Harry Potter. But Japanese audiences find different things funny than Americans. So our group would be laughing hysterically (and loudly, we are Americans) and the rest of the audience would be silent. Then the Japanese would start laughing at something random that wasn't funny. It was amusing to listen to the different reactions.

Sunday I went with Addi to her church (a non-denominational church with a Lutheran pastor, that sings out of Baptist hymn books, and has a man in purple tie-dye playing the drums). It was great! We had Thanksgiving dinner and there were American mommies all over the place. It was great to have moms standing around shushing kids and putting dishes out and bustling around the kitchen. It really made me feel like I was in America with kids running around getting into things and moms (in English) stopping them. Some friends and I even got an invitation to an American mommie's house for Thanksgiving night. She said we might just get macaroni and cheese, or grilled cheese sandwiches, but it has been a long time since I had either of those. So that would be almost as good as turkey.