American Thanksgiving...and lots of Mexican food

For those of you that I didn't get to see when I was home last week, my apologies. There are a lot of you that I didn't connect with, and I wish I'd had time to see more people than I did.

Instead, I can offer the next best thing. Here are some pictures of what I did while I was in Portland:





Photos:

• Top left: had an early Thanksgiving dinner on Wednesday night. It was soooo nice to eat turkey and cranberry sauce and mashed potatoes and stuffing...you get the idea.
  
• Top right: Two days later I followed it all up with the best Mexican food I've had since leaving the states last year.
  
• Middle left: Took some photos of Portland to show my students in Tokyo
  
• Middle right: came back to Oregon just in time to see the turning leaves.
  
• Bottom left: and here are those evergreen trees that I've been missing so much.
  
• Bottom right: took time to meet some of my friends for a cupcake party at Saint Cupcake downtown. I told everyone to act natural in the photo--and for the record, I think the result is pretty accurate. :) (Sometimes I miss you, Ted.)