French Praline and American Dinners!

So my host mother realized the other day that I am only here for about 5 more weeks (at least in their house, scary right?) and she wants to instill in me as many French recipes that she can handle! Last night we made praline, the French way (this does not mean that it took 5 hours and some paperwork however). So, American praline is some almonds floating in a sea of caramel candy correct? French praline is almonds with a light caramel coating! Almost the exact opposite! So after a dinner of a delicious (I believe pumpkin) soup, who I'm the only one that really likes soup, mostly because it's the only vegetable in the meal, then some frozen pizza with salad. The pizza was strangely sweet, I don't know what to make of it. Finally, after the dishes were put away, she started to explain to me how to make praline, you take equal parts sugar, water and almonds (with the skin on!) and put it in a pot and start boiling off the water on low heat, until the mixture begins to look like sand. I know this sounds weird, and you think it would caramelize, but no - it looks like sand. Take it off the heat, and break up the sand particles until they're very fine. Put the pot back on the heat to melt the sand a bit to give the almonds a glossy glaze. They're delicious to munch on!
Another recipe that I have recently learned is for this delicious Moroccan tea that we always get at this specific restaurant for lunch "dessert". It's Chinese green tea brewed with dried mint leaves, after the brewing process add sugar to taste. It's delicious - and even without the sugar, I think the brewing mint leaves with tea is GENIUS!
Finally, I offered to make my host family an "American dinner", as per request of my host sister a while back. So I've decided to make Meatloaf and Mashed Potatoes. This is extremely different from anything that they have ever served me, so I don't know how they will like it, hopefully a lot! But we shall see, it's a very different taste than anything they make. Oh well, it will be a really American night though! I'm also thinking of making cookies some time soon. We'll see if I can find the time however.
So besides a lot of new recipes, not a lot is going on here, everyone is beginning to prepare for finals next week. They shouldn't be too bad for me, I'm excited! Also I'm excited to take off on my adventure around Europe for December break, it should be a great time.
Peace, Love, and American-ness