That Thanksgiving will always hold a special place in my heart because the holiday spirit was alive in the dorm. Every North American came together to share their families' recipes and everyone else came to celebrate with us. I'll never forget the three tables full of food or the sounds of satisfied guests.
This Thanksgiving wasn't like those past experiences. And I am Thankful for that because this one can stand alone in my memories as well.
On Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday I showed my students this clip from Charlie Browns Thanksgiving https://www.youtube.com/watch?
After school on Wednesday I walked to a local pie shop to test taste the rumored pumpkin pie. The shop is tucked away in the basement of a building and has a quaint coffee shop feel. The owner is a sweet girl who studied in America and the pie passed my taste bud test.
On actual Thanksgiving I woke up early because the bus company was going on strike that day over the taxis getting to use their bus lanes (I still don't understand because I have seen cars, taxis, scooters, and buses use every lane) and I knew I'd need to walk to school. I was a little frustrated with my school because no one had told me about the strike or offered to give me a ride to school (thankfully I read English updates about the city and they warned of the bus strike). As I was getting ready for my cold walk to school my landlord and some younger lady who translated for us buzzed my room. They wanted to see if I knew about the bus strike and when I told them I was planning on walking to school my landlord said her husband would drive me to school. It was an awkward fifteen minutes in the car (a common car ride with a Korean consists of them speaking Korean under their breath most of the drive) but I am SO thankful that I didn't have to walk to school. In the afternoon I learned that the strike ended at 11am that morning. What a quick strike. That night I celebrated Thanksgiving by watching every Thanksgiving episode of How I Met Your Mother (which has become a self made tradition the last few years). I ended the evening with a little Skype time with my parents.
Friday morning before I went to school I was able to Skype with my mom's side of the family down at the farm! What a blessing to see their faces and be offered homemade bars. (Seriously, technology is such a blessing). After school I met up with Meredith and Loree at Costco for our Thanksgiving shopping. After two hours of shopping we successfully got everything we needed for a proper Thanksgiving feast. We decided to get two full chickens instead because without an oven we would never be able to cook a turkey in a day. One thing we were hoping to find at Costco was cranberries and we left without them sadly. But while at Homeplus Loree and I spotted them from across the room and both ran to the refrigerator that held them. Both of us started to dance in the middle of Homeplus, it was magical.
Saturday afternoon began the Thanksgiving festivities in my apartment. I had five Americans over and we cooked our Thanksgiving feast for two and a half hours, ate for about one, cleaned for a half hour, and sat content around the table the rest of the night. I love that this holiday brings people together no matter what country they are in and that everyone is willing to cook, wait for hours for the food, and then clean up.
And in true Thanksgiving fashion there were left overs that I was able to share with my two friends from South Africa the day after.
In conclusion: I am thankful for my landlord driving me to school, for American friends to celebrate with, for new friends to share with, for my electronics still working, that everyone's health is intact, for cranberries in South Korea, for happy dances in grocery stores, for pumpkin pie, for How I Met Your Mother's hilarious Thanksgiving episodes, for Skype, and every other blessing in my life.
everyone (minus Loree) and our Thanksgiving feast.
Thankful that Meredith and Loree were on my plane.
Eating Thanksgiving with chop sticks because I didn't have enough forks!
No comments:
Post a Comment