Dearest Readers,
I hope that your Thanksgiving festivities have been full of wonderful family, friends, food, and fun (I just had to keep the alliteration going). Thanksgiving is such a great holiday because it really prompts you to stop and appreciate the important things in life; surrounded by those closest to you, as well as reminders of your (probably, hopefully) fortunate situation in life, you acknowledge these blessings and enjoy them, instead of taking them for granted, as many of us, unfortunately, do far too often. It is one of my favorite holidays because of this. Strangely, I never thought of it as a particularly American holiday (it lost much of its historical significance for me after I stopped making hand-turkeys and learning about the Pilgrims in elementary school), and because it is so antithetical to much of what the American spirit is known for (consumerism, success-at-all-costs, a sense of superiority....sorry, I think that living outside of the country, where so many people possess such attitudes, is starting to get to me), I often forget that Americans actually came up with such a celebration. However, after celebrating my first Thanksgiving away from home, in a country that is still trying to figure out why we left it in the first place, I am coming to appreciate it more than ever. Please allow me to tell you the story of how I passed my Thanksgiving this year...
Let's start with Thursday morning. After having gotten three or four hours of sleep (thanks to a paper that I was trying to work on and coughing for half of the night), I woke up, plopped myself on the couch with a pot of tea next to me (and one piece of toast that served as breakfast and lunch-- did I mention that I also had some sort of stomach bug?), and continued frantically trying to finish my paper before my 4 pm class. Once I realized that I was going to finish with plenty of time to spare, I slowed down, and, realizing that it was nearing 8 am in New York, I began searching the internet for a live feed of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade-- one of my favorite nostalgic features of the holiday. Of course, none were to be found, and no British telly channels were showing it either (which came as little surprise). Oh well.
Since dinner was to be happening downtown, nearer to Nelson than my house, I figured that I should just stay down there between my class and dinner-- there was only an hour between. So I got all dressed up, and just as I was about to email my paper to myself so that I could print it at Nelson, I got an email stating that the paper deadline had been extended until Friday at 5 (seriously?!), and then our internet died. Great. Well, at least I had another day to send it in. So I went to class, concentrated on staying awake (I was really tired, really sick, and really bored-- bad combination), then headed to Flat 4 afterward to hang out until we left for dinner.
Here is where things, thankfully, started getting considerably better (don't worry, I wasn't going to give you an entirely sad story, that would have been terribly mean of me). We embarked in search of Bath College, where our dinner was being held (we had never been there, and the map was not exactly helpful). First though, we had to get through the epic insanity that was the center of town-- the Bath Christmas Markets, one of the city's greatest points of pride, opened that morning, and people were just packed into the streets. We made it, albeit a bit slowly, and got to see all of the fun things waiting for us when we eventually go-- Santa (with a real reindeer to pet!), a giant carousel, hundreds of stalls with handmade goods and delicious food... I'm pretty excited about this. Anyway, we eventually found the place, and once we got inside, found a banquet hall filled with tables that had been decorated with leaves, hand turkeys (from the education students' classes)... the whole nine yards. Everyone was milling around, laughing and talking-- everyone from our programme as well as the staff. It really was a beautiful sight.
We sat down to eat, and Jonathan, our director, opened with a blessing by Robert Louis Stevenson (appropriate), before the chefs brought out possibly the biggest turkey that I have ever seen. One turkey. For fifty people. And there were leftovers. It was that big.
We got up in shifts to get turkey. While waiting for our turn, my table, made up of all friends, went around and said what we were thankful for (as was the tradition in nearly all of our families). Amazingly (or perhaps not), we all mentioned how lucky we felt to have the chance to study abroad, and especially for the friends that we made, who on that night, became family... which was really sweet. Notably, we all also mentioned our families at home, and how much we missed them.
After we got our turkey (one slice! crazy Brits...), waiters came around with sides-- mashed potatoes, baked sweet potatoes, corn, carrots, stuffing, green beans, cranberry sauce, and these very amusing cornbread things that were essentially mini scones. Everything was delicious... but it was all very small. I usually associate Thanksgiving with epic portions of food that are piled into a small mountain on your plate, which you finish, and then help yourself to a second mountain. Our plates resembled English geography instead-- lots of little hills undulating across what was essentially a flat surface. When we finished our food unusually quickly, and looked about expectantly for more, the waitstaff finally caught on to the fact that Americans are, in fact, as big on food as stereotypes suggest, and came around with seconds. It was actually pretty comical.
While waiting for our pie (one slice each--I was so disappointed!) to come out of the kitchen, we opened our Christmas crackers that were sitting at each of our places (again, I was really amused... clearly, the Brits, who were already in full-on Christmas mode, assumed that Thanksgiving must function as the beginning of the Christmas count-down). We pulled on our tissue-paper crowns (which I decided were Native American feather headdresses), and played with our strange surprises-- a mini badminton set, mini screwdrivers, mini yo-yos... (not sure I understand the appeal of Christmas crackers) until dessert arrived. I had apple pie, which was fine, but the pumpkin was better (I stole a bite of Ali's), and both were very flat... like tarts, really, instead of pie. But they were tasty nonetheless.
After coffee, we all milled about again, laughing and talking with each other, noting with surprise how much fun this Thanksgiving dinner was. The staff came around to talk to us too, with fervent hopes that we enjoyed ourselves, and that we felt satisfied that the dinner had fulfilled our expectations for the holiday; it was very sweet of them, and we thanked them profusely for their thoughtfulness and efforts in making us feel a bit closer to home.
We headed home at that point; most of us hoping to skype with our families at their dinner tables, including myself. But of course, my internet still didn't work. So our whole house went across the street to the other programme house, to borrow theirs. I managed to talk to my sister and cousins for about two minutes before the other house's internet failed too. By the time it came back, I couldn't get a hold of them. So I was sad. On the bright side, I managed to send in my paper (huzzah). On another bright side, the Thanksgiving food had somehow cured my stomach bug-- I finally felt well again! Yay! It's powerful stuff, traditional food (the Jews have known this for centuries).
And as for part two of the traditional Thanksgiving observance-- Black Friday-- I'm heading to the Christmas market to celebrate in the true American fashion of exhaustive shopping. You can take the American out of America, but you can't take America out of the American.
As for the rest of the weekend-- another paper, some research for the end of my dissertation, reading an epically long book, trying to shake off the head cold that has decided to reappear following the departure of the stomach bug, and hoping for the tentatively-expected rarity of English snow!
This Thanksgiving, I realized how very grateful I am for the incredible opportunities that I enjoy, and the countless blessings in my life-- studying at Williams, living in a foreign country for four months, having friends all over the world, (most importantly) having a family that loves and supports me in everything that I do, and even, despite all of my grousing about it, being an American, and having all of the opportunities that come along with it. Sometimes a little absence really does makes the heart grow that much fonder.
Happy (belated) Thanksgiving, my friends-- enjoy your leftovers and the memories of this holiday's warmth in peace, happiness, and love. And please, eat an extra helping of sweet potatoes with marshmallows on top for me-- the Brits just don't understand what a tasty and fundamental aspect of the holiday they are. :)
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