THANKSGIVING.. TWICE

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Thanksgiving has never been my favorite holiday. That is not to say that I do not like it; I much enjoy seeing my family all together and sharing a meal, but I’m not a huge turkey or stuffing fan, it involves a lot of traveling on a busy traffic day, and I inevitably end up eating so much that I’m uncomfortably full and sleepy.

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However, when the week of Thanksgiving came this year, I realized that I was quite sad not to get to celebrate it. There were no Thanksgiving decorations anywhere, and no one was talking about it. In fact, I discovered that most people know that we celebrate it but have no idea why (I actually purposely researched it a bit ahead of time because I figured there would be questions about it - I was right). I mentioned at one of the Erasmus dinners (dinners with all the international students in my residence - we each pay 2 Euros and shop and cook collectively) that Thanksgiving was coming and that I was kind of sad about missing it this year, and they came up with the idea of trying to make it at the residence with the Erasmus kids. I thought that sounded like a great idea - dinner with my makeshift “family” at the residence. Before I knew it, though, it turned into an entire evening to which about 25 people were invited. This made me kind of nervous, since I tend to get a little nervous in crowds and with people I don’t know.

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Thanksgiving Thursday came, though, and I went food shopping, first at the Wazemmes Market, which is an open-air market that happens Sundays and Thursdays from 7 AM to 2 PM. There, we were able to buy almost everything we needed for the dinner. I spent the entire day cooking with Kate, another American, and Patoche (his real name is Patrick, but no one calls him that), a French guy who lives in the residence, always comes to the dinners, and is a phenomenal cook. We made turkey, stuffing, baked corn, and mashed potatoes. It turned out great - everyone showed up, I explained the meaning of Thanksgiving, and we all ate and laughed the whole night; it was great! I was really happy to be surrounded by all my friends in the residence on a day that otherwise would have been quite lonely. It was also nice to see so many people turn up and have a chance to explain something about American culture that wasn’t negative or related to current politics (George Bush - Americans thinking they’re always right - the dominance of American culture - the ignorant Americans…), and something that was at the same time quite personal.

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The second Thanksgiving was in Paris (technically Montataire, a small town just outside Paris where David lives and works) with David (my best friend), Meredith (another good friend with whom we went to school), and our friend Jean-Christophe.

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I arrived on Friday afternoon, and David and I spent the day making pumpkin pie, stuffing, and homemade whipped cream with a touch of ginger. We cooked, laughed, shopped, drank wine, and watched When Harry Met Sally (I had never seen it, and David said I had to). It was a nice night.

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Saturday, Meredith came in, and we spent the day cooking (turkey, stuffing, vegetables, mashed potatoes, gravy, and pumpkin pie) and catching up. Jean-Christophe came in just in time to eat. Before we ate, we went around the table and each said a few things for which we were thankful. I mentioned health, family, friends (old and new), and not knowing where I’ll be in a year. This is the first time I haven’t had a definite plan for the future, and instead of being scary (though it is, somewhat), it’s quite liberating.

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I should mention that the goal of our shopping trip on Friday was to buy a few pots and utensils for our Thanksgiving feast. We came back with the pots and utensils…and six bottles of wine, some household trinkets, two Christmas CDs, Christmas lights, ornaments, and a Christmas tree.

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We got a little excited.

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So Sunday, we put on Christmas music and put up and decorated the tree. It was really, really nice, and it put me in a very good mood. It felt so nice to spend time with such close friends, whom I consider a second family.

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Not to mention that I was proud of our food - it was damn good!

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