My last four Thanksgiving holidays were spent in the United States. Just to give a little background, Thanksgiving in the US is celebrated on the fourth Thursday of the month of November and signals the beginning of the holiday season (the malls usually start playing Christmas carols, hallmark stocks up on Christmas cards and people put up their holiday decorations soon after). It is more of a family holiday, not restricted to any particular religious tradition and less commercial than other holidays (not counting Black Friday).
Freshman year, everyone who lived nearby went home for the holidays. Home being too far away for a three-day visit, I stayed on campus along with most of the international students. As Forbes emptied out, I got ready to spend the holiday catching up on sleep and homework but my awesome RA invited me and my hall-mate to her house to experience a "real" American Thanksgiving.
Thursday morning, we went over to Mir's house. The house was full (family, friends, a dog and two cats) but her mom and dad made me feel very welcome, and surprisingly, I didn't feel shy or awkward! Her mom had made turkey with cornbread stuffing, gravy, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, string bean casserole and vegetarian spaghetti specially for me because Mir had told them I was vegetarian. Mir and her sister were put finishing touches on the apple and pumpkin pies and her dad passed around the appetizers while the guests sat around and talked and babies bawled in the background...very homey :)
When it was time to eat, Mir's dad (a cultural Jew) said grace, then we all sat and ate until we could barely move... Later, the guys watched NFL football and the ladies chatted over second and third helpings of pie with whipped cream and coffee... delicious :-)
Contrary to my expectations (for a country famous for illicit sex, broken homes, and one of the highest divorce rates in the world), I learned that Americans do come together to enjoy family, food and football on Thanksgiving Day.
Thursday morning, we went over to Mir's house. The house was full (family, friends, a dog and two cats) but her mom and dad made me feel very welcome, and surprisingly, I didn't feel shy or awkward! Her mom had made turkey with cornbread stuffing, gravy, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, string bean casserole and vegetarian spaghetti specially for me because Mir had told them I was vegetarian. Mir and her sister were put finishing touches on the apple and pumpkin pies and her dad passed around the appetizers while the guests sat around and talked and babies bawled in the background...very homey :)
When it was time to eat, Mir's dad (a cultural Jew) said grace, then we all sat and ate until we could barely move... Later, the guys watched NFL football and the ladies chatted over second and third helpings of pie with whipped cream and coffee... delicious :-)
Contrary to my expectations (for a country famous for illicit sex, broken homes, and one of the highest divorce rates in the world), I learned that Americans do come together to enjoy family, food and football on Thanksgiving Day.
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i hav found western families to be much better composed than our star plussed eastern ones full of lies... !
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