Happy Fire Chicken Day!

11/25/11

            My first Thanksgiving away from home was…well…different. Besides my homestay mother (the native) sending me (the new arrival) off to school with two apples and a pomegranate (I usually just get the one apple,) the morning was business as usual. We had Chinese class, where I learned that “turkey” in Chinese literally translates as “fire chicken.” Can you believe it, we even had seminar! My leaders were very impressed by my ability to pay attention while drawing hand turkeys.

            Then we were whisked away for Thanksgiving lunch at an “American” restaurant. The turkey was imported and tasted fine. The cranberry sauce wasn’t fake enough for my tastes. The pumpkin pie was excellent. And the sweet potatoes, I have to say, were even better than at home. Sorry Mother! There was also lasagna and empanadas… I’m not quite sure why. At the end of the meal I was pleasantly nauseous, so I suppose it was a success.

            Then we were set free and all went in separate directions for our Independent Student Travel. My sleeper train didn’t leave until 10pm, so I spent the afternoon stuffing envelopes for TBB while listening to Christmas carols, and watching Forest Gump with the stragglers. Thankfully, I had gone to the American store the day before, and stocked up on American food for dinner. I had my second feast of the day of Pringles, snack pack butterscotch pudding cups, digestive cookies, root beer, and pop rocks that my mother had sent me from home.

            My next morning I got to Skype with my family.  In CT it was still Thanksgiving, and there were about forty people crowded around the computer to talk to me. Coincidentally, my family had six Chinese people over for the meal, two of which don’t speak any English! My family loves their stragglers!

            Hope you all had wonderful Thanksgivings!

Love,

Katherine