To Give Thanks

Yesterday we held our Thanksgiving in China. This is now the second time I've been away from home by myself on Thanksgiving and both times I've been sad that I wasn't back in the US but glad to be with really interesting and great people. We held it Friday instead of Thursday since most of us had class Thursday and little time to prepare. Of the six Americans at the school four made it, Brian had to work, and Jason was off somewhere. We decided to do it pot luck style since we had no real ability to get most of the Thanksgiving day food and everyone had something they could make. I made my mashed potatoes, which came out pretty good even though the milk is a little odd tasting. The butter I found at Wal-Mart was Land O'Lakes, and unlike some US company stuff was clearly imported from the US since the whole packaging was in English with a Chineese label stuck over it. I bought maybe a dozen potatoes, costing about one dollar, and made a ton of mashed potatoes, there was none really left at the end though after people took some for leftovers. Dave made a sweat potato dish. Usually they sell steamed sweat potatoes out in front of the school at night but Dave couldn't wait for night so he bought some and cooked them himself. He added a topping with almonds brown pepper and something making it very sweat. Since things like this are often cooked in an oven and there seem to be no ovens in all of China he put the dish in a pan then the pan in a wok full of water so that it would heat evenly.

Ken made stove top stuffing which came out pretty well though there was almost a bit of an indecent over a confusion between a clove and a bulb of garlic that would have resulted in the stuffing pretty much tasting like pure garlic. Clark made pasta and garlic bread. I didn't even see pasta sauce but apparently they have it at Wal-Mart. We had the whole festivities at Ken's place since it's the biggest. I was waiting around there for a while so I looked around, he has two bathrooms about four empty room, some of which could be bedrooms, a huge closet area, two porches and a TV room. It's honestly a little creepy in there with all that space. Teddy and Steve's family also came to the party. Steve's wife Spring insisted on bringing some food, one things was some sort of cabbage, one was some sort of dry sausage, and another I'm not really sure what it was. We got together at Ken's place around 6 to finish cooking. Spring hung around the kitchen watching all the Americans put the final touches on there food while Dave and Teddy got another table to put together with the one in Ken's place.

Besides the food people made Ken bought some wine, one of which we couldn't get properly open so there was a good bit of cork in the bottle. Finally, since we never really found any turky Ken and Dave went to get the closest thing, two big buckets of KFC. Ken said the people had quite a look on their faces when they pointed to two of the largest size they sold. I think they probably believe that they were personally going to eat all that chicken. We had paper plates and plastic utensils that the Chinese guests used also. In the end we put all the food in the middle and past is around in true Thanksgiving style. The food wasn't all that much in Thanksgiving tradition but the style was just right. We all sat around with friends at a big table and had a good time eating to much food. It's fun to have all the same things year after year, and if I could I would have had turkey and pumpkin pie and all the other things, but it's more about the people. We even had Steve's son who wolfed down some pasta then went into the other room to watch TV proving kids are kids anywhere. It all felt more like home then I could have hoped for.

At home dad always gives a Thanksgiving toast about what he's thankful for for the past year and while I didn't really get a chance to yesterday I thought I'd put it here: I'm thankful that I finally finished college; I'm thankful that I had fun in DC before getting to go abroad; I'm thankful I'm finally in China and having such a nice time here; I'm thankful that my family is OK back home and Poppy is feeling better; I'm thankful that I met such nice people here; And I'm thankful for all the support I've received form everyone. Happy Thanksgiving.