Thanksgiving 2007: Just as the Pilgrims and Indians Intended…

It is always a sad day to be away from family and close friends for important holidays, such a Thanksgiving…but I am. I’ve also found it quite difficult to celebrate the traditional American holidays, which aren’t recognized globally, while living in a foreign country…all around you life goes on like it’s any normal day but inside you know it isn’t!

Last year, as many of you will remember, I was quite bummed out on Thanksgiving. It was an emotion which took me completely by surprise. I’d been living in Switzerland for just over 2 months and felt quite settled into life here and thought it would be no big deal to go through the day without turkey and college football…BOY WAS I WRONG! What bothered me most was the lack of contact I had with everyone…since all the people back in the US had the day off work, there were no emails passed and I felt quite isolated. This year was totally different!

Due to my overly depressed blog post from last year, my host mom thought it most important for me to have a proper Thanksgiving this year…me and my big mouth! We planned for a big meal and I was going to cook it all…well, all that took a turn when the construction for our new flat screen came into play. (You see, my host dad has been dreaming of owning a flat screen television for a while now, at least as long as I’ve lived here, and finally he is making all his own dreams come true…he ripped out most of a wall to run wires and cables and heaps of things I couldn’t possibly care about and as a result the wall then had to be fixed and the chosen night was none other than November 22^nd…Thanksgiving night!) So, the plans changed…

Initially, the family decided to send Megz and I out for a nice dinner…it eventually evolved into me inviting everyone I know in Zürich out for dinner…

So here’s the scene if you can try to imagine it…10 people: 2 Peruvians, 3 Australians, a Swedish guy, Greek guy, Turkish guy, Canadian girl, and myself (the lone American…) out to celebrate American Thanksgiving at a Mexican Restaurant in Switzerland…have you ever heard a crazier story?! Mexico is close to the US…it counts, right??

We ate fajitas, Mexican salads, tortillas with salsa and guacamole, you name it…we had it sitting at our table…and Margaritas! To make it really cool…it was one of those restaurants where you could draw on the table with crayons so everyone was drawing their country’s flag and assorted other junk like turkeys and stuff…At the end of the dinner my host mom had arranged a surprise for us…a cake to mark the occasion! It was all so nice and definitely a Thanksgiving I won’t soon forget…

I really, REALLY appreciate my host mom for everything she did setting up all the reservations, recommending the place to eat, and just getting me out of the house to enjoy myself and not allowing me to sit at home miserable…and I’m so happy that my friends marked the occasion with me and I wasn’t all alone for the special day…I’m not sure it meant anything to them but it meant so much more to me than I can ever express!

I am, however, planning to get my fill of a traditionally cooked Thanksgiving meal in just over a week. My American friend down the street is cooking another traditional meal when her in-laws arrive back home. I’m going to help with the cooking (AND the eating…), I really can’t wait!

Ok, that’s all for this post…I have a few more I want to write tonight so, hopefully, you’ll be hearing from me again soon!

Ciao for now…

LuLu