Yesterday I made an effort to explain Thanksgiving to my students. I think they kind of get it, probably as much as I understood that Loy Krathong was about appologzing to the river for polluting it by polluting it. In a couple of my classes I've asked the students to say what they are thankful for. One student said he was thankful for his mother & father but after I explained that it was also a harvest festival he said "OH! I'm thankful for rice." which has the same cultural significance as being thankful for one's "daily bread", so I think he really got it. I think my students got off easy - Bunny made hers make hand-print turkeys and write 'thank you' notes on the back.
After class, at about 8:30pm I hopped on a motorbike taxi and went to the market. I picked up some chicken and rice, and a few other things. I'd really hoped I could find something approaching Thanksgiving Day food... but it just didn't happen. If I'd had access to a full kitchen I could have done better... but as disappointed as I was not to have stuffing, gravy and cranberry sauce, we managed to pull together a pretty good feast. 
Bunny & Bobby had picked up some cheese - so that helped a lot. ;)It was Donny & Marie's first Thanksgiving, and Donny kind of missed the point by eating before we came over. But in the true spirit of the holiday we force fed him a little more. We ended the evening playing Scrabble... so all was well.
TAG: Code Mango
5 comments:
Sounds untraditional, but fun. When I lived overseas, I was afraid I'd be desperately lonely on holildays, but in fact those are now some of my best memories. How you think back with a smile to this Thanksgiving.
But to be sure, it'll be a Thanksgiving you'll never forget. What more could you ask for?
Cheese always helps. It definitely looks like it was a good time either way.
I had a similar untraditional Thanksgiving my first year of college with all the out of state kids and the ones who couldn't afford to go home--and it was the best!!! You'll remember this one for a long time!
It will be a Thanksgiving I'll never forget, but probably not my favorite ever. The fact that I had to work all day before hand, and didn't get to stay home cooking & baking kida sucked a lot of the fun out of it. But yeah... I am Thankful that I had people to share it with.
Post a Comment