I'll preface this with the explanation, your welcome. In Chinese the direct translation of "turkey" is "fire-chicken", so it is not uncommon, I've found, that students will shout the latter when presented with a picture of the former. If you don't know that that's why that's happening, this can be a very confusing experience. Now that I've figured it out I don't think I'll ever say "turkey" again.
In summary, Happy Thanksgiving!!
I've been very blessed this year and have an awful lot to be thankful for. Among these things -- the amazing opportunity to live in China again, my hilarious and poorly suited job, my loving family, my gets-me-by income, my cute apartment, my wonderful school, taste buds, the friends I've made here, the opportunities to travel around this side of the world, my French press to make coffee, etc. etc. etc. And of course being able to blog and hearing from so many of you that you enjoying reading it and following my antics. I'm very appreciative of feeling relevant and having so many people share in my victories and frustrations. (In fact, the blog view count is fast approaching 1,000. It will happen soon!)
And of course, I'm thankful for being able to find a real Thanksgiving meal in the middle of China! A group of us foreign teachers went to a restaurant and chowed down on turkey and the fixings. Four days later I think I'm still full! But maybe that's from the second dinner we enjoyed on Saturday, when all the teachers got together with homemade dishes and giant plates of turkey. I brought cans of cranberry sauce, but had some issue with presentation -- my serving bowl is silver metal and the sauce came out of the can in the shape of the can, hellooo dog food aesthetic! There was a large variety of dishes to be enjoyed, and of course some sports and games to play afterwards. We even had the rare treat of a frisbee!
I've discovered a similarity between our countries though -- Christmas decorations are already up in the mall! I thought it would be difficult to make malls in China more flashy and lit up than they already are, but there they go proving me wrong. Some of the decorations are questionably misguided, like a giant purple witch hat with light up "Merry Christmas" on it, but most are reminiscent of home. Starbucks even has holiday flavors out now (^.^)
The holiday season's begun!
I am glad that you have found so many things to be thankful for! It is heartening to hear you are doing well there. You were the talk of the dinner table on Thanksgiving. If it makes you feel any better, at least you remembered the cranberry sauce, for the 3rd year in a row, ours has been forgotten in the refrigerator and your poor dad has to resign himself to having it with leftovers… Enjoy your holiday season!
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