I've started seeing my Aix...: The First Thanksgiving

Spending the holidays away from family and friends could very easily go wrong. Celebrating your first Thanksgiving somewhere that isn’t America could have easily been horrible. I’m glad to say that nothing went wrong, and nothing was horrible. I had a great Thanksgiving.

Wednesday night, about a dozen Americans from Sciences Po and other programs threw a potluck Thanksgiving for our international friends. Americans brought traditional Thanksgiving dishes, and everyone else brought food from their country or just something to contribute. This was the first Thanksgiving that I had really made food. I enjoy cooking and consider myself quite competent with a stove, but never really got assigned much for Thanksgiving at home. This year, I cooked up a bunch of chicken (because turkey was too expensive), cornbread (mix courtesy of a carepackage from the US), and cranberry sauce to contribute on behalf of myself and two of my American friends. I did a damn good job. Part of me wished I was just cooking an entire Thanksgiving dinner myself because then I could feel completely accomplished, instead of just partially. But we’ll save that for next year or so.

Held in a large party room at the dorms, there were probably about 50 people who showed up. It was insane, as was the obscene amount of food we had to feast on. For the majority of the people in the room, it was their first American Thanksgiving and everyone was very eager to try all the strange food we cooked up. My cranberry sauce seemed to confuse people. They kept asking what they were supposed to put it on, probably because it was a sauce. Yeah I know it’s called a “sauce” but you don’t HAVE to put it on something…you can just eat it. The sweet potato casserole also perplexed some, due to the marshmallows on top. Fortunately by the end of the night, everyone tried a little bit of everything and I heard no complaints. Job well done, everyone.

At the end of the evening, some people had been asking what the story behind Thanksgiving was. I told everyone that if they wanted to hear the story of Thanksgiving to meet me on the other side of the room so I would only have to tell the story once. This quickly turned into “story time” when some people decided to sit cross legged in a semi circle around me, and then inspired the majority of the group to do the same. It was adorable. My ability to tell a good story combined with my bullshitting powers teamed up to tell a version of the story that 80% resembled what we teach kindergarteners, but with a little profanity mixed in. In the end, everyone had a great time. I love cooking for people. I love sharing the better aspects of American culture with other people. I love spending time with friends. I love telling people bullshit stories. It was the perfect storm of awesome.

As for Thanksgiving Day itself, the fun only continued. I decided ahead of time that the day would be heavily focused on Skype so that I didn’t have to feel like I was missing anything. This was the first Thanksgiving that my entire family hasn’t been together, and it was strange. To make the separation seem smaller, I figured my family could just open up their laptop, call me on Skype, and they could just leave me on the counter all day while they hung out and ate. The plan worked perfectly.

With the time difference of seven hours, it made the schedule a little tricky, but I wholeheartedly committed to it. I talked to my mom, stepdad, siblings, and pets for a while at my house. Later, I followed my siblings to the next location for festivities and spent some time with them, my dad, my stepmom. Eventually, they left for the next location…and so did I. I said goodbye to my siblings as they were leaving my father’s house, and greeted them as they arrived at my aunt’s house. From 5,000 miles away I still found a way to beat them to the party…at least digitally.

And so I hung out on the counter at my Aunt June’s house for a while. InitiallIy, I was just briefing my family on what I’ve been up to lately, since I haven’t spoken with some people in a few months. After a while though, I was just kind of hanging out like I was actually there. Thankfully at her house, most of the people sit at the table and just hang out for extended periods of time so I had a good stationary place to take in all the action. Towards the end of the night, I saw that my brother, who was in the living room, had posted a quote from Elf to facebook. I then demanded that someone please carry my laptop into the living room so that I could watch the movie with my siblings. They kept forgetting I was there, and would be startled when all the sudden I would comment on something or join the conversation. It was hilarious. Before the night ended, I even made it into the group photo, as a floating head on the kitchen table. I didn’t hang up the Skype call until my family was leaving to finally go home for the night, and I made it to bed around 4am.

I didn’t even have to miss a Thanksgiving meal. Between all of my Skype sessions, my program took our group out for the dinner we all needed at a nice restaurant. We all got our fix of turkey, stuffing, mashed potaters, and pumpkin pie. It was lovely.

In all, I had a great Thanksgiving. Between festivities with friends, and still being able to take part in everything that was happening at home with my family, I couldn’t be happier. The cherry on top is the fact that I’m currently sitting in the south of France, and not slaving away at Target during Black Friday right now. I'm thankful that I occasionally have ideas as good as my solution to holiday homesickness, and look forward to repeating the process come Christmas.

Photos...since I have real internet and can upload them to posts now: