Happy Thanksgiving to all my stranded expat friends! I've invited an English friend for pizza and movies. A girls night out to make up for being alone. Seb always seems to be gone at Thanksgiving time. This makes four years now. He obviously doesn't understand the importance of the holiday (grrr).
I really miss my family today. I don't really care about missing Christmas or Fourth of July, (well I DO but), but, missing Thanksgiving is really hard.
Eat lots of cranberry sauce and mashed potatoes for me if you are lucky enough to be at home today.
9 comments:
Love to you, Chris! Loic was gone last year too.
Thanks Lucy. My English neighbor was very sweet and brought me flowers. It was actually a really fun evening.
Awww, I'm with you, missing Thanksgiving is especially hard! I'm living in the US now so *do* have Thanksgiving, but am far from family. In the past, I've hosted large T-day meals for all my expat friends. But for the past couple of years, our local friends all seem to have family nearby or travel. And it's just not the same when it's just us. F didn't get it so much, being Swiss, but finally I think he appreciates how it's my favourite holiday, so he invited a bunch of colleagues, all expats except the husband of one, for dinner. Yay! I got to cook to my heart's delight, and share it with others. I'm not so bothered about the "others" being family or closest friends, just feel that Thanksgiving should be shared with people. And I like to cook!
Maybe next year you can invite all your neighbors over and share Thanksgiving in your newly renovated house :)
I'm sorry! I was a little sad too on Thursday. Thanksgiving is the hardest holiday.
I just finished stuffing a turkey and getting things ready for lunch tomorrow. G's family is coming for Thanksgiving Sunday and to celebrate James's birthday. It's not the same though. I am still a little grumpy and sad.
Hope you had a nice time with your friend! We had pizza on Thursday too.
Cherise - Yes next year I think I'll plan an expat Thanksgiving, although it ocurs to me that I don't KNOW any expats. I've done the French Thanksgiving before but it's kind of lonely actually because no one understands it :( You have to be at least two Americans to enjoy a dinner like that, ie.-- French person : "explain to me again why zee pilgrims eat Turkey..." Two Americans: *eye roll*, *sigh* "explanation, explanation, explanation..." *sigh* followed by first American pouring second American a sympathetic glass of wine. Doing that all night alone just makes homesickness worse.
Jennifer - we did have a nice time but it's not the same :( Hope your dinner was fun. Happy birthday to James!!
I hope you had a nice Thanksgiving. My husband hasn't ever really gotten why I'm so into it and after 8 years here I've kind of given up... but it always makes me homesick to know that it's the last thursday of November, and somewhere, someone is having the Thanksgiving I want!!
FWIW - the "expats" at my dinners are usually foreigners in America ;). I've often been the lone American at a Thanksgiving meal, even in the US. Fortunately, the majority of the guests, though interested in the meaning of Thanksgiving, are equally as interested in sharing a meal, wine, good friends, and good fun. Our meal on Thursday consisted of 2 Americans, 1 Swiss, 3 Greeks, 1 Lebanese, and 1 Chinese (would have also been 2 Indians/English but they had to cancel at the last minute). This one was small. One of our best years ago, I was the only American amongst some 22 guests - Irish, Polish, English, Chinese, Canadian, French, Peruvian, Russian.... My Thanksgiving in Thailand was shared with Aussies :)
Sassy - my husband needs to have an American Thanksgiving one year to understand just how much hoopla surround Thanksgiving. He thinks it's just a little disposable holiday.
Cherise - Ahhh, but see you have the homecourt advantage. They're expats but they're in the middle of the holiday hubub so they'd be more into it. I was laughing reading your response because it occurred to me that the "original" pilgrim-Indian dinner was all about inviting expats, haha :)
You could be right. But what's really fun is many of them now live in their home countries and plan Thanksgiving meals for their friends and family, sharing the tradition.
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