Thanksgiving in the UK

Thanksgiving was a very difficult time for me in the UK since it is all about spending time with family. I have a lot to be thankful for, but without my family there to share it with, it still becomes a hard holiday to get through. And I celebrated it twice here.

The first time was with a group of international students I have made friends with. It was on a meaningless Tuesday night and partway between the Canadian and American Thanksgiving dates. I was in charge of making the pumpkin pie and roasting the chicken (in case the turkey was too small, Kaileen bought two chickens to go with it). It was actually incredibly difficult to do as I was essentially alone in the kitchen. Ariana was there, but things had been tense. Plus, she was surrounded by all of her friends. It felt wrong to be preparing a meal without my family and sometimes I did want to just cry. However, I was determined to make the best of the situation. It wasn't just me alone, after all. The other two were in the same situation.

The pies turned out nicely in the end, and I let the chicken cook during my forensic psychology class. Afterwards, there was even some time left to make some gravy before heading over to Kaileen's. She just got back from travelling around Italy with her mom, and so was lucky enough to have some family there for Thanksgiving. As it turns out, her mom wouldn't be celebrating Thanksgiving in America that year, and so this was her Thanksgiving meal as well. They roasted the turkey most of the day in preparation.

When everyone had made their own contribution, it was a good and traditional looking meal.

Mashed potatoes, turkey, cranberry sauce, rolls...everything. Kaileen's roommates from China joined in as well as some other friends. I was thankful to at the very least celebrate with friends if I couldn't be there with my family.

However, I knew that it would still be hard on the actual Thanksgiving day. People will ake their posts on Facebook, and even if I managed to avoid all of that, I would know in my heart what was happening. So despite having this Thanksgiving, I also planned one for the actual day and invited everyone from both my flat and the flat next door. I also had some people prepare some things for the meal. Natalia loves potatoes, and so she was in charge of mashed potatoes. Jenea was the person that inspired me to still have a Thanksgiving on the day and was in charge of the Turkey (she is another American). I didn't trust anyone else with pumpkin pie, and so that was my contribution. These Brits hadn't even heard of it really. I had to have Matt pick up canned pumpkin from the American food section in the bigger Tesco in Cardiff when he was there with his mom. Apparently it was quite confusing for them both.

A lot of people from my flat apparently couldn't make the dinner, which was weird because on the actual day they all seemed to be making a separate meal together. When Yaren asked them why, Ariana (mean Canadian, I call her now) started shouting at me and Yaren, claiming that I didn't invite the Chinese girls (which I did and told her that, but it wasn't good enough because I did that after I made the Facebook group with everyone). Although now I can look back on it and roll my eyes, at the time I was pretty upset. The holiday was hard enough for me without all of that. I wound up going to my room to cry. Yaren, the great friend that she is, followed after me and consoled me. We moved the Thanksgiving meal to the flat next door.

I was stil upset at the beginning, but determined not to let this ruin my Thanksgiving. So although I ranted and complained to people at first, I eventually let it go so that I could actually have a good time.

Food always makes everything better. And friends.

It was a lot of fun to see everyone's reactions to some of the "tradiational" food. Like the candied yams I made on top of the pumpkin pie. They all really enjoyed it, but were confused by the fact that it was served with dinner and not as a pudding. Since it was so sweet.

I am thankful for all of my friends.

Looks like home.

The turkey was incredibly moist and delicious. And Gareth even found something close enough to Martinelli's sparkling cider for us to enjoy. Everyone tried really hard to make it the best experience I could have outside of the US. Plus, they enjoyed having a traditional American holiday in the UK.

Many of them were afraid of the pumpkin pie since they only see pumpkins as something to carve at Halloween, and not a source of food. But when they were brave enough to try it, they really enjoyed it. There was some debate of whether it tasted of October or November, which was hilarious to me. It doesn't taste like a month, but rather just Thanksgiving. In the end they decided that it just tasted of autumn in general. This was definitely my most memorable Thanksgiving holiday, and I'm thankful for the opportunity to spend it with amazing people and great food despite it being in Wales.