Flashback Tuesday

This one is for me and for you Bridget. My friend does a Flashback Friday on her blog. It sounds much more catchy then Flashback Tuesday but I had my inspiration and motivation to write this today so I had to go with it. By the way I love your Flashback Friday's.

I was just feeling a little twinge of sadness today about not being home with my extended family for the Thanksgiving holiday. I will miss them all! My thoughts then moved to all the times I have been away for Thanksgiving. Probably 8 of the past 10 years have been spent away--with no two alike. As the memories started rolling I found myself laughing--out loud, and then crying (nostalgia) and missing the incredible non-family members I had grown to love and shared these times with. Being at home might still be the best place to spend my holidays but since I'm often not able to, it's fun to make the best of it...and I have some great memories for it.

When I first went to China I was 20 years old. I signed up with a group called ILP as a volunteer English teacher. I went to Wuhan, China with a group of 40 other college students and taught at a boarding school on the outskirts of the city. More about that on a future flashback "Tuesday" :)

Thanksgiving was approaching and we were 4 months into our 5 month stay in China. We were living on campus and we had some Chinese cooks preparing meals for us breakfast, lunch and dinner. Besides the french toast we taught our cooks how to make, we had been eating Chinese food for 4 months straight. The 40 of us made a plan for a great Thanksgiving feast and put it into action. My building was in charge of deserts. I wanted to make my Dad's favorite pecan pie. It was hard to find the ingredients, dishes and bake it in a little toaster oven that someone had bought. I remember we never could find corn syrup so I took some sugar and melted it down over my friends bunsin burner and then poured water on at the right moment then let it simmer to thicken.....it WORKED! After a few failed attempts that is. The pie actually tasted great, I think. None of us had eaten home baked deserts for months so everything was tasting particularly good to us. I know we made other deserts but don't remember any more details. One girls mom had sent her a large package filled with stove top stuffing, so they were in charge of that, etc.

The most exciting part of the event was when our cooks brought out the live "birds" they had bought for us because we had tried to communicate how we wanted to celebrate this Holiday. They were not Turkey's but none of us knew what they were. We went to the grass outside the cafeteria. Tom took a cleaver and chopped the head off one. I was a little disgusted and a little interested--sorry for the details but the blood did squirt quite far and the bird did run around a bit. There were a couple of them but I had mixed feelings about watching it, so I don't know if I did. Our cooks took over from there and cooked up the birds. I don't think I ate any but not for the principle of it. I think I was just too exited about everything else we had and I've never loved Turkey...who knew about this mystery bird. Everyone else seemed to enjoy it though.

We offered to share our meal with our cooks but they were not excited to try all this "American" food. They humored us a little, but didn't go for seconds. We should have learned by this, but it didn't dawn on me until just now, we took all of the leftovers bagged them up and took them around to homeless people in the city. We felt like we'd done such a great dead and enjoyed this part of our Thanksgiving as much as the meal, but looking back on our cooks reaction, I'm not sure how many of those leftovers actually got eaten. We did finish of the evening by singing Christmas Carols as one of our fellow teachers ( a woman from France) played the Pi Pa, a Chinese instrument, she was learning to play.

Another fun memory was when Kurt and I were living in Beijing and tried to get all of our co-workers together for a nice Thanksgiving dinner. We couldn't all fit in anyone's apartments so I made reservations at one of our favorite "American Diners." They had a Thanksgiving buffet. We all had a great time, took time mentioning things we were grateful for and so on. The next day everyone but me (practically) was sick with food poisoning. I think it was the first time that restaurant had attempted a buffet and i don't think they kept the food at the right temperature --or something. Maybe I steered clear of the Turkey again?? And maybe that's the only reason I was OK? And just maybe everyone was eating mystery bird again. It is a very likely possibility.

Happy Thanksgiving!

A pre-holiday tip

I just went to the post office last Saturday to mail a few packages, one wasn't assembled yet and I planned on buying the "ready post" supplies there. This was a really good plan until I realized I was pulling in at 11:40am on a Saturday morning where the post office closes at noon. I felt the tension even as I pulled into the parking lot. There were three of us pulling into spaces of an already over crowded parking lot and I watched as each person tried to get out of the car A.S.A.P to get in line ahead of the others. The line was quite long so I hopped in, figuring I could kind of pick out my supplies quick while in line as they got nearer. But they didn't have the size of box I wanted so I had to step out of line to really search out my options. Everyone was very quick to step right into my spot. I picked out what I thought was the next best option--got in line and started assembling. The box just seemed to big--all my contents are going to be moving all around, so I get out of line to try the smaller box-- everyone looks relieved that they've again moved up one spot in line. I try to shove everything in having to bend my Sisters birthday card in the process, but it's just not working. Meanwhile the line is getting longer and longer and I'm starting to really feel the pressure of making this VERY important decision of how to package this.....(I'm so ridiculous). Whatever, back to the big decorative box, in goes the bent card and the grocery sack I was carrying everything in for a little extra padding (that did nothing but make it all look more tacky.) I'm back in line for what I hope is the LAST time because now I am all the way back to the door. Then I realize because I have chosen a decorative box you can't see my pen and I need a label. Determined not to leave this line again I wait till the labels are close and stretch as far as I can to reach one and keep my toe in line. I'm sure everyone behind me was dissapointed!

Hmmmm what is my tip? The tip for me is that I get flustured making packaging desisions when the line is multiplying before my eyes. So I'm never going to the post office 20 minutes before closing time again. It is a little cut-throat in there and even nice slowpaced Ithaca can feel tense and crazy. How did I survive in Beijing again?? No wonder I love this place.

Post Halloween Withdrawals

It's been 7 days and no one has offered a single piece of candy. I think Owen may have thought after three trick-or-treating events last week that this free-candy thing was the new normal. Today, we found him attempting to place a new scar on his forehead.

halloween clip

Owen in his Harry Potter costume was almost too much for me to handle this week. He was SOOO cute. We had 3 Halloween events this year, normally that would drive me crazy but I loved each one because I couldn't stop laughing and/or oohing and aaahing over Owen. I don't think we really captured it in photo or video but this little clip is kind of good. Someone steals a piece of candy from his bucket and Owen's not so sure about that.