Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving came and passed in what seems like a blink of the eye, and I somehow managed to survive all the chaos and homesickness. To be completely honest, I was mostly frustrated throughout the day because there were so many small differences between an American Thanksgiving and a French version of an American Thanksgiving, that I could see but my family couldn't. Between cooking a dinner for the first time, trying to find all the right ingredients, translating recipes, converting measurements, and arguing viewpoints, I was a wreck.

The first challenge was the turkey. Or lack there of. No matter how hard I searched to find a turkey, I could not find one. It was the most annoying thing ever; but no one else seemed to notice my frustration: How was I supposed to make Thanksgiving without a turkey?! I'm pretty sure that's the main ingredient to a successful Thanksgiving. The butcher told me all the turkeys were being saved for Christmas, and he gave me a duck instead. A duck!

The turkey was just the first minor problem. I couldn't find chicken broth for the gravy, shortening for the dessert, cranberry sauce for plain old cranberry sauce, and a whole lot of other things. Everyone was expecting an authentic American meal, but I had to use substitutes for almost every dish. I was irritable by the end of shopping, and I hadn't even started preparing the meal! Oh - and before I ramble on any farther, I should just let you know that I wasn't home for half the day. One would think that I was at school, and I was supposed to be, but I skipped Thursday and Friday, half in part to make the meal, but the other half because I had all these medical appointments in Valence to get a visa extension. That's a whole new story for a whole different day, but after two days of x-rays, examinations, spending 55 euros on a teensy little stamp I didn't want to buy, and talking to all these officials at the French immigration office, I finally got my extension. Now I won't have to be in France illegally at the end of the year. Yay! Back to Thanksgiving -

The most difficult part of preparing the meal was surprisingly trying to find a happy medium between two, very different cultural viewpoints. You see, the French are very minimalistic. They make just enough food for one meal at a time, and they never really overeat. Everything is about savoring less, not indulging on more. I have been able to live with this difference up to this point, with thanks to my secret chocolate stash, but of course I had the mentality of every other American on Thanksgiving. For one day every year, every American pigs out and is grateful for a huge amount of food and all the leftovers afterwards. My host family did not understand this, and every time I added some more ingredients to the "just enough" small-portioned dish, they politely told me that there was already enough. Several times during the day, I was told that it is better to make less and serve smaller portions than make a lot and have too much. I know all of my fellow Americans are shocked to hear this, and I can reassure you that so was I. By the end of the day, I was frustrated because I had to change my idea of what Thanksgiving should be for the French version of an American Thanksgiving. Talk about being homesick.

Although the meal wasn't the same as my family's Thanksgiving, I was still pretty proud of myself for making my first, real meal. Not everything was perfect; I added too much flour to the gravy and too much pepper to the sweet potatoes, but besides that, dinner was good. My host family enjoyed it, and even though they all ate way less than a typical American on Thanksgiving, I was grateful that they all tried to make me feel at home.

It wasn't easy to be away from real family this year; every time I thought about home, I was a little sad, wishing that I could be eating a real, American Thanksgiving dinner with turkey and not duck. I kept thinking about my family eating dinner at the same time as me with the time difference (around 2 your time and 8 my time), and even though it made me miss home more, it made me feel like I still had a bond with all my family back at home. I'm so grateful for this year in France, but I'm even more grateful to the family and friends who will be waiting for me when I come back home at the end of the year. Happy Thanksgiving!