On November 27th, when most of America was sitting down to a nice Thanksgiving dinner, I was sitting down to a lecture on "Management Contracts and Counter-trade Agreements." So unfair, right?!? Not surprisingly, I wasn't exactly in the best frame of mind. The lecturer mentioned "turnkey contracts" and I immediately thought he said "turkey." And then he really did say "Turkey," (as in the country) and I was out for the count. Thankfully, I had two American visitors staying with me (Kaylie and Lauren from JBU!) and we had a modified-Thanksgiving dinner that night, along with another American friend and some of my British flatmates. All in all, I think the dinner turned out quite well. I was able to find cranberry sauce and Marks and Spencers provided a lovely turkey. A friend had given me some pumpkin bread and I was able to gather the rest of the items (mashed potatoes, veggies, bread, etc.) locally.The funniest part was actually explaining Thanksgiving to non-Americans. I went online to find a comprehensive story of Thanksgiving and was, well...horrified! Besides finding multitudes of versions, my innocent recollection of happy pilgrims eating turkey and yeast rolls with equally happy indians is probably not historically accurate. I also discovered the pilgrims did not, in fact, go to Wal-Mart at 5am the day after Thanksgiving to buy discounted electronics as my family does today - how very unfortunate! Anyway, I'm very thankful to be in England and to have had the chance to share this day with new friends and I'm also thankful I've found a Whole Foods so I know where to buy a pumpkin pie for next year!
Posts
