Time to remember...

What a week what a week. Last week really was special. It also already feels like it was nine years ago! Time is flying by so quickly. It is already December! I am not quite sure what I think about that, I mean it is great go DECEMBER but in general I like to savor my time and it is hard to do that when you blink and a year has gone by. I have to go ahead throw some mad props out to my dear friends April and Andrew for hosting the most amazing Thanksgiving extravaganza I have ever had. They were gracious, the food was amazing, Andrew cooked the most delicious turkey I have EVER eaten EVER! I am not exaggerating! It was his first try and it was the best. April out did herself. She is already a phenomenal cook but the macaroni and cheese, soup, dressing and especially the homemade sweet potato pie were so delicious. Also she made an amazing turkey salad for sandwiches the next day that rivals any chicken salad I have ever had! Watch your back Gourmet Shop ;)

So thinking back on a couple of past Thanksgivings, last year I was in China. Obviously. At the time I was the only American in our program so it was really interesting being surrounded by so many people who just do NOT celebrate this super American holiday. I had to teach on the Thursday but I had no problem with that because I was at Huanghe the primary school where I taught 3rd grade. I had three classes each class had aprox. 50 students in each and they were my little rays of sunshine in smoggy Xi'an. I taught them from the first day of their 3rd grade year to the last day and I watch them grow and change so much. Their little sparkling personalities shining and changing and growing and melding. I could see some of the students really take a great interest in English. They would ask questions and really try to talk to me! Oh brilliant! Anywho, I took that Thanksgiving Thursday and veered away from my usual lesson plan to tell them about this special holiday. I gave them vocabulary words like pilgrims, native Americans, turkey, family, thanks, feast, harvest. I, along with my assistant teacher, explained the history of the tradition and then how it is celebrated to this day in our country. After telling them how it is spent with your family, eating and giving thanks they asked me if I was going to go and see my family and friends. I remember getting teary-eyed in class and telling them no, that it was too far for me to travel. They were sad, they didn't understand why I would move so far away from my family. They wanted me to be happy, and I told them that I was very happy because I was extremely thankful for them. Then we went around the room and they got to tell me in English what they were thankful for, which with their limited vocabulary was a lot of the same things. Family and food, but when you think about it isn't that usually what we are thankful for as well?! After being a bit emotional it was time to have some thankful fun. So I passed out plain sheets of paper and told them to get out their markers. Then I went to the chalk board and traced an outline of my hand...then drew a face on the thumb and some little red chin turkey dangles and stick legs. When I showed it to the kids they all cheered and were so excited. Although I can't remember the actual Chinese name for a turkey I know that the literal translation is fire bird, interesting considering we fire them up each year! Well each student took to drawing out their own turkey hands. I wrote  GOBBLE GOBBLE in big letters on the board and by the end of class everyone was gobble gobbling around the class. It was the most fun. By the end of class they handed in their pictures, and almost all of them had dedicated them to me. They wrote in English and Chinese Happy Thanksgiving Sumner we love you. They wrote me messages saying how thankful they were for me because I teach them my language and because I am beautiful and funny. It may have been the most amazing day of my life.

After finishing teaching I went home and met up with my roommate Lindsay and our friend/ coworker Rob. Both R and L are from England so they had no real commitment to this holiday but decided to share it with me. I am not sure if they will ever know how much that meant to me. Hotels in the city were pretty good about serving appropriate Western feasts. So we hopped in a cab and headed off to the west side of the city to the Sheraton, they were offering a Tgiving buffet with all you can drink wine and beer for $180 kuai which is about $30. I'll take it!!! We lived on the east side and just had to go straight through the city wall and out the other side to get to our dinner destination, but it still took an hour to get there. Traffic in China is the craziest!! Once at the hotel we were seated and served, we quickly hit the buffet where we saw some much missed delicacies, like SALAD and CHEESE. It was brilliant! I ate and drank and ate and drank...then ate some more. It was gluttonous for sure, and it may be a sin but I deserved it! The three of us had a great time. We made our way to the dessert table more than once. This was the first time we were introduced to some of the weird ice cream flavors they serve, mushroom and green tea and something purple but I can't remember what it was! After dinner I introduced Rob and Linz to the Thanksgiving waddle, what we all are used to, the trying to move after having eaten our weight in turkey in fixins. We took a cab to Oscar's to continue the festivities but I quickly headed home. I had had a gracious plenty and was stuffed and sleepy. The day had been beautiful but challenging. It was cold and I was so far from home. I was thankful to be there and for the opportunity to grow and experience the world in such a dramatically different way, but I was homesick.

It is a Thanksgiving that I will never forget!!!