Scotland, Turkey, and Mates! Must be Thanksgiving

When I first arrived in the UK, the first travel plans I made was figuring out what on earth I was going to do for Thanksgiving. It was decided at our London Orientation that as many of the American volunteers as possible and the two English girls we adopted would all head to Scotland, Edinburgh to be exact, for the famous American holiday of Thanksgiving. So after months of planning, more emails than I care to think about, the time finally arrived; my first ever Thanksgiving without my folks; and I was surprisingly calm.

I left Birmingham on Wednesday, and arrived in lovely Edinburgh. Nothing to do, but enjoy seeing a new city for now....

Since there were eight Americans and the two English girls, in three houses, we were all split up into teams. For some reason, there were two teams with four people, and one team with two. Of course I ended up on the two people team, and we were dubbed Team Clueless. We had all been assigned foods we were supposed to cook. Our assimgient if we chose to acept it, was a turkey (everyone had to cook a turkey), mac and cheese, a green beans casserole, and chocolate chip cookies. No problems here ...oh wait neither Andy nor I know how to cook. Thank goodness for my mum who gave us the how tos long distance. So Thursday morning, Andy and I were up and ready to go for our first ever Thanksgiving cooking adventure. Off to Sommerfields we went, to buy ingredients. We came home, cleaned our lovely 8lb turkey, put random spices and stuff on it, and popped it into the oven. We then proceeded to do the same thing with the mac and cheese, green beans, and cookies. No worries, a very relaxing cooking day. Until about half past two in the afternoon when we pulled the turkey out and it looked a paler shade of pale. We were to be ready to go in an hour, uh oh what do we do... call mum of course. Who then saved the day long distance. (She has been investing in calling cards). Phew! After the right Rx the turkey not only turned golden brown but we even managed to package everything up. All we had to do now was to carry all of this food onto the bus and into the city centre of Edinburgh. Easier said than done. Trust me.

We set off after packing all the food into back packs, and a huge Lands End Duffel bag, with me carrying the turkey. We set off for the bus. As we were walking down the street the bus passed us. All of a sudden I realized Andy was running. So what do I do but run also! Clutching the turkey for dear life. Because all I could imagine was the turkey flying out of my hands, and me following it. I guess the bus driver took pity on us, so he pulled over and allowed us to get on. Now we just needed to get to Mark's flat safe and sound.

Team Clueless arrived in style with all the food intact, even though all the others were having plenty of doubts about our success. The food was lovely, we had more than enough for the 30 folks who joined us for Thanksgiving dinner. They were a group of volunteers, students, and co workers who came to celebrate this day of thanks. And I was pleased to hear comments such as "I really enjoyed eating authentic American food, I thought you folks only ate McDonald's" . Some of the Scotsmen were a bit leery of the pumpkin pie, but everything turned out way better than I could ever imagine. It was truly an amazing day, and it made not being at home with my family very bearable.

Giving thanks, sharing this day with others, and working to prepare this meal which is so special, that too in a forgien country, was truly a feeling that I am glad I had a chance to experience and will cherish always. Of course I missed being at home in Delaware, but I wouldn't have traded this Thanksgiving for the world.

It is traditional for my family to give thanks for the things that have happened to us in the past year, so as always I will now share mine. I am thankful for having two wonderful parents who have supported me through thick and thin, my old friends who have managed to make me feel at home in a country so far away with loads of emails, for all the new friends I have made who are here and spread throughout the world, for working with all the great staff of the West Bromwich YMCA, and the residents who give meaning to all of this and for all those angel-strangers whose prayers and support sustain me, and my many many more blessings.

Cheers and I hope everyone had a great 2006 Thanksgiving!

To see pics of Thanksgiving please click the link!