While Western holidays like Christmas and New Year's are celebrated here in Thailand, the All-American holiday of Thanksgiving is basically ignored. Because it is a part of who we are, though, we Volunteers got together to celebrate Fakesgiving a little earlier than the actual holiday.
The party was nice, some PCVs rented an apartment in Bangkok and the rest of us found lodging at hostels nearby then took the BTS Skytrain (it's BART, but newer, cleaner, fancier, and there seats reserved for handicapped people as well as seats reserved for monks) to the apartment to get food ready. I brought a quinoa salad (the one I first learned to make up at my Aunt Sue's), some Peanut Butter Fudge-Like Candy (an Alton Brown recipe) and bean soup. Both the salad and the candy were a huge hit, but the soup ended up largely going to waste; maybe because we didn't have bowls to eat it, maybe because it didn't look all that special, or maybe because it was sitting alongside things it's really hard to find in Thailand but that Americans love, like cheese. Smile, there was so much cheese there! Cheese plates, various types of macaroni and cheese, cheesy dips and spreads, other dairy-based desserts...craziness!
It was really nice to see all the other Volunteers, and really, the social aspect of Thanksgiving is the more important part of the holiday. I got to talk to Volunteers I'd been close to in training but hadn't seen for months, chat with others about various challenging aspects of service and teaching, ask for advice and talk about future intentions...it was a very fun event.
The party was nice, some PCVs rented an apartment in Bangkok and the rest of us found lodging at hostels nearby then took the BTS Skytrain (it's BART, but newer, cleaner, fancier, and there seats reserved for handicapped people as well as seats reserved for monks) to the apartment to get food ready. I brought a quinoa salad (the one I first learned to make up at my Aunt Sue's), some Peanut Butter Fudge-Like Candy (an Alton Brown recipe) and bean soup. Both the salad and the candy were a huge hit, but the soup ended up largely going to waste; maybe because we didn't have bowls to eat it, maybe because it didn't look all that special, or maybe because it was sitting alongside things it's really hard to find in Thailand but that Americans love, like cheese. Smile, there was so much cheese there! Cheese plates, various types of macaroni and cheese, cheesy dips and spreads, other dairy-based desserts...craziness!
It was really nice to see all the other Volunteers, and really, the social aspect of Thanksgiving is the more important part of the holiday. I got to talk to Volunteers I'd been close to in training but hadn't seen for months, chat with others about various challenging aspects of service and teaching, ask for advice and talk about future intentions...it was a very fun event.
I'm off to the right of the middle, about 4 rows back. Happy Fakesgiving!
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