Ok, for a country that does not have this particular holiday, I have ended up celebrating it more times than I ever have before! I had three Thanksgiving celebrations this year! Oi vey!
Thanksgiving #1 was put on by the student council, at my school, a week before Thanksgiving. It was so awesome: they did it specifically for their "American teachers," but the whole school was invited. The kitchen staff prepared two HUGE turkeys and the teachers brought side dishes. It was cool to hear what students thought of the turkey because many of them had never had that type of turkey before!
Thanksgiving #2 was with Chase and his co-workers on Thanksgiving day! It was so fun to be with families (there was an adorable little boy named Olie who is one and very stoic and likes computer keyboards) - surrounded by good food and good company.
Thanksgiving #3 was here in Bratislava, this past Saturday, with all of the Young Adults in Global Missions who are serving in Slovakia, plus a few friends and family members. It was a crazy weekend! We had people crawling all over our apartment (along with the worms...I will get to that story later), made TONS of food, and got to catch up. On Saturday morning, a guy peeled apples for 1 1/2 hours, we made two pies, fruit salad, green bean casserole (thanks mom!), mashed potatoes, and more salad in our apartment! It was hard not being around family, so being surrounded by friends and laughter was the greatest blessing!
Story update:
- I have had quite the opportunities for travel, and find myself spending many weekends away from Bratislava. I traveled to Vienna again a couple of weekends ago, had a lot of visitors, and also went to a small village called Pribolce for a folk festival! My roommate's boyfriend Miro is in a folk group, and he was in a big competition. The groups dress up in tradional outfits (Miro's shirt, vest, and hat were his great-great-grandfather's!), and dance and sing! It was awesome to watch the "weddings," "pig killings," and village life that was portrayed. It was also great to stay in a small village for a weekend. Miro's family hosted us - even though I couldn't communicate very well with them (they do not speak English), they were extremely generous and giving.
- Our kitchen currently has some invaders: worms! The other day, I pulled the sugar out of the cubbard and SCREAMED! The inside and outside of the bag was crawling with little, translucent, squirming worms! EW! I quickly threw the sugar away, got my roommates really grossed out, and tried to stop squirming. The next day, my roommate Amy was standing in the kitchen. She happened to look up, and was thinking that they ceiling was really dirty...when the "dirt" started moving! MORE WORMS! We actually had to borrow a ladder, and take napkins to the ceiling to kill the worms. We estimate that about twenty were killed from our ceiling, and about 15 more were killed in our cupboard. Talk about a fun afternoon activity: de-worming. *shudders!*
- Classes are still awesome, and my first years are crazy! We have been doing a drama unit, complete with improv activities, presenting plays to the class, reading plays out loud, and writing their own scripts. It is hilarious how much American culture comes into their plays: I have at least three scripts about Barack Obama, and had one performance about drug dealing in the Bronx.
- I have officiall made my own drama debut in Slovakia. I acted out Rapunzel for my students on day, but have been in two scripted plays this week. One was prepared for Thanksgiving #3, and the other was for church. I have been receiving many phone calls from adoring fans, a little hate mail (jealous people in this world), and am excpting the agent cards to come pouring in. Seriously though, I do think that children's theater productions (especially children's theater) will be my back-up plan in life.
:0) Maika
Thanksgiving #2
(on our post dinner walk)
Hungry girls
Aminka's apple pie. :D Yum.
Amazing Thanksgiving Deco
Gustav's first Thanksgiving abroad, with Carsten and Becks
