I love Thanksgiving. I actually like it even more than Christmas, because I think some warmth and meaning of the event gets lost in all of the chaos of trying to organize a get-together that not only involves an elaborate meal, but also gift-giving, decorating and, in most cases, lots of traveling associated with the latter holiday. However, I love that Thanksgiving is really just about two things that I love: beautiful food and spending time with family and friends.
Therefore, I was naturally a little bit disappointed at the prospect of my first away-from-home Thanksgiving in twenty-two years. However, about ten of my Fulbright buddies from the Marburg course took it upon themselves to organize a Thanksgiving celebration on Sunday, which, I just happened to have hosted in my beautiful Mainzer Wohnung. It took a lot of planning and approximately forty e-mails sent among all of us over the last two weeks, but we managed to pull off an absolutely wonderful day.
A few members of this group (Marco, Elisa and Erin) were nice enough to come a day or two earlier to help me with the various Lebensmitteleinkaufen and Backen that needed to happen. Since I was one of only a couple of us with unlimited access to an oven (really, I cannot emphasize how much I hit the jackpot with my apartment here), we not only had to bake the majority of the desserts and the stuffing, but also, of course, the main dish – der Truthahn.
Inspired by Christmas music and motivated by some schöne Denglish, dass wir gesprochen haben, the four of us somehow managed to stay up until 3:30 am the night before the feast. Our culinary accomplishments included:
-Made-from-scratch Kürbis (pumpkin) and Apfel pies, complete with made-from-scratch almond crusts
-Apple, walnut, raisin and sausage stuffing
-A beautiful turkey. (At some point, my roommate, Valerie, came home and asked if our Truthahn had a name. We all initially agreed that getting that attached to the dead bird was unnecessary, until the sleep-deprived silliness set in and some late-night YouTubing occurred, at which point we started referring to him as George W. Bush. All of us were quite happy to devour Mr. Bush the next day – with, perhaps, the exception of Ben, our resident Republican.)
-Bumps on a log, courtesy of Erin. Delicious, and by far the most impressive of the four.
Keeping in tradition with something that I have done with my family since I was a kid, I asked everyone to take a moment and write down something that they were thankful for (anonymously) on a little slip of paper, fold it, and place it in a bowl. Before we started eating, we passed the bowl around and each drew a “Thankful statement” from the lot and read it out loud.
Here are some of my favorites:
“I’m thankful that Barack Obama has such rugged good looks.”
“I am overwhelmingly grateful for the wonderful support and Gemütlichkeit that I have received from you, my newest friends, and fellow representatives of our honorable nation, the greatest in the world; the United State of “God Bless” America. Let Freedom Ring at home and abroad. P.S. I am also thankful for Marty!!!” [There is unfortunately no way to type exclamation points with hearts.]
“I’m thankful to the founders of the feast, the American and German governments for funding our turkey, stuffing and wine binge. I’m thankful to all the understanding Germans who put up with me daily and for all the dead animals in Germany that give me a reason to be at this table.”
“I am thankful for my friends, especially everyone here, my family and my chance to live life to the fullest. PS. I’m thankful Obama won!”
“I’m thankful that I have enough things to be thankful for that I can’t think of a single thing to write.”
Everyone brought a truly delicious dish with him or her, potluck-style, and I will paraphrase Shane in saying that it wasn’t a “shotgun” or “substitute” Thanksgiving at all – the food and company were both lovely and it felt just like the real thing. I could not have imagined a better day spent with better people; I cannot imagine being more thankful. I think that the e-mail I sent everyone on Sunday evening accurately summarizes how I feel about our Fulbright Thanksgiving, and this group of people in general:
Guten Abend ihr's,
As I am sitting here munching on left-over brownies, stuffing and turkey (all just as amazing as they were several hours ago), I feel the need to tell you people that I truly had a wonderful time. Though on Friday evening I was getting worried about how/whether everything would come together, the whole thing just fell into place because of your contributions and the time that everyone clearly put into preparing dishes and making travel plans. You all were the most gracious and helpful guests I could ask for and it was absolutely a pleasure to host you.
My "thankful statement" was the one about my "surrogate Fulbright family" - I know that this sounds horribly corny, but today I truly felt as if I was among family. Regardless of your usual Thanksgiving rituals back in the States, I hope that today helped to fill the little hole that I'm sure all of us are feeling as the holiday season approaches. I know that it did for me.
Love and sincere gratitude,
Ashlan
How lucky am I?
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