First Thanksgiving Away from Family

Thanksgiving—it’s a festival day observed in North America to give thanks to God for the blessings of friendship, fellowship, and food. My family has observed the holiday with many different people over the years. When we were growing up, we didn’t often go to be with extended family—that was more for Christmastime—instead, we gathered around us various friends and sometimes family to celebrate the warmth of the holiday together. Several years, my parents invited international guests to join us—friends or patients that my father knew through his medical practice, or sometimes international neighbors, from Canada or other countries outside the US. In recent years we have gathered with my sister and her in-laws on their family’s farm to have a thanksgiving feast, so that is something of a newer tradition to me.

No matter where you are or with whom you’re celebrating, it seems the common denominator needs to be the food. There really must be some sort of fowl, preferably turkey (though some people dislike this meat), an assortment of vegetables, a potato dish, cranberry sauce, stuffing, and bread. Pies may vary from family to family, but pumpkin pie was the staple in my family, and I’m learning to adopt apple pie into the mix too.

Most of these foods are not typical Korean fare, and it’s difficult to get one’s hands on something like a turkey, jelled cranberry sauce, or an oven for baking pies (not to mention the ingredients for said pie). But I was determined to make the most of the situation, and having already acquired an oven, I planned ahead by bringing back some canned goods when I visited the States in October. Canned goods are heavy even if they don’t take up much room, but it was worth the baggage allowance sacrifice.



I got to celebrate Thanksgiving twice! In some ways it was easier to miss out on this holiday since it doesn’t really exist in the same way in Korea. They have a harvest thanksgiving festival, but it’s 2 months earlier and it thanks ancestors for the harvest, not God. So without all the ads, the Black Friday reminders, the turkey sales, the decorations and displays, it was a little easier to forget about it and not be as homesick as I would have thought. Christmas will be harder.

The first celebration was on the day itself. I met with three other friends locally and we had as many of the traditional foods as we could improvise. Three Americans and a South African (celebrating American Thanksgiving for the first time!) gathered for a time of thanks, great eating, and the classic follow up of a thanksgiving feast—a game night featuring Taboo. I asked a blessing before the meal as was traditional before the feast in my family, and one friend said her family wasn't allowed to start eating until everyone had said what they were thankful for. I enjoyed the warm, intimate, friendly meal and visiting time, and we even had leftovers.






The second celebration was that Saturday at my church. They had arranged for a thanksgiving feast purchased from a US Army base, so the food would be the real deal. Church members covered the costs of visitors so we could easily pave the way for friends to enjoy a hearty Thanksgiving feast while only having to pay for the transportation to get there. We had a good turnout to eat that good food! Not all of the food got finished off of course—lots of mashed potatoes remained, and a few other items.

After finishing the race on Saturday and taking a couple of hours to clean up and rest, I traveled to church with some other runners since we had signed up for meal preparation. The food was already prepared, but we had to break down the rows of chairs in the sanctuary to turn it into a fellowship hall capable of seating 140 people. This was tricky with limited tables, columns and pews in the way, and ping pong table stability issues, but we had some people brainstorming while others worked on brawn (moving things) and we worked around the people who were practicing for the talent show later than night.




Decorations were complicated. Thanksgiving is not a Korean holiday, as mentioned above, and the fall season was fading in retail stores now that Halloween had passed. I absentmindedly picked up a massive, green and brown sycamore leaf on the way walking from church to a nearby Daiso (like a Dollar General) and thought, “Hey… this looks like something that my mom would love since it's so evocative of autumn. It also looks like something my creative home decorator friends would use back home for ladies’ conferences or dinners! Let’s gather some!” So we did. We also found some stinky candles that looked nice and claimed to be jasmine, apple, and strawberry-scented. Mostly they smelled like modeling clay, modeling clay, and slightly sweet/pink/fruity modeling clay. We also found felt coasters to set under the candles. It worked reasonably well!



Interesting fall foliage side note: Sycamores are called “western ringworm tree” when translated from Korean “양버즘나무”. They were imported from the States since they resist pollution well. Etymology: its peeling bark apparently reminded them of the peeling scalps of children suffering from ringworm… Eww). I learned this from another Korean expat blogger who apparently wondered about the tree’s name and origins too.

When the preparations were set, those of us with guests coming went to the subway—about a 15 minute brisk walk from church—to await our friends, and then we joined the feast! It was full swing when I arrived with my friends, and we hungrily attacked the buffet table. We had smoked ham, Thanksgiving turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy (both savory and fruit gravy), homemade stuffing and cranberry sauce, bread, vegetables, and pumpkin pie. ...I thought mine tasted a little better. ^_~



Dinner tapered off, and the announcement for the talent show came. I’m sad to say that the overabundance of food had me feeling rather ill the whole night, so I missed taking pictures of every three or four talent acts… But we had a good variety of quirky, rollicking, tasteful, interesting, and jaw-dropping. The winners were more imitative than creative, but they were certainly entertaining! My contribution was a recital of Edward Lear’s “The Owl and the Pussycat” poem from memory. I didn’t have to practice, since my sister made me read her a coloring book of the complete poem dozens of times in one sitting during our childhood, and I’ve never really forgotten it… More quirky than amazing, but that’s okay. ^_^



To top off the day, I joined a few friends for noraebang (literally, “singing room,” known as karaoke in Japan and America) afterwards since Karen was leaving and it was another gal’s birthday. Though, we didn’t know that until we arrived…! What a full “Thanksgiving” Saturday, and so much to be thankful for with good friends, food, fellowship, and fun.

I’m thankful for the great job that I have which has brought me so much joy this year. I’m thankful for family and friends back home who are so supportive and seem to send little reminders that they’re thinking of me right at the moments when I start to feel lonely. I’m thankful for technology advances that let me actually have a face-to-face conversation with my family across the planet, even if I can’t give them a hug. I’m thankful for friends here in Korea (maybe I can call them my "found family") who *can* give hugs and share our achievements, daily news, local adventures, and mutually-shared experiences and situations. I’m thankful for a mind that can learn other languages, even if it’s not an easy process and I get lazy. I’m thankful for all God has done, is doing, and will continue to do in my life, and for the many blessings He showers upon me. I’m thankful for raindrops on roses, whiskers on kittens, celadon kettles and warm, woolen mittens. ^_^

Happy belated Thanksgiving! Christmas is just around the corner!