Alice in Denmark: Learning to Snakke Dansk: Thanksgiving / I have a culture.

I could have let this Thanksgiving go by largely unmarked but I'm so glad I didn't. Gathering people together to give thanks... I know that is not ALL that thanksgiving is about. The thankful pilgrim/happy Indian trope doesn't really ring true to the brutal domination that pilgrims and American settlers brought to the continent. But frankly, I still love Thanksgiving. I choose to acknowledge the unsavory aspects and take the good with me. Love, gratefulness, honesty (I found out), togetherness, food, laughter. That's good stuff.

This was a particularly emotional Thanksgiving for me. I'm so glad that I gathered people around me because it could have been very depressing... but it was wholly heart-warming. My brother's new baby daughter had her first thanksgiving and I was so grateful that they could be with my parents and grandparents as well as her mom and cousins. That was a beautiful thing. Skyping with her I am amazed at how vivacious and laughter-filled she is.

I spent almost all of Thanksgiving preparing to cook, cooking, and eating. Of course I've helped before but I've never been in charge of one entire metric thanksgiving dish! I had to admit to myself that I was pouring my nostalgia for home into the cooking... but that's a totally great way to cope, in my opinion. I went a little wild. Stuffing is my favorite so I made a giant heap of it... there weren't any granny smith apples but I found so good, tart, Danish replacements. Stuffing is complicated! But kinda fun... I found myself wondering why we don't make it any other time of year. That's something I always ask people with other culinary traditions and they "just because....". And that's really the only answer I can come up with here. I also made my favorite "mom" dish hazel-nuts and carrots and a pie crust..... and then bussed across town to my friend's to cook the rest (forgetting the pie crust at home.... but what would a holiday be without messing something up?).

My dear friend Lotta went shopping for me while I bussed over.... it took is an online US - metric converter, google translate, and picture-google to get it across but we nailed it! Or, I should say, Lotta nailed it. Hege then came and they helped me make a roast chicken and pie.... it was going to be pumpkin pie but pumpkin was nowhere to be found, then pecan pie..... then we settled on walnut pie :) I had thought about making a turkey but... wahh talk about expensive and time consuming! Plus turkey isn't so big in Denmark so there was a chance that I'd have to go to Sweden to get it. Which, all things considered is not so far away... but again, a bit too much of a time/money commitment for a student thanksgiving! One of my Italian friends asked me if the chicken was a turkey though! Hahha... (I'm not making fun of you, it was just really sweet...) One friend who spent six weeks in the US (Alaska) brought rice crispy treats from a recipe her host mom taught her heehee... the only other North American in attendance (from near Toronto) brought the mashed potatoes and lots of bread!

I had told several friends about the go around the table "I'm thankful for" thanksgiving tradition we have - as well as the thankful boxes where we write something we're thankful for about each person. I wasn't going to make my Scandinavian friends do the box thing... way too intense and deliberate... but I wanted to do some form of it. And a lot of them were excited about celebrating real like "American traditions" :) We did share and I managed not to cry... it was a lot of fun. Not everyone wanted to speak up, but I really didn't care, it was just fun to see what it was like with them and show them what we do. One of my Danish friends said he was thankful for me making them actually be genuine rather than sarcastic about their feelings. It was very sweet. And genuine :)

I got to skype with my dad, brother, and niece! She is SO CUTE. I don't know where my mom was... it was all a bit hectic since I was at my thanksgiving party and she was probably cooking.

It's so fun to be hanging out with people from all over Europe... since so many of us are away from home we're very supportive about celebrating each other, and the important days for each other. Soon we'll be celebrating Finnish independence day with Lotta!

Something I have been wanting to say for a while now..... I HAVE A CULTURE. It really really gets on my nerves when people - American or otherwise - say that the US doesn't have culture. It's absurd. Essentially what that statement conveys is that the US is "neutral" and all those "other places" are deviations from our normal and, therefore, have "culture". There is no normal society. The US has a young culture, fair enough. But then again, if we look at the history of the United states as a continuous account of the people who have lived, loved, and died on this continent.... not so young.

It was so fun to be sharing something that was really from home. I have become way more embracing of my home, my roots in the past couple of months. Many Americans abroad might on occasion lie and say they're Canadian because Canada has such a better reputation... but I'd never do that (ok, never say never, I'd do it if my life were in danger). I'm not proud of a bunch of aspects of my government and society but I am proud that I can say that freely.

Chicken, pre-oven...

More help arrives!

STUFFING!!!!! My favorite thanksgiving thing.... and I think people agreed it was the most new/different thing for their tastes. It's a pretty weird idea, really.