Saturday, November 30, 2013

Thursday, November 28


We woke up around 11 today after having gotten a horrible sleep the night before. We ate breakfast slowly and then I went and talked to Maxi and Maria Jesus for a while because I felt bad for leaving them and only talking to my friends in English. After a while, we started cooking, and everyone worked really hard for a while. It was a little difficult to plan everything and to dance around Sra Adela who was also cooking in the kitchen and wasn’t very accommodating to our needs. After a few hours, we walked over to the jumbo to buy chicken and a few other last minute necessities. Then we came home and continued cooking. Later on, our friends Mery and Pitu came over to help. We all finished up the cooking and then while the cornbread and sweet potato soufflĂ© were cooking, we went outside and put our feet in the pool and talked for a while. Then we decided everything was ready and we put all the great food we had cooked out on the table and ate a Thanksgiving dinner.
We had chicken, cornbread, sweet potato soufflĂ©, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce (in the Lider there were like 2 cans of Wal-Mart cranberry sauce and I’m pretty sure these were the only 2 cans that existed in all of Chile), salad with Ranch dressing, stir fried vegetables, apple pie (we looked for pumpkin for like an hour and came the definite conclusion that it doesn’t exist here), pumpkin spice cookies with homemade cheesecake frosting (Katie’s mom sent her the mix from the US), M&M cookies, oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, Doritos, and coca cola. Overall it was a very American meal. Before we ate, we each went around the table and said what we were Thankful for. We ate until we couldn’t eat anymore and then Katie and I cleared the plates and brought out colorful paper and taught everyone how to make hand turkeys.
Sure we kinda felt like 5 year olds, but we all spent a good hour laughing and talking and making the most perfect hand turkeys ever created. After a while, everyone left, and I went to Skype with my family. My parents are in Pennsylvania right now visiting with my aunt and grandma, and so for the first time in a long time, I got to talk to my extended family. I’ve explained before about how whenever we go anywhere in Chile, all Cristobal’s family asks about is him and how he’s doing and when can they talk to him on Skype. I always felt very jealous and very forgotten because I don’t have a tight and loving family like he does and I didn’t feel like anyone was missing me the way the people here were missing him. However, talking to my family today was a special treat. It made me feel connected to them, and if made me feel like they care about me. Never before have  I thought family was super important, but coming to Chile has taught me how great a close family can be, and when I get back to the states I am going to work to foment that bond in my own family. After we hung up, I went and hung out a little while with Maria Jesus. We had a super deep conversation, and I really felt nice having someone like her that I could tell anything to without fear of judgment, she’s a great cousin and I’m lucky to be a part of her family. Around 11, my dad came home from work, and I heated up the food again and served Thanksgiving #2 to my family (plus my grandparents and Jesus).
Before we started eating, I told them all what Thanksgiving was about, and I tried to impart to them how important a part of my culture it was. They have family get together every weekend, but for us, Thanksgiving is one of the few times where we all get together to share time as a family. Then we all went around the table and said what we were thankful for. They all were thankful for having me in their lives, and seeing a bunch of Chileans celebrating an American holiday together just because I was there almost made me cry it was such a cool feeling. Then we all dug in, and they got to try some good old American food. I’m not sure they liked it very much, but they tried everything and were super polite about it. At first when I told them about Thanksgiving and they told me they were busy all day and would have to have dinner at 11 I felt sort of like they didn’t care or even want to learn about my culture, and I think that was partly true, but they did end up coming together for me in the end, and for that I feel truly blessed.

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