A European Thanksgiving

Yesterday, as I’ve said, all the Americans wanted to have Thanksgiving like our families were having.  Janice, the super cool neighbour who gave me free stuff, organized the meal for everyone, bought the turkeys after most of us contributed our L2 and made sure we were all paying attention so we could say our names and what we were thankful for.

I brought rolls because I didn’t want to get in the way of people who could actually cook.  We have very tiny kitchens with about 3 cookers each. It’s not pretty.  I sat with Nicole for three hours as she watched the turkeys to make sure we had delicious food to eat. 

Nicole and one of our two turkeys.

 

And of course, since it was Thanksgiving in England, we had to add an English twist to the dinner.  Everyone was drinking and I think half of the guests were pleasantly buzzed by the time we ate.

 

 

Then we ate dinner!  We set up the conference room and put extra tables and chairs in it to make it look nice.  Everyone had to bring something…we had 26 people so we had A LOT of food. I think most people brought desserts.  One girl baked 7 pies!

 

The guy in the yellow jersey is a French guy that lives here.  He definitely had had more than enough to drink.  When it came time for desserts, he walked around with his pies trying to make everyone try some.  And he didn’t care where he was waving his knife! I had it in my face about three times and once he almost cut my arm!

 

Our dessert table.  The third table hadn’t been filled yet.

 

My plate! YUM!

And now for some people shots:

 

Danielle and me

me, Dean and Janice-she’s the one who threw this all together! Yay Janice!

Mary showing us her special face.

Mmmm and dessert. 

When we all had finished eating, and digesting enough to be able to move, some of us girls walked around the building trying to Nicky Nine Doors? people. Basically, it’s the Canadian version of Ding Dong Ditch.  Then we all retreated to the lounge and played Apples to Apples.

Very good night. Thanks to everyone who made it be that much easier to be away from my family on this holiday.