Thanksgiving, etc.

One year ago on Thanksgiving (or a week before due to timing), I spent the day with the people I love most. As is annual tradition, Mom-Mom Brosious hosted a gathering at her house in NJ. The difference was that this was the last Thanksgiving I'd have in the US. So I invited all my closest friends to join as well. We celebrated the spirit of the season together, eating good food, cookies, and lots of pie. I remember leaving Mom-Mom's that night with tears in my eyes, knowing that it would be a long time before I saw all of these people again. The night continued late in Willow Grove with the Ninja Crew and before I knew it, midnight had come and it was time to say good-bye. A week later and I was on a plane to China.

Holidays abroad always have the potential to be lonely and depressing. But thankfully, this year was warm and fuzzy like any Thanksgiving ought to be.

The BFF and I had planned to go running by the river on Thanksgiving morning, but unfortunately, when we woke the sky was filled with smog/haze. Instead, I packed a bag and headed over to the Crowne to join her at the gym. We did a solid, easy 5K and headed upstairs to clean up. "Do you want pumpkin muffins?" she asked as I took my shoes off. Um, it's Thanksgiving -- who doesn't want pumpkin muffins? We spent the rest of the morning knitting, chatting, and relaxing, preparing ourselves mentally for the afternoon's activities.

N has an annual bowling tradition in his family, where each year everyone bowls together (or apart) and sends in their scores to see who will win the coveted trophy. We had all bowled in Shenyang before, so we were mostly prepared for the activities ahead. A group of six of us walked over to the alley to lend our support to N's family tradition.

Looks fancy, huh?

The alley is dank and cold, and the decor looks as if it had been plucked out of a bowling alley in Texas from the 1980s. The lanes worked just as well, and we had to switch half-way through because our gates wouldn't work. But, despite all the hardships, N overcame adversity to bowl a 175. My first run was awful (I suck at bowling) and I improved slightly in the second round to finish with a 96.

Eating early is normal on Thanksgiving, so five of us headed over to a Beijing-style restaurant close to Taiyuan Jie, the shopping street where I live. Turkey dinner had been devoured last weekend at the block party, so we decided instead on some traditional Beijing duck 北京烤鸭 Beijing kaoya. For those who have never had this style of duck before, I'm truly sorry for you. You have not had a chance to enjoy the delicious, juicy, fatty goodness of crisp duck skin and succulent duck meat, wrapped in a light and fluffy crepe-like pancake with savory dipping sauce. It's absolutely divine. And certainly a respectable Thanksgiving-dinner meal. To be honest, I actually preferred it to turkey (but don't tell anyone I said that!).

After eating my weight in duck, I headed back to the BFF's to pack up my knitting and clothes, and then hurried my way back to my apartment in the cold. N had asked to check out my movie collection and I suggested we watch a movie in the process. S and B joined us minutes after we started Argo, a recently-released film about the 1980 secret operation to extract six US diplomats out of Iran during the hostage crisis. I promise we don't always watch movies about ourselves, but I had been dying to watch this one because it's been getting good reviews. Rightfully so, the movie was done well and Ben Affleck underacted perfectly (p.s. something about his beard made him super attractive in this movie... or maybe his calm-cool-collectedness). I would suggest the movie to anyone, not just people interested in the Iranian conflict or diplomacy, but it also has a lot of humor and interesting movie-making info in it. 

Needless to say, Thanksgiving day was filled with lots of people, fun, and good food, which in my books is the perfect recipe for happiness. This year, I'm thankful for a few important things:

• The friends who have become my family abroad -- without them, Shenyang would be a boring, cold place to live
• The opportunity to live the FS life -- the opportunities seem endless and the doors keep opening
• The safety of my current location -- especially when looking around at my colleagues serving in the Maghreb region. My prayers go out to all of those who currently live in the hotspots of the world -- may you be safe and sound during this holiday season.