Monday, December 01, 2008

Thanksgiving in London, Weekend in Sussex

I'm very happy to report that Thanksgiving was a great success! I always worry when I plan parties. Actually, I always worry period. But especially when I plan parties that there won't be enough food, or the food will suck, or not many people will come, or they'll all be bored. The whole week before Thanksgiving, several people asked me several times if one turkey was going to be enough for everyone (it said it fed 8-10, and we were expecting 20 people). Each time, I assured them that one turkey would be plenty, as no one really likes turkey that much anyway. Why waste precious money on multiple turkeys? But their constant questions did make me fret a bit that it wouldn't be enough.

None of that happened. There was the perfect amount of food: everyone got enough, and there were hardly any leftovers. Many people complained of being full or bloated, which I assured them was traditional and proper. Everyone from our course was invited, and some people came that haven't attended any other social events, so that made me happy. Those who didn't show up are excused on the basis that they wouldn't have fit in the apartment.

My wonderful classmates:




See more pictures here.

Holly brought leftover sparklers from Bonfire Night, so we all went to the park after dinner and played with sparklers. FUN!



After class on Friday, Laura, Holly, and I headed to Holly's home in Sussex. We stayed until Sunday morning, and it was lovely as always, plus quite relaxing. We went to the pub, The Hatch, for drinks Friday night. Saturday was miserable weather, so we bundled up and pulled on Wellies and trudged across the fields to...the pub. This time for tea and coffee, though.


Trudging


All bundled up


Deer chillin' with the horsies

Saturday night, we played a couple games of Scrabble. Holly was score-keeper, and she won both times. Coincidence? Hard to say...For dinner, we had proper, English, take-away fish n' chips. I'm a little ashamed to say this was my first fish n' chips, though I've been here two and a half months. But that's London's fault. No one knows where to find good fish and chips in London, though I've spotted a couple places that I need to try out. Anyway, it was DELICIOUS. It's rare for me to say "no" to anything that's been fried.

2 comments:

  1. Lovely weekend. Jolly good show.

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  2. It truly warms my cockles to see you hanging out with a group of culturally diverse people on Thanksgiving, a holiday that's all about meeting new people and sharing what you have. Sniff sniff!

    The other day in a book written for little kids, I read this sentence: "On the first Thanksgiving, the pilgrims shared their food with the Indians." Uh, hello? How's that for a heavy dose of mythologizing?

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