For the past few weeks, an army of angry, gray rainclouds have been residing over the beautiful city of Florence. Thus, the weather forecast did not quite make for a fabulous start to Thanksgiving-week here in Italy... especially while everyone on Facebook is posting their statuses about being home, my mom is telling me about all of the Thanksgiving errands that she has to run (GASP without me!), and here I am far, far away from anyone that even knows that Thursday is a holiday.
I will not lie to you... I was a bit sad come Wednesday because the day before Thanksgiving is one of my absolute favorite days of the year! Our house always smells so delicious: Mom is hard at work in the kitchen while Pearl and I live the dream for a day--taste-testing and living life to its fullest. The thought of all of my favorite foods--double-baked potatoes, chips n’ dips, stuffing, kielbasa--together on the same table, four-thousand miles away from me, is just plain upsetting.
However, let’s be honest. A) I don’t even like turkey and B) I’m living in Italy for a year. I’d be out of my mind to complain.
And as it turns out, I had an awesome Italian Thanksgiving with my wonderful friends here in Florence. Anna, a Tulane student who studies Museologia with us at L’Universita, planned quite the event--assigning each of us to a different dish and inviting us over to our British friends’ Florentine flat to celebrate.
I was obviously put in charge of bringing the gelato for the pies. This should not surprise anyone.
However, since my mom usually puts me in charge of the melon-balling for our Thanksgiving-day fruit salad (yup, I’m a pro) I decided to make a fruit salad too. In Italian, “macedonia” is the word for fruit salad. This absolutely cracks us up. Guys, don’t you think it’s a tad awkward to name a dish after another population?
Anyhow, I scoured the Coop--our colossal Supermarket/Walmart/Shopping Mall--for fruit and filled my wheeled-basket (no, not a carriage... this is literally a basket with wheels) with every type of fruit that crossed my path. La macedonia ended up being a bit different than usual. Let’s just say that there was a lot of yellow, the grapes were dissected one-by-one so as to be seedless, and an excessive amount of money was spent on berries which are essentially nonexistent in Florence. Fortunately, the final product was pretty darn good.
The rest of the Thanksgiving menu was perfectly traditional--turkey, stuffing, carrots, potatoes, pumpkin pie, apple crumble. It was exactly the meal that a group of Americans away from home needed on Thanksgiving.
Our British friends were great little hosts and extremely excited about their first Thanksgiving celebration. We arrived to an apartment decked from ceiling to floor in a tasteful mix of Christmas and Thanksgiving decorations. Anna hand-painted adorable little place settings with all of our names on them and I, being the craft-obsessed nerd that I am, took it upon myself to make eight, crazy, finger turkeys--one for each of us.
I am so blessed to have met such a great group of friends here in Italy. I honestly cannot think of a better way to have spent my first Thanksgiving away from home.
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| Anna, the house-wife, hard at work in the kitchen |
I am also thankful...
1... that I have people at home to miss. I am so fortunate to have family and friends that I love so much and that care so much about me.
2... to be an American. Italy is amazing, but there’s nothing like the good, old U.S.A.
3... to be a student. My only job is to study as hard as I can, do as well as I can, and attempt to figure out my life. It does not get any better than that.
4... for technology. It is great to live in an age where I can skype my family for free and post pictures on my blog for all of you to enjoy anywhere in the world.
5... for this amazing, study abroad experience.
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Auntie Cindy: Note ruffly, JCrew tank. I wish they could've all appreciated it! |
Who am I kidding? I cannot limit my list to just five things. I’m also thankful for Coca-cola, fuzzy dogs, Gossip Girl, tweezers, JCrew, gelato, central heating, google maps, nail salons, elliptical machines, sunny days, all of my fast food favorites, french braids, hand-written letters, and chocolate in any form.
Xoxoxo I hope you all had a lovely Thanksgiving with your families and friends!
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