With this being the first Thanksgiving ever that I have not been at home I was a little apprehensive as to what to expect. Holidays have always been a pretty big deal to me because they are time for my whole family to spend time together. I love all of the traditions that my family has during the holidays but things are different in Vietnam and therefore my holidays are going to be different. While I was thinking one day about how much I was going to miss my friends and family over the holidays I decided that I needed to really invest in my new relationships I have over here. I desire to have a group of close friends that I can call my family here in Vietnam. So in a step towards that I decided to invite my friends over to cook a "Thanksgiving" dinner with Sandy and I. In the picture from left to right is Nhan, Nga, Me, and Nguyet. Say that 10 times fast. On a side note I don't know why I picked three language tutors with some of the hardest names to say in Vietnamese!
I had to take a picture for all of you to see how we prepare our food. This is our bathroom/kitchen. It's not my ideal kitchen. I mean we don't have granite counter tops or stainless steal appliances but it works and it's clean! Trust me the clean part is a pretty big deal here in Vietnam, especially after the last couple of days of being sick I really appreciate cleaniliness.
Here is our Thanksgiving table complete with rice cooker in the back! We ate stir fried pork and onions, tomatos and tofu, mashed potatoes (not a Vietnamese dish but we couldn't not have it), rao muon, which translates to river weeds, and of course rice! It was really good. Before the meal started I told the girls about the reason why we celebrate Thanksgiving and that it is a day to give thanks for all that the father has given us. So each of us went around the table and said what we were thankful for. 
I knew that none of my first year students would know about Thanksgiving. So in class I taught my students all about Thanksgiving and why we celebrate it in America. But my most favorite thing that I did was have them make hand-turkeys and write what they are thankful for. It was so much to see them all get so excited about this, it was kind of like I was teaching elementry school. I can't wait to teach them about Christmas!
Then on Friday night Sandy and I took the train up to Hanoi, and on Saturday we met with some of the other ELIC teachers to have an American style Thanksgiving. Someone made a turkey, which I think somehow came from America, and we had stuffing, pumkin pie, and crandberry sauce. It was so wonderful. I even made my Aunt Penny's famous homemade rolls! I felt so domestic making yeast rolls from scratch!!! It was good to fellowship with other brothers and sisters. Sometimes it is hard not having a fellowship in Vinh but I am always refreshed after a trip up to Hanoi.
I hope that all of you had a wonderful Thanksgiving! Thank you to all of you who left me sweet messages of encouragment! It is so good to know that I have so much support!
4 comments:
It was not very cheesy. As one of your blog followers, this is exactly the type of information I wanted to read. What goes on in a normal day with Megan...and in this case, a not so normal day.
Keep it up girl...
Why are you wearing a long sleeve shirt!? Is it that cold there? I'm so jealous! lol. Looks like your doing awesome things their Megan...I'm proud of you!
This brings back lots of memories, even cooking in the bathroom. (when i was a PA for the Kien An team, we also washed dishes in the bathroom.) Great blog. Along the lines of what the Bryants said, it's so good for Northwood folks to see day to day Vietnam (non-Hanoi) life through your blog. You look awesome in that ao dai!
Haha, "I felt so domestic."
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