Bogenhofen: Thanksgiving Things & Thanksgiving Thoughts

    Life continues here at Bogenhofen with the end of the first trimester approaching. Thankfully, my teachers have been gracious and finals have been mostly non-existent, giving me time to enjoy my friends. The holiday season has come with movie nights, board games, long walks by the river, cookies, thanksgiving feasts, Christmas Markets, and special church services. 

   The week of Thanksgiving our teacher informed us that the school would be having a Thanksgiving meal on Thursday and that our class was expected to prepare a short presentation to help explain the history of Thanksgiving and the reason why Americans celebrate it. I offered my assistance and suddenly I was given the responsibility of writing a script and directing a small production. Whoops. 

   It was fun tho. :) 

   However, I found it hard to find a balance between showing what Thanksgiving represents and giving a realistic interpretation of historical events. Eventually, my small team and I came up with the idea of having an interview. I brought four guests, Governor Bradford, Sarah White, Chief Massasoit, and Tisquantum, to explain what really happened on the "first" Thanksgiving. It ended up being a very cute little production, and a lot of fun to put together.  

   It was extremely sweet of the school to host Thanksgiving for us when it isn't an important holiday here. To make it feel even more like home, they asked us Language Students to make the pumpkin pies. I suggested my mom's pie crust recipe but didn't think anything would come of it. I walked into class and my teacher pointed to the flour and salt on the table and said, "You're in charge." 

   I said, "What do you mean?"

   And she said, "It's your mom's recipe." 

   I almost broke down in tears and I was so pleased when it came out just like Mama's. I have never made it without her before. 

   All in all, it was so fun to share Thanksgiving with everyone. Something like pumpkin pie can seem so simple to us, but my German friend made me taste test her batter because she didn't know what it was supposed to taste like, and she was ecstatic when I taught her how to decorate the crust. I thought that coming to Europe would help teach me more about other cultures, and it certainly has, but what it has also done has shown me what beautiful things I have at home and in my own culture. My mom's pie recipe, the taste of roasted pumpkin seeds, my absolute favorite Autumn snack as a girl, and a holiday created so that we can get together, show our love, and eat good food. I find that there is such warmth in American culture. But mostly, I find that there is such warmth at home. And with Christmas approaching, I am beginning to long for it.

Chief Massasoit

Tisquantum (You don't want to know how long these hairdos took)

The Thanksgiving dinner. It wasn't that good, but it also wasn't that bad.

I kept telling my teacher I needed a pie pan, but I don't think those are a thing here.
I had to make do with a Cake pan and improvise with the crust. It turned out okay though. 

No one else wanted to make the pumpkin seeds so I did them on my own and took 
a whole baking sheet full back to my room. They were gone within a couple days. 😋

On Sabbath evening my youth group decorated Christmas cookies. 
Mine got voted best decorated. :) 

   Then came time for the "real" Thanksgiving. Before the school announced their Thanksgiving meal, we Americans had decided to host our own. Me and a good friend, Keith, were the two with big dreams, so, about a month earlier, Keith made a group chat with everyone in it and started trying to set things up and ... no one answered. So, we assumed no one was going to come. We decided that we would just do something small, and began spreading the word by mouth instead. As the Sunday in question crawled nearer, we had twenty-two people on our guest list and a lot of groceries to buy. Keith was a champion and planned a menu and we went shopping on Friday, On Sunday, he, his cousin Kai, Makena, and I began cooking at 11:45, and prepared to serve our guests at 6:00. 

   Everyone really came in clutch for the effort. We had multiple people stop in to help peel potatoes, shred cheese, and help out in the kitchen, an older gentleman from America named John paid for the groceries, my teacher Tatjana lent us a bunch of decorations, and Keith's boss, Arthur took us shopping and reserved the schools little cafe area for our use. I could not be more thankful for these people and we had such a good time cooking, decorating, and hanging out. 

cooked mama's sweet potatoes. They were a huge hit. 

I never knew bringing a piece of home to yourself and sharing
it with your friends could be so special. 

The spread. Our menu consisted of; yams (2 ways), mac'n cheese, 
creamed corn, corn on the cob, chicken (veggie and meat), hawaii buns, 
brussel sprouts, green beans, rice, salad, and lots of baked goods and drinks!

Oh. My. Word. Food has never tasted so good. The food here at Bogi is not bad, but I realized how much I missed comfort food when I took my first bite. There was so much flavor, and everything was so warm and tasty 😩😩. I absolutely stuffed myself. All in all, 10/10 day and a good first Thanksgiving away from home. 

I wasn't the only one blown away by my first bite. Kai took a bite and then sat like this,
gripping my hand, for a solid minute. 

Not everyone who came was American, we had Argentinians, Brazilians, 
and Germans with us. During the meal, one of the German guys yelled out, 
"God bless America!"

I couldn't have asked for a better roommate. <3

After dinner, we watched Charlie Brown's Thanksgiving.
A few of us even stayed longer and watched another movie.