Indushka Day

It surprises me a little that this Thanksgiving was actually my first away from home, or at least, my first away from family. Fortunately, we had a determined group of people here who wanted to celebrate the occasion in grand fashion. We actually began planning the day at least a month ago, in particular a certain chocolate truffle cheesecake, ingredients for which we bought in Baku when we went as a group three weeks ago. In the end, we pulled out just about all the stops. We had two turkeys, which we had to cook on a spit as turkey kebabs, instead of in the oven. Turned out a bit tough (really, a lot tough, but we have muscular turkeys here, not those wimpy fattened turkeys like back home). We had mashed potatoes, stuffing and gravy, green beans, steamed carrots, and even a salad (not an Azeri salat, which is either pickled or coated in mayonnaise). Instead of cranberry sauce, we had to improvise a bit and ended up with pomegranate sauce, and pumpkin bread that had some pomegranate in it as well, which was delicious. For dessert, apple pie and the aforementioned cheese cake, as well as some of the gold bars my mom sent from home (which were a huge success, she’ll be pleased to know—and even more pleased to know that I saved a bunch for myself; no starving and eating parsley in the grocery store aisle, thank you very much).

In many ways it really was like having a family dinner. It was loud and everyone was either talking or stuffing their faces with food. We said grace (both the Philmont Grace, at Erika’s request, and an impromptu grace by Crystal), and took turns saying what we were thankful for. We then went around talking about where we were this time last year and what our holiday traditions were. Now and then people would break off to take phone calls from family and friends. After dinner we played a charades-like game until it was time to go home (where my host mother may or may not have been a bit insulted that I was too full to eat any of her cooking—she didn’t walk me to the gate the next morning).

What am I thankful for? I am definitely thankful for the group of friends I have made here during PST. Without them I would surely have gone insane with loneliness and frustration over the adaptation process. I am thankful for everyone back home, my family, my friends, my meees, who has stayed in touch with me, who send me emails, messages, and love. I wouldn’t be here, in life, in Azerbaijan, physically or emotionally, without them. I wouldn’t be me without all of you. So thank you for you.



Update: Pictures will be forthcoming but may take awhile as I managed to delete the pictures that were actually on my camera of Thanksgiving, so I’ll have to steal them from other people at some point. Sigh. Stupid technology, I’m both thankful and unthankful for you.