Thanksgiving in Langfang

This week I've been busy preparing for the students' final examination, as well as filling out nearly 70 pages worth of documentation for the college.  It's safe to say that I've been busy.  However, I've managed to find a little time for some fun and relaxation.  A little over a week ago was the Thanksgiving Holiday.  The Chinese people don't celebrate the American holiday of Thanksgiving and very few of my students even know the story.  As an American teacher I get the privilege of sharing my cultural heritage in the classroom and that means sharing my holidays.  I've already shared about Halloween and Christmas will be coming soon.  But, for now it's time for the Thanksgiving lesson.  I got to share the real story of the Pilgrims and the Indians.   If you're a little foggy on the details than I suggest you read the diary of William Bradford and learn for yourself the true survival story of a people and how they were rescued by an act of multicultural kindness.

We now come to back the present day and many of you might be wondering how will I spend this Thanksgiving holiday.  Being away from family is always hard during the holidays.  It was hard being away from my family last year and it's even harder this year.  However, I have a good job an English teacher and I'm happy to live here in China.  I have many great friends and wonderful students.  In fact, it was with my good friends and students that I spent Thanksgiving.  It was during my Friday class that a young male student approached me to ask if I would teach him how to cook.  I accepted the request and expounded on the idea by saying that he should help me prepare Thanksgiving dinner.  He was really excited by the new idea and asked if he could bring some friends.  Somehow the word got out and I had a load of requests from students who wanted to join our Thanksgiving dinner.  In fact, I wasn't sure who all would come.  Little did I know that I would have an apartment full of eighteen students!

Most of my guests had just come for the food, but six of my students came to learn how to cook.  I had had a really busy day that day with three classes in the morning and afternoon, so I didn't have any time to prepare food.  Thankfully, two of the boys arrived at 4:00 pm and we were able to head off to the Walmart Super Center to buy some food.  We got back to the apartment around 5:00 pm and started preparing.  The girls started showing up around 6:00 pm and the first two to come immediately jumped into the kitchen to help.

The menu for the evening was: 1) Ginger Pork, 2) Golden Potatoes, 3) Vegetable Salad, 4) Mini-Pizzas, and 5) Rice.  It might seem like a strange menu but I can't get a lot of items for making the traditional Thanksgiving foods.  However, it was still delicious.  The mini-pizzas were the biggest hit!  I simply took slices of whole-grain bread and covered them with spaghetti sauce, shredded mozzarella cheese, and imported Italian seasoning.  We could bake six at a time in my little toaster oven.  I had my students form an assembly line and they were popping them out as fast as they could.  The ginger pork was rather easy to cook.  We simply cut up some pork chops into bite-sized pieces and stir-fried them in a ginger salad dressing.  The potatoes took the most amount of work.  They needed to be washed, peeled, diced, and placed in a greased skillet.  Then simply add some minced onions, minced garlic, butter, salt, and pepper to the potatoes.  Then let it all simmer on a low-heat, covered, for nearly 35-minutes.  Make sure to stir the mix every five minutes.  The vegetable salad is another easy one to prepare.  Actually it really isn't a vegetable salad but more like a vegetable tray.  It was simply a dish with cucumber and carrot wedges served with a Caesar salad dressing as a dipping sauce.  I had two of my students constantly restocking the vegetable tray as we cooked the dinner.  We sent the trays out early and I know it must have been restocked at least four times.

Finally the meal was ready and all nineteen of us sat down to dinner.  My kitchen was packed!  Every stool and seat in my house was used.  We gathered around and then each of us shared about something we were thankful for in our lives.  Then we started eating.  Everyone loved the food!  We all ate our fill and nothing was left.  After dinner, the students and I then made our way into my living room and we split into two groups.  One group gather around my television and watched the TV drama "Once Upon a Time" with Chinese subtitles.  The other group gather around me as I taught them how to play UNO.  The party lasted till about 10:00 pm when I finally sent the students back to their dorms.  Everyone thanked me for such a wonderful time and I thanked them for coming.  It truly was a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday!