Thanksgiving in Hong Kong

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Thanksgiving foods. Nom

Jack Daniels Sweet Potatoes

On Saturday, I was invited to my boss’ house for a Thanksgiving celebration.  There was a mix of Americans and other people, so I volunteered to cook a few things.  I knew I wanted to make my mom’s famous Jack Daniels sweet potatoes, and I also volunteered to make green bean casserole and mashed potatoes.  So off the grocery store I went.  One of the biggest joys for me has been discovering my local grocery store that has had every single thing I have wanted or needed so far, and this trip didn’t disappoint.  (They even had fried onions for the casserole!)

The shunned non-traditional purple potato

After loading up my backpack and two bags, I headed home and cooked up a storm while watching a holiday classic and one of my all time favorites, The Family Stone.  I was in an extremely chipper mood, thinking that literally nothing could go wrong when I started to peel the “Taiwanese Sweet Potatoes” I had bought.  And they were purple inside.  Not even kidding.  As I had no idea how these were going to taste, not to mention, it felt darn near unpatriotic to serve a purple sweet potato, I did the mad dash (with wet hair as I had literally just gotten out of the shower prior to this incident) back to the grocery store for “real” sweet potatoes (read: orange).  

Our oven.  The size of a casserole dish.

By this point, it was 4:00pm, I still had to boil the potatoes for the mashed potatoes, cook the green bean casserole and the sweet potatoes in our tiny, tiny convection oven.  Did I mention that we only have two burners?  At one point not long after this, I had sweet and regular potatoes on the stove, a pan on top of the convection oven sucking some peripheral heat from the oven to melt butter, and green beans in the oven.  It was true insanity.  And I was supposed to be at the dinner at 5:00pm with a minimum 45 minute transit time.  Was I late?  You betcha, but my food was delicious.  I finally made it, and it was truly a great celebration.  We even got to introduce some of our group to Thanksgiving for the first time, which was really cool. 

Friends and kids at Thanksgiving.  It was perfect.

Grocery store haul

 Now, for the second piece of insanity, my roomates and I decided to throw a Thanksgiving dinner for about 10 people on Monday night because we were all busy later in the week.  Since I have Mondays off, I volunteered to do most of the cooking.  And I. Was. Excited.  I had a repeat of my grocery outing, returned home feeling pretty confident, with even more dishes to make this time, including two whole chickens. I prepped most of the things I could and took a short nap because I wasn’t feeling 100% and I wanted to be 100% for this event.  I woke up, started prepping and cooking, and discovered that our building had no water.  Whatsoever.  Not for the toilet, not for the sink, not in the shower.  Luckily, I was tipped off by a poster in our lobby which had one of 5 Chinese characters I can actually read in traditional characters (water, if you’re curious) on the poster with a date next to it.  I asked our doorman who also thankfully speaks Mandarin if we were going to be without water, and he said that he thought we might at some point in the day, but wasn’t sure.   That morning before I went shopping, I had cleaned and filled my trashcan with water for dishwashing in case it got dire, but my roommate Rachel assured me that when this had happened in the past, it was only the toilet that didn’t work.

Catastrophe one. 

It wasn’t horribly catastrophic, really, just insanely inconvenient.  So I washed dishes by scooping water out of the bucket one cup at a time.  And started to feel more tired and aggravated as the day went on.  Finally, after doing just about everything I could do without water, I laid down for another nap, because I just couldn’t shake my tired feeling. 

When I woke up at 6:00 to put the Chickens in the oven, thankfully, the water was back on.  By this time, it became apparent to me that something was absolutely not okay as I was getting that swimming feeling you get right prior to vomiting.  I told myself that I had no time for that, downed some pepto, and asked my roommate Julie to handle the mashed potatoes while I got in the shower.  Try as I did, pepto downed and all, I did end up throwing up about 30 minutes before our guests were supposed to arrive.  Surprisingly, it made me feel better and I resolved to soldier on through the meal. 

Some of our guests

The food was actually just fine, everything worked out okay for the most part and everyone seemed truly happy and grateful for the meal.  I really didn’t each much besides saltine crackers and water.  I held it together for the better part of three hours, but at the end of the night, I eventually realized that I had two options.  1) Vomit in our very small bathroom that is immediately adjacent to our dining area, thus exposing everyone to the sound or 2) lay down immediately.  I chose option two, totally shunning the person I had invited and hoping that my roomates would take care of him (they did, thank goodness).  Just a few minutes after everyone cleared out, I was sick again. 

And again for approximately the next 6 hours.

Not the most fun way to spend the week, but sometimes, there aren’t a lot of options! Thankfully it passed quickly and I’m feeling more or less back to normal now.

So what about actual Thanksgiving, you say?  

 I will be totally honest here.  Most days, I truly love my Hong Kong life.  Things here are pretty sweet on a day-to-day basis, and I get to do something I LOVE, which not a lot of people can say.  People talked to me about how moving abroad would be “such a sacrifice” before I moved, and for the last few months, I have truly not understood it.  Sacrifice?  Nah. 

But today, I woke up on Thanksgiving and I felt the sacrifice of being here.  I woke up and immediately thought of all the things my family was doing in the US without me, how they will gather together and celebrate traditions that I LOVE and that I will not be there with them.  And for the first time, I was deeply, gut-wrenchingly homesick.  Heartsick, even.  I had the opposite of a grateful attitude.  Isn’t it funny that I felt the least thankful on a day devoted to Thankfulness?  Believe me, the irony was not lost on me.

I got up, got dressed, iMessaged with Sara (my best friend/cousin for those of you who are new to my blog) and generally felt sorry for myself.   I trudged towards work, into my Starbucks where I ordered my coffee and wiped the sweat from my forehead because it was an un-holiday-like 85 degrees here today.  After getting to the office and getting some work done, I skyped with some of my family who were gathered together for Thanksgiving at my grandma’s house in Austin (where I would be at this very moment had I not made this move to Hong Kong).

Everything was Jim-dandy until the VERY end of the conversation where Sara informed me that in the morning it’d be okay because she’d go to Starbucks, get a paper, pull out the ads and watch the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade and think of me (note: we’d be doing these together, except the Thanksgiving Parade which she loathes).  Which sent me into a full-on crying spell right as my boss knocked on my office door to let me know that he was ready to go to the community wide Thanksgiving service.  I fanned myself, begged off the Skype call, and we headed out. 

 

Things looked up at the Thanksgiving service, because mercifully, I had something to distract myself with in that I was conscripted into the service of St. John’s Anglican Church handing out bulletins and doing the offering.  I can say that it was a strange service because I have actually never attended any type of Thanksgiving service in the US.  This service was really beautifully put together and included a lot of pomp and circumstance with important people in robes (my boss being one of them, note: I’ve never seen him in a robe in my life) processing down the aisle.  This hearkened back to some of my childhood memories (and college ones, too) working in and attending churches that were more traditional.  The service was full of hymns and even a chorus of America the Beautiful.  Now that I think of it, they sang all three verses of America the Beautiful.  I wasn’t even aware there was more than one verse, so shame on me. 

Self-explanatory though didn't taste like pumpkin...

 After eating some American Thanksgiving foods and going to another meeting where I barely held it together, I returned to my office in a bit of an emotional stupor where I discovered a beautiful flower arrangement from my dad.  Then I sobbed.  This is what happens when you don’t cry often, because when you start, you just can’t stop! Every year my dad buys my mom and I and whatever ladies happen to be around flowers.  It’s become a big covert operation on his part – he always sneaks out unnoticed and returns with flowers in hand.  It’s very sweet and is just one thing that I knew I’d miss today.  And he made my day, my month, by his thoughtful gift. 

 

And then I realized something.  I am incredibly blessed.  And it is a sacrifice to live here.  This is my life, and it is beautiful and amazing 99% of the time, but sometimes, it’s neither.  Does that make me any less grateful?  You bet not.  I live a life of adventure, of opportunity, that many would dream of.  Who am I to complain? 

Thanksgiving dinner date (friend and co-Director Julie)

And as for tonight, Thanksgiving evening in Hong Kong, I shared a meal of Tapas that I did not cook with a great friend, talked about things that are truly important, and felt more full and thankful than I have in a long time.  So wherever you are on this Thanksgiving, I hope that you’ll give your loved ones an extra squeeze, or call your crazy friend or family member who is living abroad and give them some extra love, too.  Because we all have a lot to be thankful for.