This year was definitely one of the most unique Thanksgivings I have experienced. Since it is (obviously) not a holiday that is celebrated in Germany, I had school on Thanksgiving day. Because of this I was not able to celebrate on the 28th, but my French teacher wanted to have a Thanksgiving party in class that day! First, I gave a presentation on America and the history and traditions of Thanksgiving. After that, we went down to the little cafeteria and ate the pumpkin and apple pies I had made for the class. It was really funny to see the German kids in my class try pie for the first time, since there is no such thing as pie in Germany. They kept calling it cake no matter how many times I told them it wasn't which was pretty funny. The next day, Friday, was my last day of school in Riesa. My class gave me a nice little note that they had all signed along with a picture of the class, which I thought was really sweet. I was cooking a big Thanksgiving meal for my host family the next day, so Friday afternoon I baked another pumpkin pie and apple pie and prepared the stuffing. Let me just tell you something about making an entire Thanksgiving dinner in Germany: it is much easier said than done. First off, I have never cooked Thanksgiving dinner before, I have helped but never done the entire thing on my own. Secondly, since Thanksgiving is not a German holiday it is nearly impossible to find some of the ingredients and tools that you need. Pie is not a thing here, so I was not able to find a pre-made pie crust or pumpkin puree. Because of this, pie making was about a three day process. I had to make homemade pumpkin puree, which I accidentally ended up making way too much because I used two pumpkins because I wasn't sure how much it would make. Also, I had to make homemade pie crust, which is apparently a very hard thing to get right on the first try but luckily mine turned out well. Since there is no such thing as a pie pan here I had to use a cake pan but luckily, it all worked out! I am actually very proud of how well my completely made from scratch pies turned out and they were definitely worth all the work because I got to share such an American tradition with German people and it was so great! The only bad thing about it though is that my mom and grandmother have now put me on official pie making duty for the following Thanksgivings because of how well they turned out! Ok, so I just realized how much I rambled about my pie making adventures and struggles, so I'm going to move on to the rest of Thanksgiving now... On Saturday morning, I prepared the turkey and started cooking it. I had a few hours after that to pack and start to get ready for my move to Berlin the following day. Around 2, I started making all the side dishes. My host mom and I realized that we were going to have way too much food for the five of us (my host family, one of my host grandmothers, and I), so we invited Chacho (the other exchange student from Texas in Riesa) and his host family, who are the best friends of my host family, to come to dinner. Luckily they were able to make it and it was so great to be able to celebrate with them! Luckily, all of the food turned out great and I still can't believe I was able to pull it off, by myself, in a country where there is no Thanksgiving short cuts. The only thing that didn't go so well was my attempt at carving the turkey. Obviously, I had never done it before so it didn't look so pretty but that's ok because I managed to get all the meat off. In total, we had turkey, stuffing, gravy, mashed potatoes, squash (which no one knew what it was so that wasn't really eaten but that's ok), green beans, corn, rolls, and pumpkin and apple pies for dessert. So, all in all I think my first ever time cooking Thanksgiving was a success!
Sunday, the day after I celebrated Thanksgiving with my host family, I moved to my new host family in Berlin. It was very sad to say goodbye to the family that had taken me out of a bad situation and opened up their home to me. I am so grateful for everything they did for me and I will never be able to thank them enough. Luckily, the train ride wasn't that long, only about an hour and a half all together. First, I took the train from Riesa to Leipzig where I had to connect to Berlin. My local coordinator met me at the train station in Leipzig and it was really nice to be able to say goodbye to her. After about a 30 minute wait with Sandra, I boarded the train headed to Berlin. When I finally got to Berlin, I was greeted by my new host mom, my host brother, and one of my two host sisters. We went back to the house and had a nice lunch then after I went for a walk with my host sister Celina. That night, my entire host family, including my 16 year old host sister's boyfriend and my host mom's boyfriend, and I all went out to a pizza place for dinner. So far I absolutely adore Berlin and my host family is amazing! Later on, I'll write a post about Berlin and all the amazing things here! But I think I have written enough for now, so here are some pictures of my German Thanksgiving!
Tschüss,
Dani♡
My pumpkin and apple pies!
The turkey (pre carving attempt)
The table!
