If there is one thing I have learned about living abroad, it's that trying to make recipes that are common in America is not a good idea when you're not in America. There are some exceptions to this rule, but in general, trying to hunt down well-known American food items in a foreign country is a frustrating and useless pursuit. Either is just down right doesn't exist or it costs so much that you wish you hadn't found it in the first place.
With this knowledge from the past few months, I was very pleasantly surprised that my team was able to pull off a full-scale American Thanksgiving feast. It took some extra creativity, lots of searching for the right things and some imported goods, but we successfully handled a legitimate Thanksgiving dinner.
A big boost towards accomplishing this goal came from Zack, a friend of ours who works on an Army base in southern Germany. He came up to Berlin for Thanksgiving on the way to Denmark for the weekend and brought with him a carload of foods we've been missing courtesy of the commissary on his base. In the Thanksgiving category, that included jellied cranberry sauce (the kind that comes out still in the shape of the can... the only kind I like), canned pumpkin, french fried onions for the green bean casserole and corn syrup for the pecan pie. He also brought us Wheat Thins, peanut butter, cake mixes, and brownie mix. Amazing how happy we were on account of such trivial (yet delicious) things that remind us of hom
We celebrated Thanksgiving at the Sfura's apartment with an afternoon full of food, the ensuing food comas, tickle attacks on the Sfura children, and a couple movies. No euchre, but otherwise just like home. =)
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Tomi found out through Richard earlier this week that there was a volleyball tournament this weekend at his church and immediately started recruiting people to go play with her. She played in high school, and was pumped to play in a tournament again. Bryce (who also played in high school), Andy (who is naturally gifted at all sports), and I (who have little to no volleyball experience/skill) agreed to take part in said tournament. Last night, Richard took us to one of his favorite bars, Freies Neukölln, to watch the election returns live from America on CNN. To my great surprise, the bar was packed with Germans (and a bunch of Americans) who were super pumped to watch the election. Naturally, since all Germans seem to love Obama, there was Yes We Can paraphernalia all over the place. |