I had to work on Thanksgiving Day this year (wah wah) but I tried to make the best of it by doing some Thanksgiving activities in class...like making my students act out the history of Thanksgiving. I did this activity last year and it seemed to work well so I thought I'd try it again! I gave them the summary and they had to find a way to role play it...creatively. I tell ya, you just haven't experienced the true story of Thanksgiving until you've seen it narrated by two Chinese students acting as mice. Huh?
That night I went to my friend, Cindy's house for a Thanksgiving dinner with her family - it was so nice to be with my favorite family in China on this holiday! We then started gearing up for the big Thanksgiving celebration with all of our friends on Saturday. It was a great day with lots of eating (of course), games and movies, but the best part was to just spend time with people and have a day where nothing needed to get done...
Now, the cheese. As I said, I've seen this phenomena twice now and it's been awe-inspiring to witness both times. The first time was with queso - a block of Velveeta and some salsa and the second time with an actual cheese-ball appetizer. Westerners, especially Americans, greatly miss and crave cheese while we are here in China so when we get the chance to eat it, we really go for it! At the party with the queso there was a group of about 10 of us who literally moved to the kitchen to stand while we ate our meal, just to be closer to the cheese. Americans were drizzling melted, gooey cheese (uh oh...my mouth is watering...) on anything and everything and encouraging our Chinese friends to do the same! We thought it could definitely go on white rice, mashed potatoes, roast, and bread....it got a little questionable when I saw a European walk out of the kitchen devouring her cheese covered cookie. No judgment here, though, as far as I'm concerned - anything goes! Then, yesterday with the cheese-ball...same type of thing. (Dang it, my mouth is STILL watering...) There were about 9 of us standing around the table having a discussion about what was still there that we could spread the cheese on. (This was several hours after the first meal when we were contemplating what leftovers to eat for dinner...you Americans know how that works!) The more creative people got, the more they were praised! Apparently here in China, cheese is to be cherished! And, by the way, wink wink, if you're ever wondering what you could send me that I miss, I can guarantee you I'll be the most popular girl in the city with a big ole' block of Velveeta!!! :)
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!
3 comments:
Velveeta?! Seriously, Shannon, you must be desperate. I don't think Velveeta is even technically a cheese. It's like the Spam version of cheese....I wish I could send you some goats milk cheddar that we got at the farmer's market in Madison. Now THAT'S cheese!!!
Jenny
If that aforementioned block of Velveeta ever shows up on your door step, you KNOW who to call, friend. Yup. I am willing to confess that I hovered over the queso cheese dip that one night, and added cheeseball to mashed potatoes at Thanksgiving. And BOY, was it goooooooood!!!:)
Shannon,
Perhaps you need some Trader Joe's cheese sent to you in the mail! I think we are kindred spirits because of our love of cheese
Your willow creek friend
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