Sunday, November 25, 2012

Giving Thanks with the Danes

This Thanksgiving was the first Thanksgiving in my 21 years of life that I've spent away from my family.  I was a little upset about this, as was most everyone else in my program.  So, as soon as my friend Jordan invited me to a Thanksgiving dinner with her visiting family (basically a host family from Denmark but you don't live with them) I jumped at the offer.  I was thrilled to have somewhere to go and some family and friends to share it with.  And, as with most everything I do here, it was quite an experience.

What to expect at a Danish Thanksgiving:

1 roasted turkey

2 servings of "sweet potatoes" (potatoes cooked in butter and sugar)

1 host dad who picks you up from the train station wearing a Patriots jersey

1 giant bowl of a traditional Danish radish type dish

1 roasted duck

1 untouched bowl of turkey neck, heart and other internal organs

2 grandparents who speak a great variation of broken English

5 servings of a delicious homemade gravy

78 (approximately) toasts - the Danes like to drink

2 different types of stuffing - one for the duck and one for the turkey

1 banana cream pie that they were convinced was a very traditional Thanksgiving dessert because they saw Americans eating it on TV one day

1 giant vat of "lemon fromage" - a Danish dessert that tasted like lemon mousse or something

16 minutes spent watching a traditional Danish clip that's played every year on New Years

8 extremely full and drowsy people at the end of the night

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