Giving Thanks in Beijing

I wasn't sure what to expect for my first Thanksgiving in China, what with Thanksgiving being an American holiday. I know the ex-pat scene in Beijing is big enough to support at least a few efforts at Thanksgiving, but since one doesn't normally see turkeys go the way of Beijing Duck, I wasn't sure how much experience Chinese chefs had had with the giant bird. Did they know how to make it just right? Not too dry? Well-done all the way through? What about gravy??? After all, a crucial part of the Thanksgiving turkey is the gravy.

With all these concerns in my head (I obviously take my Thanksgiving meals very seriously), I hopped on a bus with the rest of my program affiliates to head to the Holiday Inn for our banquet. The program had arranged for a Thanksgiving buffet there in conjunction with the Stanford program. We didn't really mingle much with our Stanford colleagues as we were all a little busy stuffing our faces with the AMAZING (if a little crazy) food served at the buffet. Sushi, sashimi, fried rice, sweet and sour pork, pizza of all kinds, roast beef, various fruit, weird yams and..... turkey! Yes, that is right, somehow the Chinese chefs at the Holiday Inn knew just how to make the turkey so that it had that perfect Thanksgiving taste. And they even had gravy!!

Alright, so here's the food run-down:

me with my first round of food

(see how happy I am?!?)

Round 1: plums, watermelon, mashed potatoes with gravy, 

turkey with gravy, beef fried rice (yeah, that's right), bread roll

Round 2: turkey with gravy, bread roll, sweet and 

sour pork, fruit pie, plum, corn on the cob, roasted yam

Round 3: apple tart, cheesecake, pumpkin pie

As you can see, of the many unusual things about my Chinese Thanksgiving, food was definitely one. The company was another. Until last week, I had never spent a Thanksgiving away from my immediate family... my parents, my three siblings. It was strange being in this fairly sterile, near-empty hotel area surrounded by people I had known for barely four months. It was stranger yet not joining hands with them and bowing our heads in prayer. After all, not everyone in the group is Christian, so why would we do that?

I felt really torn the evening of Thanksgiving, being so far away from home. One one hand, these people whom I just recently met have become my family here in Beijing. They've cheered me on through good times and comforted me during bad times. They've seen me have fun and they've seen me get hurt. They were what I was thankful for that evening, so I was happy to be at a table surrounded by them.

On the other hand, I miss my family. I miss going around the table and talking about what I am most thankful for. I miss looking at my parents and my siblings and thanking God that they're alive and healthy right in front of me. I miss pretending to know what I'm doing in the kitchen as my mom tells me to do this-and-that. And I miss home. Which is why, when I got back to my dorm, I had a lengthy Skype conversation with my family. I'm happy to be in China, and I was quite happy with a wonderful Thanksgiving (beyond my expectations), but right now I'm just thankful that in 18 days I'm going home.