Thankful to be Abroad, but still missing the Motherland

Up until yesterday, I'd never really spent a 'major' holiday away from home. Those holidays considered as 'major' in my book would be the tri-fecta of wintertime wonders: Thankgiving, Christmas Eve, and of course, Christmas. I've spent my fair share of time away from home (I went to boarding school) but I've never really missed a 'major' holiday with the extended family. The only really negative thing about studying abroad in the fall: no Thanksgiving Dinner. 

The emphasis placed on Thanksgiving in America is clearly not appreciated abroad (surprise surprise), as I have been discovering over the past week. Everyday this week I've gone out in search of a potential location for a 'proper' Thanksgiving dinner, and I've been getting everything from mixed looks of confusing to flat out "no maim, we don't celebrate that". Well, that's a bummer. 

Sidenote, funny story: I'm going to quote my former roommate in Delhi, Emily, also looking for a proper Thanksgiving meal: "I just called the american consulate in kolkata to see if they knew were I could get a thanksgiving meal and the man on the phone told me i would have to call back tomorrow because it is an american holiday so no one is in the office. helpful." Oh, India.

But you know, that got me to thinking. Being in another country has opened me up to another culture, and I've been introduced to whole slew of new holidays I had NO idea existed. Take Diwali for example. I would consider this pretty embarrassing on my part, how could I have NOT known about one of Hinduism's biggest holidays? If fact, India might host the largest amount of holidays celebrated in the business calendar in the world. Indian students barely ever see a full 5 day week, (and I'm constantly running into cancelled interviews due to ANOTHER holiday) because there's always a random holiday in the calender. So with all those other holidays in mind, its no wonder there's no room in the Indian calendar to add another one about how the pilgrims and Native Americans first broke bread, that is continually celebrated with the tradition of overeating and way too much American football. 

Either way, missing the crazy large family filled meal got me to thinking about all the things I have to be thankful for. Yes, I'm totally about to get sappy and heartfelt here. Studying abroad has been an unforgettable and irreplaceable experience, and it never would have been possible without the support of all my family and friends currently enjoying the endless amount of post-turkey day sandwiches and black Friday shopping deals. I miss you all terribly, and hope that we can have Thanksgiving recreation meal when I get home... which is in 2 short weeks! (creeping up much faster than I expected....) 

In the meantime, I'll have to settle for celebration with my family abroad, and all of the incredible people I've met here in India. And you know, chicken shwarma and hummus for Thanksgiving Dinner isn't such a bad replacement! 

So here's a little message from abroad: Give thanks for all that you have (seeing people with so little to call their own has put this into real perspective for me at least), and cherish the time that you have to spend with your families (being 7,000 miles away also puts this point into great perspective), because you just really never know whats going to happen. Well, enough with my sappy lesson of the day. Happy Thanksgiving!