During the week of Thanksgiving, we are in Beijing. Before this though, I thought our Thanksgiving was going to be eating duck (not turkey) and not desserts-in my mind, it was pretty much another dinner in China on Thanksgiving day. Luckily, that was not the case and I celebrated my first Thanksgiving outside of the U.S.
At first, I was very nervous about the whole Thanksgiving dinner and about meeting new people. But I worried for no reason, the dinner was in the Crowne Plaza (a luxurious-looking hotel, it looked like it was very modern and western) and we met other people from California. There was a total of six people in the California program, about the same amount of people as the Jinan program. They were extremely friendly and we exchanged stories about being in China. Some of the stories I could relate to and some I couldn’t because we were not required to find our own accommodations in China (aside from the independent travel week) so I couldn’t relate to the frustration of finding a living situation and dealing with different roommates. The people from California were all in different Californian state school and being around them made me realize just how close our group was. The California group did not have many, if any, classes together and the only time they were together was during group outings. Our group does so many things together that we all became very close to each other.
The restaurant had turkey that tasted like turkey and mash potatoes and gravy and pie and cranberry sauce-everything you would expect in a Thanksgiving dinner. It was set up in a buffet style with a lot of options. In one of the areas there was a salad bar and it was a big hit with our group. There was one dessert that I wasn’t very fond of but everything else was delicious! It felt like a Thanksgiving dinner depicted in a movie in which people are sitting around a large table laughing and talking with each other. The atmosphere was very cheerful and everyone was talking with each other; it was an experience that I will remember and I’m glad I didn’t miss it.