The short answer is no, and neither did I until one of my students in my last class of the day yesterday told me about her annoying school English teacher and how he was teaching them the “th” sound by bellowing the following sentence (be sure to over emphasize the ‘th’ sound): THis THursday is THanksgiving Day!
Upon hearing the sentence uttered images of pumpkin pie, turkey, Macy’s balloons escaping (or deflating), some sort of Nintendo based arguement with my brother all came rushing back. “This Thursday is indeed Thanksgiving…wait today is Thursday. Today is Thanksgiving!”
Thanksgiving is the one holiday I miss living here in Korea. Christmas we have here. New Years we have here (in fact it’s so nice we do it twice). Halloween, in my opinion, as anyone who reads this knows can rot in hell. The other holidays Fourth of July, Columbus Day, Abe Lincoln Day are just random no school, no work, no mail delivery holidays and we have those here too…they just have different names.
Thanksgiving is the only one I really miss, because the premise is so awesome. Eat a lot. That’s all there is too it. Really it’s not that different from the typical day of being an American, but the food stuffs consumed are outstanding (and occassionally you have to dine with relatives you’d rather not have to associate with, but there is a bad side to everything). I have always been a fan of turkey, but since coming here where you might have an easier time finding dinosaur meat to consume than turkey it’s become something I on occassion long for. The same goes for pumpkin pie, though 호박죽 (hobak juk / pumpkin porridge) tastes fairly similar so can fill in when I’m having a pumpkin pie jones…even so it’s not really the same.
So yesterday while friends and family were back in America getting turkeys in the oven and attempting to avoid getting dragged into a conversation with that uncle no one really likes, I was eating 떡볶이, and it was good. In the near future when I have a family of my own I am seriously considering making 떡볶이 a part of our Thanksgiving tradition.
And tomorrow while you are sitting at home avoiding the malls, or stuck in traffic on the way to the malls, or dealing with raving lunatics at the malls (good luck Ailinn), remember half way across the world there are people like me…people who will not be able to have turkey sandwiches for the next four days. People who have no pumpkin pie to cut slivers from in the middle of the night when no one else is awake. So all of you better be thankful that you live in a country that enjoys consuming turkey. This I command.
lovely post- I feel like I’m missing out on Thanksgiving even though I’ve never actually had it
Comment by swiss james — November 25, 2005 @ 16:53 pm
I had to go to Costco and get a pumpkin pie for the occasion. No turkeys, though
Comment by taemin — November 25, 2005 @ 20:14 pm
Costco has pumpkin pie?! Looks like I know where I’m going / what I’m eating tomorrow. As for the turkey there is some Subway knock off near my house that has turkey cold cuts…I may have to pay them a visit.
Comment by Wyatt — November 25, 2005 @ 20:54 pm
There was turkey at the Costco in Daejeon but no pumpkin pie. They should really get together and work on this system of theirs. I’m going to be eating good tomorrow!
Comment by Joel — November 26, 2005 @ 0:59 am
There is actually thanksgiving in Korea just that it’s not a holiday. It’s mostly based around churches as thanksgiving is a christian celebration originally. it’s called 추수감사절…
Comment by Jay Lee — November 26, 2005 @ 2:52 am
I had some ’sweet potato cake’ the other day. It was a cream color, but tasted surprisingly like pumpkin pie.
Comment by Cecil B. — November 26, 2005 @ 2:54 am
Jay Lee,
Do the churches hand out turkey and pies? If so perhaps I may have to head off to church next year.
Comment by Wyatt — November 26, 2005 @ 7:26 am
떡볶이 is already a Thanksgiving food in my household.
Comment by Gina — November 29, 2005 @ 17:58 pm
Black Friday turned out to not be so terrible after all. Still pretty terrible, but not “I’m-seriously-contemplating-suicide-just-so-I-can-get-out-of-this” terrible. Considering I went in in the afternoon, and by then we were already out of all the items that were on sale. Basically I spent the whole day telling people we didn’t have anything left. A thought that kept popping into my head throughout the day, “Stupid people…you really think there are any of those LCD TVs left that we were selling for $180 dollars now, at 5 or 6 o’ clock? Do you realize we’ve been open since 5 this morning, and that they were all gone by 7 because that is a totally awesome bargain?!? Idiot…please go die.”
Comment by Ailinn — November 30, 2005 @ 9:06 am