Holiday Schedule: America-substitution Edition

I never covered what we did for Halloween or Thanksgiving, so I'd like to do that here.

For Halloween, we decided we wanted to carve something, though carving a pumpkin was kind of out of the question. Google image search "Thailand pumpkin" and the first two rows of pictures are the most common pumpkins you find here. In fact, we saw an orange pumpkin the other day and it was the weirdest thing for me because I forgot pumpkins can be orange. As you can see, they're pretty short and squat, and they're also very hard to cut up. So after some brainstorming, we decided the easiest and best thing to carve would be a watermelon. We still wanted to do something pumpkin-related however, since it is Halloween after all, so we bought a pumpkin as well as a watermelon. After hollowing out our baby watermelon, I carved a cutesy face and used my iPhone (in a plastic bag) to light up the inside. Meanwhile, Jules researched all the meals we can cook with a pumpkin and settled on a pumpkin soup. We bought the ingredients, cut up the pumpkin (incredibly difficult, as I mentioned; nearly lost a finger or two in the process) and Jules made THE MOST DELICIOUS MEAL EVER. It's comprised mostly of pumpkin, red curry, and coconut cream and it was pure perfection. We also dried and roasted the pumpkin seeds! Jules did such a great job with her pumpkin experiment and it made for such a delicious Halloween. Oh and at the time, I was substituting for a Kindergarten class, so I had my kids color and cut up a pumpkin mask. No dressing up in costumes, but I would certainly consider it a successful second Halloween abroad. :)

When Thanksgiving was coming up, our funds were dwindling, as we still had to wait until December 1st to receive our first major paycheck. But we decided it was important for us to really celebrate Thanksgiving, a holiday that is normally spent devouring giant meals with family and friends, that we would now be spending with just the two of us. Though we consider each other family, this was definitely a drastic change. Last year in India, a group of friends from the UCEAP program came together to conjure up the best Thanksgiving-like meal we could, since India doesn't really provide for this American holiday. In Thailand however, there are plenty of farang for the businesses to cater to, so Jules researched cafes that were renowned for providing delicious and affordable traditional American Thanksgiving dinners. We settled on Bake & Bite and made a reservation for our scrumptious dinner, which would come with everything we wanted and expected, plus pumpkin cheesecake and, my all-time favorite, cranberry sauce in a can. It was something to look forward to as our stressful workweeks continued and our money dwindled. When November 24th came, we got a little lost on the way, but finally found our oh so wonderful Thanksgiving dinner buffet (again, the pictures will do a much better job of illustrating just how delicious it was). It broke the bank a little, but was absolutely 100% worth it and for once, we felt stuffed to the point of drowsiness. Thanks to Sam, we also had some lovely Thanksgiving decorations to hang up around the apartment (including a tree with leaves where we were supposed to write what we were thankful for). And naturally, we shared our thanks for each other, Thailand, our apartment, our scooter, our jobs and our friends and family back home.

Though we spent Halloween and Thanksgiving in India last year, we were home for Christmas, so this will be our first Christmas abroad and without family. As soon as December 1st hit, we headed out to buy a tiny Christmas tree and decorations so it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas in our little studio. The only things that would make it more complete are the smell of pine needles (since it's a fake tree of course) and perhaps some chestnuts over a fire. Oh and of course, maybe if it wasn't 100 degrees everyday, it'd feel more like winter.

So that's our American-substitution holidays here. It's nice because there are a good amount of Christians here in Thailand (though the primary religion is Buddhism) so there are still glimpses of Christmas here and there (like our lobby has a cute little Christmas tree, and as I said, this cafe is playing a bit of Christmas music).

I'm not sure, but Jules and I think we get New Year's Eve and New Year's Day off. Sadly, because we work for a government school and a non-Christian private school, we won't get Christmas day off. But we're seriously considering calling in sick that day, because it won't be much of a loss for them to have one day without us, but it will be so important to us to have that day to celebrate (and maybe even Skype with loved ones!).

And last but not least, my birthday's coming up! I'll soon be turning the age nobody really wants to be, and the first age in which you're getting older and it's no longer a good thing. Hope your holidays are well. Leave a comment or two to send some love!

Thanks for reading! The pictures will come in the next entries to entertain those who are tired of reading and prefer pictures (*ahem,* Louise).