Sunday, November 30, 2008

Giving Thanks the Deutsch Way

I just spent my first Thanksgiving in Germany. It was different. For the eight years that I lived in Brooklyn, Thanksgiving meant fighting the ugliest holiday traffic. I eventually developed various strategies to cope.

At first, I would purchase an Amtrak ticket on the Monday before Thanksgiving. On the following Wednesday, I would catch the subway from Brooklyn to the train station in Manhattan, push through the throng of people trudging through the station, and wait for the train from the secret spot one level below the main floor. One year, I economized and took the bus. I paid economically and psychologically for that decision. The bus never showed up and there was no one in the waiting area who would help, so I hopped a cab to the train station. After those struggles, I would then arrive in downtown Philadelphia. I would either take a lovely commuter train to a neighborhood near my mother’s house and wait for the XH bus that never adhered to the schedule or brave the gross City Hall Station on the subway that took me to the prompt 6 bus.

I eventually tired of that mess and started arriving on Thanksgiving day, about two hours before dinner was served. No travel mess. Just a big, delicious meal with family. There was the traditional post-dinner rounds of embarrassing stories, but once that ended, the movie marathon began.

This year, I was not going to experience any of the Thanksgiving traditions because I was not in the United States. I wanted to miss it but I did not. I didn’t miss it until we made the decision not to mark the occasion at all. Then I missed endless talk show segments on how to create an innovative turkey dinner; the talk show segments that demonstrated how to make a traditional Thanksgiving meal; the thrill of not working on Thursday and Friday; listening to all my co-workers’ and friends’ stories of family fun; the continuous flow of sale ads for Black Friday; the horrible travel; and the general thrill that surrounds Thanksgiving.

As I prepared to teach English Thursday afternoon, everything just seemed so inadequate. No family. No food. No embarrassing stories. No movie marathon. Just soup that I picked up on my way home from German class.

Asmus called me in the midst of my preparations and demanded to go to Thanksgiving dinner. I protested a little, because he had not been feeling well. When he said that he felt fine, then I happily surrendered.

The Hamburg Marriott did not have my nephew but it did have my Asmus. With our first plate of food in front of us [I was determined to follow the American tradition of eating too much on the fourth Thursday in November.], we both listed something that we were thankful for. Fortunately, I was thankful for his entrance into my life and he was thankful for my being in his life. He also said my monologue was too long. Oh well, it seems that one of us is just more grateful than the other.

The cooks at Speicher 52 did a respectable job in replicating the American Thanksgiving dinner. There was an unbelievably-moist turkey, dressing with way too much celery, delicious potatoes au gratin, and sweet potato puree. The other items were delicious but misplaced. Autumn in Germany features lots of fresh corn and that was in abundance on the buffet. There was also various salads. My family eats many things on Thanksgiving but salad is not one of them. However, my favorite salad in the world sat on a table and I had to dig in. I went from full to bursting with a nice helping of Cobb salad. It was so worth it. I trudged from bursting to real problem with the ingestion of pecan pie and creme brulee. I took the pain happily.

The only problem was the lack of couch at the hotel. Usually I would lie until the pain of gluttony passes but we were in the middle of major hotel. I did not want to weather the stares that would naturally follow a Black woman moaning and splayed across a couch in the lobby.
We went home and I tried to sleep with too much good food in my stomach. It was a nice facsimile of the American holiday.

3 comments:

  1. I'm glad you and Asmus had a good Thanksgiving. As with usually family madness, my mother's cousin came over. She brought her great-niece- the one we all wanted to kill last time she came. This year she was fun. So much so, that she bugged Louise to take her to see Christian the next day. What a day!

    Mom cooked and I did dishes. We ate. We laughed. We waited for Kiki. We laughed some more. We did a quasi movie marathon. I did more dishes and ate more pie. Counsin Squeezy left. We all plopped down to sleep.

    The next 3 days were spent getting my youngest sister ready and moved. Ouch- it still hurts!!!! Mom was her usual generous self. My nephew was your typical 10 year old. His attention span and patience are above-average but when they're gone, they're gone. He didn't bother me much but boy did he drive his mother nuts!

    I left early in the evening- I had no choice. I was tired and I really needed to go home, take some ibuprofen and sprawl over my bed to combat the agony likely to ensue the next day.

    I found myself waving to my nephew in the window like I'd never see him again. We both just waved and waved. Finally I pulled off. I got to the stop sign at the end of the block and couldn't stop crying. I was blubbering like there was a death in the family. I was shocked at how much I missed him. I hadn't even gotten off the block. What can I say, he's his autie's sweetie!!!

    I left early- and so did everybody else on the East Coast!!! It took me 2.65 hours to make a 1.25 hour trip. Once past the Delaware-Maryland toll, traffic moved along. The 10 or so miles leading to the tolls took over an hour of the whole trip. Stupid tolls!

    Will somebody please open up two more E-Z Pass lanes!!!

    Once home, Doodles (my cat) meow-ed her head off because she was so happy to see the house. She was sick of that bully cat, Josie, running her around the house, eating up her food and crapping her litter box. Didn't she have food and litter of her own?! Turns out that Josie's litter box appeared to be cleaned last about 4 or 5 days ago. Nothing else would fit!

    No wonder Josie's so cranky. If I had a super-crappy litter box most days, I'd be a little grumpy too! I hope things don't get worse after the move. Poor Josie!

    After unloading everything, all I could do was collapse. I made my call to let everyone know I made it home safe. After that, sleep.

    Thanksgiving family madness for sure. I know why you miss it.

    BigSis

    ReplyDelete
  2. I like your story very much. The contrast is fasinating. I love Thanksgiving. Watching the parade, going through the sale circulars, cooking, baking, cleaning, cooking. I think I watch the most TV during those four days of not working. I was up until 3am watching the Real Housewives of Atlanta.

    This year I had an ear infection so I didn't shop, cook or clean. My cuddlebear, Robb, took care of me. All I had to do was go on the computer and find a restaurant. We chose Big Jones. I sort of wanted a buffet...so I could eat as much as I wanted but the Big Jones 5 course Southern meal sounds so appealing that I didn't fight for the buffet at The Clubhouse in Oakbrook - Kevin Costner's restaurant. Big Jones did not disappoint. A southern relish tray - sally linn bread - it's like pound cake meets challah, pickled string beans and okra, carrot sticks and celery. And get this...pimento cheese. I didn't know that was a real thing.
    Next was soup...I got she-crab and Robb got duck/tasso ham gumbo. Yum!

    I will continue this on Monday. My ride is here... Ciao for now

    Mori

    ReplyDelete
  3. Well now it just goes to show no matter where you are in the world, you make home wherever you are. Unfortunatly, I made Thanksgiving right in my bed. Although the intent was to go to Philadelphia and be with the my family that had love for me, for whatever reason I couldn't get it together enough to push my way out the door. All I can say is that I started out getting ready (painted, powered and pulled), layed down for a nap and before I knew it 4pm rolled around and my face was on the pillow! Oh well. I tried to call the Chinaman for some chicken wings & fries but that wasn't to be either. Even they took the day off. Which is unusal in the hood but oh well. I'm just blessed to know that life goes on and that their be other holidays to enjoy. Hopefully Christmas and New Years will put me in better spirits. Blessed love to you all... Kiki

    ReplyDelete