I've got a gift and it blew me away

~Angels and Airwaves

I'm a little late posting this, but it's been another one of those weeks here in the UK. Being a full time grad student is a lot different than I expected. I mean, for 3 years I was a full time employee and a part time grad student. I had very little free time to deal with so I just knew what I had to do to get things done. Being a full time grad student leaves me with free time, but not too much. It's tough because I have deadlines for assignments, I have classes to attend, and I have studying to do, but I always seem to push things to the last minute without really doing anything else. I just wonder where all the time goes. But that's not the point of this post...

Saturday was Thanksgiving, well, when we celebrated it. I hosted dinner with several of my friends from class. It consisted of the 3 Americans, the Swedish twins, and 1 Brit. We had a blast! The guys came over early to start with the turkey, since I put them in charge of that. They got really into the whole thing, after a short explanation of what Thanksgiving is really about. Granted I always focus on the fact that you spend it with family, but in a way, these people have become my family here, which made it even more amazing. Anyway, our dinner consisted of turkey, mashed potatoes, Stovetop stuffing (thanks mom!), roasted veggies, succotash, cornbread, gravy, pie, and pumpkin cupcakes. It was all absolutely mouthwatering. The guys even decided to make frills for the turkey.

In an effort to make the experience truly authentic of a present day Thanksgiving, we did what anybody else would do, and watched football (American style) during dinner. I managed to find a way to watch NC State beat Miami on Saturday on my laptop. It was great! I spent most of the time trying to explain things to everyone else, like "what are those lines on the field for?" But it was fun watching the game. At the same time, we had the "All Blacks" rugby match on the TV playing. You can really tell the differences between the sports when you watch them side-by-side.

After dinner we all headed out on the town to celebrate the 3 birthdays from my class from the week, mine included. All in all, it was a great day/evening but if I had to do it again, I'd still rather spend Thanksgiving with my family. Although, this one sure was special.