Thanksgiving in France

My thanksgiving was very different when I was in France, but really exciting at the same time because my family came to visit me then (because they had time off for school) So we had a mock thanksgiving dinner with my host family. We did not however, make traditional thanksgiving food (which I think would have been fun, but my host mom was not really feeling thanksgiving dinner) She likes to cook, so she decided she wanted to make a traditional French dinner so that my family could experience it, in place of the same thanksgiving meal we have every year, which was kind of neat. Anyways, I got to spend Thanksgiving with my French family AND my real family which was really cool. Also, my mom's birthday was on Thanksgiving, and my host mom and I acutally baked her a French cake (which was delicious) so it was neat that they got to share in that experience with my family as well.

As for my friends, The University of Minnesota make a traditional Thanksgiving dinner for all the students at a local restaurant that was all paid for, which was really cool. They had turkey, stuffing, gravy, the works so that no one had to spend Thanksgiving alone!

Posted by Jillian, Montpellier, France, Fall 2006

Thanksgiving in Denmark

Since I am from a very close-knit family, Thanksgiving with out them seemed fairly daunting so I tried to plan ahead to make sure I had a plan for the day so I wouldn't miss my family too much. Turns out I didn't really have to plan much. My friend Hannah's mom planned her trip to visit Hannah for the Thanksgiving Holiday. With her she brought an approximately 50 LB bag full of all the Thanksgiving feast necessities, mostly canned goods of course. She planned it out meticulously, they reserved the Turkey and whatever else that she had to get while in Denmark and about 15 of us (Americans and non-americans) had a regular old Thanksgiving day feast.

It wasn't quite home, but it was close enough.

Also that day, Copenhagen had their annual Christmas tree lighting down town which was one of the most beautiful, festive things I have ever seen.

Posted by Colleen, Copenhagen, Denmark, Fall 2006