Thanksgiving

For the first Thanksgiving in my life, I ate mussels for lunch... Am I sad about missing out on mashed potatoes, pumpkin pie, and a lovely plump serving of turkey? Honestly, not really. I don't think I am really one for traditions, and I happen to adore mussels...

What is weird to think about is that I know what the majority of the people in the United States are doing at this very moment: hauling the turkey into the oven, letting the pies cool on the counter, peeling the potatoes, and most importantly taking time off of work and school to spend the day together. I personally can't put myself in that frame of mind right now. In the morning I went to the police with my friend Cachorro to deal with getting a new Chilean ID, came home to a feast of mussels, and now I have a class in an hour. If I sound bitter I would like to tell you right now that I'm not. I have always appreciated new perspectives, and the Chilean as well as international reaction to Thanksgiving is more or less, "Um...Ok then..." 

Some of the gringos in my group are preparing Thanksgiving specialties today, and I may join a few of them later after my classes. However I believe my main motivation would be that pumpkin pie is delicious and has less to do with the cultural context. This year I want to try and live my life as Chilean as possible, so I'm not super preoccupied about keeping up on the traditions that I will inevitably partake in when I get back to the States. 

Now that I think about it, that last statement came across as more confident and cocky than I feel at the moment...Today, I do want to surround myself with other people a little more than normal. I bet it's because I know that people in the US are spending time together with family and loved ones.

It has been a truly valuable experience to step out of my normal habits and realize that the world continues to turn even though I am not eating the same things, going to the gym as much, or understanding everything that is said to me for that matter. I've known all my friends here for no more than a few months, yet that's enough for me to realize that they mean a lot to me and I will miss them when I leave for good.