Turkey + Baklava = Greek Thanksgiving
Trip Start
Sep 07, 2008
1
133
148
Trip End
Dec 09, 2008
Athens,
Attica,
Greece
Thursday, November 27, 2008
Unfortunately, Bellingham and Scout were off traveling, and Indy wasn't able to come. We all posed for a picture showing Indy how sad we were that he wasn't there. That's me toward the middle in the red showing him the tracks of my tears down my cheeks.
Mary Lou is a graduate of culinary school, and she volunteered to cook TWO turkeys and three vats of mashed potatoes
Where oh where is Indy?
. I brought cooked carrots glazed in honey, and Godiva became a celebrity for importing two different kinds of cranberry sauce from the States in her luggage since we couldn't find any at the grocery stores in Athens.Godiva and I rearranged the two classrooms, one for the food line and the other for the dining room. There was an obscene amount of food. People brought all sorts of dishes, from three kinds of stuffing to Jane's infamous cornbread and chili to baked brie to pumpkin pie with the Greek twist of filo-dough crust to hundreds of snickerdoodle cookies. To honor the days she invested in procuring and preparing the turkeys, Mary Lou was brought to the front of the food line, and emerged with three plates full of Thanksgiving dinner! That pretty much set the precedent for the gorgefest that followed.
After most of us had eaten our fill, Blink Blink proposed a toast. She delivered a beautiful, touching speech that made me proud to say she's a communication major from my university. And then the entertainment commenced, as the wine began flowing in earnest and the dining room turned into a stage for an impromptu talent show. Class Clown, Spencer, Red, and Mama D did their screamingly hilarious rendition of Tenacious D's song Tribute, Sunshine sang one of her original compositions, Gina led Greek circle dances, a few guys told jokes, and we saw some Stupid Human Tricks including Papia's uncanny barking like a dog and Mama D's cartilage-free nose.
We worked hard on the cleanup, and students took giant trays of food back home with them. I heard they had an Eat It Up party later to take care of the mountains of leftovers. I'm thankful for very many things, but tonight I'm especially thankful for the most memorable, most euphoric Thanksgiving I've had since the Tudor Room episode of 2001 (which is a story for another time...)
