(Getting carried through the virtual hug-line at Florida Thanksgiving, potluck dinner with other waygooks ("Foreigners"), Irish coffee and voltage converter to go!)
Since it takes awhile to find all the western ingredients, I started prepping and freezing thanksgiving dishes two months ago. Then, Andrew got called on a last-minute work trip to Australia, meaning our First Thanksgiving will need to be postponed. So, I cooked the turkey that wouldn't fit whole in our freezer, tore it apart, and packed it away for later.
Living abroad means having both rewarding and challenging experiences. And while I really like Korea, I felt the first pangs of homesickness today - Thanksgiving.
Today especially, I'm missing my family.
I miss standing around the island, laughing and trying not to ruin our appetites with the cheese tray. I miss sitting on the back porch with all the cousins, even though the "kid's table" was abolished long ago. I miss the flurry of activity in the kitchen, as everyone works on their tasks. I miss ending the night drinking Irish Coffee out of teacups with my cousin Rachel, sending selfies to our youngest cousin.
The good news is that homesickness can be cured with the familiar. In a country without cranberries, I recreated my Uncle's famous cranberry orange sauce...by rehydrating craisins. I packed up my coffee maker (and the necessary transformer) to bring along Irish Coffee to a potluck dinner. I FaceTimed with my family (at 3:00am Korea time). And when Andrew gets back, I'll make him eat a freezer's worth of turkey and gravy.
Because in spite of being homesick, I'm so thankful for our friends here, FaceTime, my husband, and potluck dinners.
