A Chinese-American Thanksgiving

I expected yesterday to be like any other usual Chinese thanksgiving, with the obscure chinese foods and random slices of turkey shoved to the side. The schedule would be simple; get cast off to eat with the little fourth graders then babysit them for the rest of the night, with activities ranging from playing with a dollhouse to watching nickelodeon. But, to my surprise, yesterday was... incredibly fun. We went to a party with a different group this time; dropped off my brother at a friend's house then left.

Firstly, the food. You won't believe it, but we had turkey. And mashed potatoes, and sweet potatoes, and stuffing, and macaroni, and cranberries. Cranberries! We didn't really know what to do with that stuff, so we just kindof took some and ate it with the stuffing. Yes, this is going to be the tradition that gets passed down our chinese heritage line; putting cranberries on the stuffing. (Is that what you're supposed to do? I might never know). And then, when I walked in the other room, a familiar smell wafted in my nose, with the clanging spoons and loud chinese laughter, and the terrible smell of hot spices and tofu and lamb mixed together. This was their thanksgiving dinner. And I smiled, because here I was, right in the middle of a crossroad between two different cultures. You know, one of my secret dreams has been to have a true American thanksgiving, with the family relatives and the close bonding time and the yummy turkey in the center. But yesterday, I realized that I don't really want that at all. It's just not... chinese. It's stiff. It's weird.

But it was really nice to see that the adults took the extra leap to make sure there was a taste of American food, you know? I know they hate that stuff, but they did it. Of course, in the center of the table was a huge display of asian jellies and pocky sticks, but I'm not going to complain. I have the best of both worlds, dude.

And then, we gathered in a room and watched Star Trek, which was really fantastic by the way. Then we went outside and played some touch football. Ohmygoodness, it was such a great night. Hey, don't Americans play football on thanksgiving too?