Thanksgiving, Austria Edition

Pumpkin cookies

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays. To be fair, who doesn't love eating tons of delicious food, appreciating good company, and eventually passing out wherever the tryptophan kicks in?

This year was my very fist Thanksgiving away from my family. That's right - in all of my 23 years, Thanksgiving 2010 was the first totally and completely away from the Forbringer clan. Last year I tried to celebrate with Dan's family, but ended up flying back that weekend anyway. So this year was going to be something totally new; an exciting experience with the potential to be totally amazing or totally disastrous. I think we knew all along that there was no way it could turn out terribly, though I had my doubts when it came time to find the necessary ingredients.

There are quite a few Americans in Salzburg, so we decided on a potluck-style Thanksgiving feast, with each of us making enough of our favorite Thanksgiving dishes to feed an army of hungry foreigners. My tasks: pie and cornbread. Which quickly turned to pie, cornbread and cookies once I received the cookie cutters my mom sent me for Halloween. Though I couldn't quite justify the ghost and bat -shaped cutters, I managed to use the pumpkins and (my personal favorites) the cutters shaped like America. In addition, I helped the formerly vegetarian Maija with the Turkey (though she definitely did 99% of the work). The gravy, however, was 100% my job.

Finding the necessary ingredients was quite the challenge. There is no such thing as crisco here, nor is there a supply of canned pumpkin. All pumpkin comes from the vegetable itself, which (thankfully) I did not end up having to do. Even more challenging is the fact that ALL squash is called Kurbis - butternut, acorn, pumpkin, summer, you name it. No differentiation. Thank goodness my task was apple pie, not pumpkin. Still, there doesn't seem to be anywhere to buy pie tins in all of Austria (or Germany for that matter). I eventually used some makeshift, funny-shaped tins from IKEA that did the trick but weren't ideal. Also difficult to locate: vanilla extract, baking soda, baking powder, brown sugar and turkeys. Yes, turkeys. We finally found two medium sized birds, unfrozen, and worked with those. Thank goodness - Thanksgiving just wouldn't have been right without one (or two) large turkeys.

Dinner itself was hosted at Maija's. As I mentioned, each of the Americans brought food to share. Our feast consisted of: antipasto, two turkeys, chestnut stuffing, sweet potatoes, cornbread, mashed potatoes, gravy, green beans with onion, cookies, apple pie, pumpkin pie and pecan pie. Any Brits/Germans/Austrians who joined brought beverages as their contributions.

I think I would call it a success. I might even go so far as to call it a great success. Even without the company of my real family, my family of Salzburg Fulbrighters made it feel like a slice of home right here in Austria. And I came away with some stellar recipes - assuming Mom is willing to let us upgrade from Pepperidge Farms stuffing to chestnut stuffing.

Pumpkin cookies and cookies shaped like America (thanks to Mom's cookie cutters)

The setup

From left: Dave, Mary, Ali, Anne Marie, Brendan, Nick

Leslie with one of my America cookies! They were a big hit

Maija, hostess with the mostest

The bird (one of two)

Me, making gravy. Photo courtesy of Ali

Some of the group hanging out waiting for the food to be done

From left: Emily, Ali and Nick

Happy Thanksgiving!

Cheers-ing

Ali's plate of food

A little mood-lighting

Leslie cracking up over Ja! brand whipped cream

Post dinner, when the tryptophan started to kick in

Dave and Brendan, enjoying the whipped cream

From left: Maija, Emily, me, Ali

Fall semester, senior year - a conglomeration

Kitty

Senior year. It's unbelievable that it's over already! I have no idea how I got to be so old so quickly! Senior year started with a road trip. Mom and I set out in my new car (2006 Subaru Outback, navy blue, stick shift). We bought the car a solid 5 days before I had to leave. Dad almost had a conniption over the whole situation. We'd agreed to buy another car from another dealer, but when we showed up to take it home the dealer hadn't done any of the promised work. It was a mess, which Dad handled very well until we went to look at the second car. Car #2 had been in an accident, which made Dad rule it out immediately. But Mom and I looked at it anyway; took it in, had "the guys" check it out. Their opinion was that this was actually a better car than the original, and that we should take it. Dad had to speak with them himself, but when he heard that, he did a total 180. Long story short, I had a new car.

So Mom and I loaded up my 5-day-old Subaru and headed out for the east coast. We stopped back in Hudson on the way, said hi to everyone, and continued eastward. We arrived in Brunswick, ME, a little after midnight and fell promptly asleep. The next day was spent moving in, organizing, and getting Mom's hair cut. My hairdresser in Maine is fabulous, and I have recommended her to everyone I know. My friend Becca thinks this is ironic, because the majority of people deliberately leave Maine to get their hair cut, while I am actually planning on making a special visit for the sole purpose of getting a cut.

After the haircut, Mom wanted her annual lobster. Perfect timing, too, since lobster was only $2.50 a pound (!) at that time. So we picked two up at a roadside shack, along with coleslaw, chips, and the local blueberry beer, and drove out to Land's End to eat. We sat on the beach with our lobster until a storm blew in off the water and forced us to head back to Bowdoin. The next day I took Mom to the airport, and went to my first day of orientation as a member of the Residential Life staff.

Our lobsters, purchased with some Sea Dog's Bluepaw beer and some chips, and STILL less than $10 per meal.

Momma Bear feeding some fallen lobster bits to the seagulls. One was more timid than the rest and Mom really wanted to feed it, but the others kept getting there first.

Low tide at Land's End

Storm rolling in

Sunset from my room at Bowdoin

Fast forward a few months. I'd started my senior year, Dan had started his first year in Medical School. We spent every other weekend at each others' place: I'd go down first, Dan would come up, repeat. The pictures below are from these trips. One time when he visited, we wandered out to the Giant Steps, which are on the same island as Land's End. Then when I visited, we went apple picking with his friends. Massachusetts is such a bizarre state in that things like apple orchards are not really in the countryside at all. But the apples were delicious. I made Mona's apple pie for everyone, and it received rave reviews.

Giant Steps

Kind of looks like wood

Leaves changing in Maine

Caught offguard

Dan and me on the hayride while apple picking

Tractor and a crisp fall day

Apples, soon to become pies

The best apples are always the unreachable ones, right?

Giant bumblebee in the sunflower. This picture is currently my desktop background.

Pumpkins!

Pumpkins, post carving

More sunsets from my room

Unfortunately, fall semester came to a startling end. I had planned on joining Dan's family for Thanksgiving, but a few days before, I got a phone call from Mom who had decided that I needed to book a plane ticket to Hudson because Mona wasn't doing too well. So, after spending a day in Woodstock, NY, with Dan's uncle and his family, we headed out at 4am so I could catch my flight from Albany to Cleveland. I don't have many pictures from this time, but I'm sure we all remember it pretty well.

When I returned, it was a mad dash to finish schoolwork in the remaining week. My teachers were very forgiving, thankfully, and I managed to make it through in time to attend the Jr/Sr Ball (Bowdoin's winter dance) followed by Dan's holiday party in Worcester. Then Dan and I caught a flight back to St. Louis to spend Christmas with the fam. Whew! What a semester.

Jonas Rice, our relative! Taken in Rice square in Worcester, minutes from where Dan lives.

Snack time for Sparky

One of our roommate Christmas card shots

At Dan's Christmas party with his medschool friends