Tis the season to begin with white lies...like "Santa is watching" and "I can afford it!"...so it begins with "Thanksgiving near Turkey". In truth, despite both cities being "over there", Istanbul is almost 800 miles from Cairo. Still, it is nearer to me than many of you and it provides a catchy title for a blog :)
Many of you have emailed asking what Thanksgiving is like in Cairo. Like many specific "American" holidays (4th of July, Memorial Day, etc), hardly anyone celebrates. Especially the Brits...I mean, it has been more than 225 years...get over it already! We've managed to grin and bear Gordon Brown so the least they can do is keep their "bah humbug" to themselves.
That said, those of us (americans) who do celebrate Thanksgiving do so with gusto. The Simons-Rudolph family hosted 3 american exchange students. Whole experience=huge ego boost for Ashley. Now, I am not known for my cooking but to be fair, I am halfway decent these days and those college kids were ravenous! We put away a fairly traditional meal of chicken, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, sweet potato pie, etc etc.
Another favorite e-question is whether they have turkeys in Egypt. I don't actually know the answer to that but my guess from the exorbitant price....no. So we ordered rotisserie chicken delivered to our door for $1 USD. Cheating you say? Why yes...just as I would have done in the US...only no delivery and certainly more than $1. :)
Now, like many of you, we are preparing our hearts and home for Christmas. Almost everyone we know is traveling so there is an air of anticipation. Some of us are lucky enough to be heading home but the rest are traveling within the middle east and north africa. Now Christmas is pretty weird here...a few stores have hopped on the US expat train and put out (awful...think Wal-mart post Christmas leftovers that don't even go in the 75% off sale!) santas and Christmas trees. There is almost no Christian religious imagery up (not too unlike the US, unfortunately). No Christmas music... I didn't miss it in August (when I am told it began in Raleigh's Walmart) but I do miss it a bit now. To get us more in the spirit, I went out and bought a (potted) tree and a few strings of lights. Virginia contributed with some fancy tinsel boa thing. The kids decorated the tree and we hung stockings over our (non-working) fireplace. In some ways, the low-key christmas here (coupled with a definite high-energy christmas supplied by my parents when we arrive in raleigh) is a relief. In some ways, it makes me even more homesick. I mean, I totally missed the blow-by-blow post Thanksgiving shopping stories from my friend Kari who lives for the deals and for the war-stories! Oh well, on balance, this is all is an unforgettable experience....even if my kids can't quite remember the words to "deck the halls".
-Ashley
