Thanksgiving: European style

So I was fully resigned to just skipping the American holiday of Thanksgiving. It's never been very high on my "favorite holidays list" (something having to do with my being a vegetarian...)

Then this Wednesday I happened to compliment one of my colleagues on his exceptionally good English - turns out he has an American wife. They used to live in DC, and of course I'm from DC. One thing led to another and pretty soon I was invited to the Thanksgiving celebration they were attending in Amsterdam.

So last night I trekked out to the Jordaan neighborhood in Amsterdam to the home of an American woman named Vicky and Dutch man named Eric. The affair was pleasant enough, though I must say it was not very Thanksgiving-ish. It was more like a chic dinner party. There was turkey and some wonderful pumpkin pie, but that was it as far as traditional food goes. I ended up eating a lot of green salad with these weird red sprouts and artichoke hearts.

Of the 12 guests, only 3 were Americans (me included). There was very little mention of Thanksgiving. At one point, an Italian man asked if Thanksgiving was the day the Indians were killed. (I think he was joking, but I can't be sure. His accent made him hard to understand). We did not observe the custom of going around the table saying what we're thankful for. Rather, Vicky offered a toast, "We have so much to be thankful for this year. We have a new president." Everyone cheered.

So yeah, it was a very left-wing sort of night. There were these 2 very chic, ambiguously gay guys from the Greek embassy (one was actually named Manolo!) Vicky and Eric met while on vacation in Ghana (who goes there on vacation? really!) One lady is a photographer for lefty Dutch mag Vrij Nederland. They all reacted with horror when I said that my older brother did not vote for Obama and owns a gun. The photographer gasped, "Do you ever visit him?"

That night I was sort of in the mood to just stay undercover and keep my right-wing views to myself.

The only bummer was the lateness of the dinner on a work night. I couldn't insult my hosts by leaving before dessert, which wasn't served until 11 and then my train back to Utrecht had a delay.

I comforted myself with the thought that I only have to work till 1pm on Fridays, so between a few coffee runs and a long lunch, I thought I could get away with only being half-awake. Alas, I arrived at 9am to the news that the Australian office had submitted its monthly report on soft commodities. So there were no coffee runs and definitely no lunch break as I frantically spent 6 hours editing endless text on the market for sugar, wheat and soy beans in India, Argentina, China etc.

oh well. I survived. I tried to stay positive and remember that yesterday was Thanksgiving. For instance, while editing I learned that I should be thankful to the government of India whose policies will keep the price of sugar low for all us. No, I'm kidding. What I'm really thankful for - of course - is that I've finally found an awesome job where, yes, I have to work insanely hard, but I'm using and developing my talents and I'm finding my place in the world. Now that's a reason for Thanksgiving.