This year we had a very international crowd for the feast. I invited a Turkish couple that we've become friends with this year, Eric's aunt and uncle from Germany were visiting, and Arno and Dorit--I call them Eric's adopted grandparents--are Holocaust survivors who immigrated to America in the 1940s, but still identify strongly with their European identities. Arno and Dorit speak German, so they had a great time speaking German with the aunt and uncle, and my Turkish friend has an uncle who lives in the same town as Eric's aunt and uncle, so she understands a little German. Eric, Lenny and I understand no German, so we kept having to pull the conversation back to English.
It was an interesting mixture of people. The Holocaust survivors with the German aunt who's father was an extremely prestigious general in the old German military. The Turkish friend with a general father in the Turkish army who could identify with my German aunt's experiences in a rigid military culture. There was one tense moment where we all talked about how German society is not accepting the Turkish immigrants. And yet, by the end of dinner, we all had such a great time together that we decided to all get together for dinner again tonight! Lenny invited everyone to a restaurant that makes raw food. I can't wait to hear the reactions to this experience. I can't imagine a bigger meat eating crowd, and Lenny wants to do raw food. Should be interesting...
I hope your holidays were joyous. Here are a couple of pictures from our day:
2 comments:
I like how easy Thanksgiving is for other cultures to join in on. Everybody likes food, and everybody can understand being thankful. And really, the first Thanksgiving was quite multicultural too.
I think it would have been fun to be among the Turks-Germans-Americans and hear the conversation.
Glad you had such a great time. Certainly sounds like what Thanksgiving is all about. Some year I might have to invite myself to New York. Nice looking pies too! How was the raw food dinner?
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