Thanksgiving (s)

Some Friends at our Berat Thanksgiving

Karaoke in Tirana after our Thanksgiving Meal with the Cristina's.

This is the first time the I have been out of Dallas for Thanksgiving, so I thought that I would make up for that by having two, here in Albania.  Our first Thanksgiving was on Thursday.  Embassy and Ex-Pat Families invite Volunteers to their homes on Thanksgiving for some real food and heat... not sure which one I appreciated more! I ate dinner with the Cristina Family and seven other volunteers.  Steve Cristina, basically the Vice-Ambassador, and his Finnish wife Lea, had their cook prepare us a wonderful meal, with Turkey, stuffing, Pies, and even sweet potatoes that Steve brought back from his last trip home to NO, LA.  Everything was fantastic!  The night was topped of by a trip to the Karaoke bar with friends.  We spent the whole long weekend in Tirana with some of our friends from the Embassy and then on Sunday hauled a 15 lb. frozen turkey (from Macedonia) back to Berat on the furgon.  

After letting it defrost for a few days, on Tuesday we began to prepare for out Berat after-Thanksgiving day feast.  Me, Marisa and Corrine, invited Albanians that we work with or teach, or just friends.  We thought that it would be a nice time to share some American culture and get to eat more stuffing!  Corrine helped me prepare the turkey Tuesday morning.  Bear in mind, this is the first time that I have ever cooked a turkey.  I don't even remember the last time that I even watched my mom prepare one.  So the pressure was really on not to ruin this big bird. In the oven at noon and out about 4, the turkey was a success!  Accompanied by stuffing, cranberry dressing, pumpkin pie and pecan pie bars (all from the USA), we laid the table and our guests started to arrive.  

Our Turkey feast got mixed reviews from our Albanian friends.  This is some thing that we are used to by know, after offing up many baked treats, then often times told that they need more salt, or the my banana bread taste too much like banana!  We were just glad to have everyone over and, for the most part, everyone enjoyed the meal.  We sure did!   And in typical thanksgiving style, there are plenty or left overs for turkey sandwiches for days to come!