BillaBroad: Thanksgiving and Christmas

Not to sound critical, but the British really don't understand Thanksgiving. It's kind of funny. Some people think that we are celebrating our triumph over the Native Americans, and others think that we are celebrating our high obesity rate. I think that if they had a chance to come to Thanksgiving with my family they would understand.

I went to a Thanksgiving dinner at one of the halls at Oxford, and it just wasn't the same. The evening started out with champagne and servers walking around the room offering hors d'oeuvres, which was funny enough. Before we went through the buffet, we were warned that "it's not like an American buffet where you just get to eat everything - make sure to only take the vegetarian entree if you signed up for it!" I think they were afraid we would eat too much. Fortunately, we got a good amount of food. We had turkey, ham, gravy, fried potatoes, brussel sprouts, cranberry sauce, dinner rolls, and pecan pie for dessert. I know that doesn't sound like very much by American Thanksgiving standards, but compared to my other meals here, I was grateful for the variety. It didn't feel very much like Thanksgiving without the family, but it was still nice. The best part of the evening was when two British guys thanked the Americans for allowing them to celebrate Thanksgiving with us by singing John Denver's "Country Roads." It was great.

Since Oxford term ends December 3rd, they start celebrating Christmas in Oxford the last week of November. The official beginning of the Christmas season was on Friday November 27 with the Oxford Christmas lighting. It reminded me a lot of Who-ville because there was a parade of thousands of kids with lanterns and some of the kids were playing in a marching band. The whole city was packed with people. There were food stands everywhere selling sausages and mince pies and other stuff, and there were also some carnival rides. Eventually, they counted down and lit up all the street decorations and the Oxford Christmas tree.

This week I finished my last essay of term which was a GREAT feeling. The rest of this week I will be playing in Christmas concerts and doing other festive stuff (as well as trying to find a summer internship...). On Friday, I am heading up to Scotland to visit some friends, which should be a lot of fun - I'm especially looking forward to my first ever Hannukuh party! I will be going with two of my friends from Oxford, and in the 10 days before I leave for Baltimore, we will be seeing Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Dublin!