Thanksgiving

Kate's aunt and uncle live on Park Avenue, the playground of the upper class in New York, and it was at their place that I spent Thanksgiving. Their apartment, while charming, is not quite the palace one could find over on the East Side, but it was cosy enough, and considering it was raining outside, the presence of turkey, wine and good conversation inside made it very congenial indeed.

It was, I suppose, my first American Thanksgiving, since last year I and some other international students had had a dinner at Reto's place, with pork chops, pesto, couscous, and so on, in short none of the traditional fare. Moreover, none of those present were American, anyway, so as they say over here this one was kind of a do-over.

Now, Kate's uncle used to work for what he refers to as 'the Agency', spending some considerable amount of time in the Middle East and Afghanistan in particular. So, also present was Iman, the couple's sort-of Afghan 'godson', who had left at the time of the 'first jihad' and was now an American citizen, running a bagel cart on the East Side. Nice enough bloke; he didn't say much, and didn't drink anything, as you might expect. He did bring some fantastic Afghan flatbread, which I and others devoured.

I think David, Kate's uncle, actually quite likes me, which I know will disappoint those of you who have seen Meet the Parents and were expecting me to talk about undergoing a polygraph before I could sit down to turkey. We spent some time talking about East Asia and where it was going in the next few years; having spent some considerable time over there, he's fairly knowledgeable about Japan, and Anita, Kate's aunt, has co-authored a book on Chinese poetry, so they're both well aware of where I'm coming from. Made for some fascinating conversation; and in case you're wondering, no, I did not ask David whether he'd ever killed anyone, though given that he talked about having been 'in the field' in Afghanistan...

Anyway, the food was delicious and the wine plentiful. Much of the Thanksgiving fare is heavily carb-centric (potatoes, bread, etc) and this, more than any tryptophan or whatever in the turkey, was enough to make for a very lazy and drowsy evening back at Kate's place later in the day. I think we fell asleep watching Top Chef or something equally trashy on cable. It was a good day.

Oh, and in the spirit of the occasion, and providing a slightly more self-reflective note...things for which I'm thankful...

1) I get to do what I love for a living.
2) I get to live in one of the great cities of the world for the latter half of my 20s.
3) I have a great girlfriend and great friends, all over the world - yep, I'm talking to you, dear reader.

Compliments of the season to all of you.