Thanksgiving in Budapest

Thanksgiving is one of my favourite holidays (right behind Christmas), and not just because my family has often been known to celebrate it twice in a year. Especially since I went to college, Thanksgiving has been a wonderful 5 day reprieve from end-of-semester stresses, a brief cheer-up with my family before tackling the last few big academic things of the year.

This is the second year I haven’t spent Thanksgiving with my family, and it is still hard. Thanksgiving weekend is when my mum and I get to spend whole days working together in our tiny kitchen, chatting over half-finished stuffing and pie. It’s when my brother breaks out some of his secret culinary skills and his weird “I don’t need to cut my food” skills. In the days after turkey, we put up our Christmas tree and spend hours in the garage untangling decades-old lights that only half work. It is always good.

But, living on another continent makes going home for Thanksgiving a pretty impossible thing. So instead, I headed out to Hungary to visit my friend and long-time roommate Emily. And I have to say that although it was not my typical Thanksgiving weekend, it was pretty great. I got to spend time with one of my favourite ladies on the planet, doing all the ridiculous things we love to do and even some sightseeing. We baked pumpkin cookies in a nod to the traditional holiday food and then bucked tradition by spending the rest of the weekend eating salami, goose pate, and matzo ball soup. We drank delicious $1 wine – I know you’re sceptical but I swear it’s true!

Although it wasn’t in the usual way, all my usual Thanksgiving expectations were fulfilled. Obviously there was delicious food. There was great company – someone who knows me inside out and with whom there is a pattern to life. And boy, was there relaxation! Not only did Emily and I sleep in every day of my five-day stay, but we spent a whole day visiting one of the city’s famous bath houses as an early birthday treat for me. We even braved the freezing trek to the outside pools so that we could watch the sunset. At the end of the day, Thanksgiving is all about appreciating what you’ve got in life, and I think my trip to Budapest was a good reminder of this. I’m so lucky to have a great friend like Emily, and the opportunities for us to keep visiting now that we don’t live within steps of one another. I’m also very lucky that she is so thoughtful. And I’m lucky to have wonderful people in my life all over the world, from my family in Nevada sending me pictures of their Thanksgiving turkey to my new uni friends who are fun and have pulled me out of my introverted shell. I have so much to be thankful for, and I hope I never lose sight of how lucky I really am.