Early Thanksgiving

Brian's Etsy Shop 

Academia: One of the very best parts of my job is the opportunity to introduce our students to American holidays. I love wearing green on St. Patrick's Day, putting on a pirate hat for Halloween, and handing out candy on Valentine's Day, but my very favorite holiday tradition at work is our annual Thanksgiving potluck, which was held on Friday evening.

Here are the reasons I love the Thanksgiving potluck:

1. Sooooo much good food. One of our teachers takes the afternoon off to cook the turkeys for us, which are always delicious, and our students all bring food from their countries. And since our students all have different cultural norms when it comes to punctuality, we get new dishes continually for the first two hours of the dinner.
2. It's like eating with a really, really big extended family. Our students are all far from home, and they turn to each other to provide the sense of family they miss from the very beginning of the semester. By the time we get to the Thanksgiving dinner, students from different countries are taking pictures with their arms around each other, trying food from each other's countries, and learning words in each other's languages. Being around that kind of camaraderie would make anyone feel good. The food is really just a bonus.

Sartorial: We had a short-lived cool spell on Friday and Saturday (by which I mean it wasn't 80 degrees), which was perfect for an early Thanksgiving. This shirt over a bulky skirt probably wasn't the best choice for disguising the food baby I left the potluck with, but I was warm and I had a belly full of turkey, so honestly I don't think there was much to complain about.