Thanksgiving was a bit different for me this year. It was the first time I had ever spent the holiday away from my family. It was also the first time I went to classes on Thanksgiving which is cool. It's probably something I will never need/get to do again. My cousin came to visit from Ireland with his girlfriend, Clara. She is from France so she experienced her first Thanksgiving with us. It was nice having a small part of my family with me for the day. I also really enjoyed spending the day with my new family here in Perugia.

I was so proud of everyone for putting together an entire Thanksgiving meal. It was a little untraditional (for example, we didn't have an oven or a pan big enough to cook a turkey, so we had pork instead) but it was all delicious. There were 15 of us that ate dinner together and everyone contributed something to the meal. It was a long day of cooking but it was so much fun! While we ate, we went around the table and said things that we were thankful for. That was really nice because it is something that I usually do with my family at home.

It was really interesting to hear everyone's thoughts and interpretations of this day. Most of the thankfulness centered around studying abroad and how it has changed our lives in some way. It was a bittersweet moment because I missed my family so much, but I also knew that in just a few weeks I would be home with them and missing my friends from Europe. I am really glad that I got the chance to experience a Thanksgiving with a new type of family. The people that have surrounded me for the past 3 months have truly become part of my extended family. What better way to make that official than to experience a major holiday with them.

Another surreal part about the day was celebrating it among all the Europeans that may not have even realized how important the day was for Americans. While preparing to cook, we kept getting nervous that we had forgotten to buy some sort of ingredients, or that we wouldn't have enough food. We kept realizing, however, that everything is still open for regular business in Italy on Thanksgiving. It broadened my interpretations of how cultures differ from one another. I really enjoyed experiencing this holiday abroad. I hope that at some point in my life I have the chance to experience something similar again.