An International Thanksgiving

As my cousin Erik once said, "Some people die and go to Heaven.  But when someone in our family dies, they go to Thanksgiving."  I am pretty sure Erik was right about this.  

For the past 28 years, I have spent every Thanksgiving with my huge and wonderful family.  Thanksgiving and the Wednesday before it are hands-down, my absolute favorite days of the entire calendar year.  The Wednesday before is a highlight because I always spend it at Aunt Connie's house helping prepare the feast with my cousin Cindy.  When my grandmother was alive she used to orchestrate the whole thing and I have memories of her sitting at the table directing each of us while carefully picking the meat off of the turkey neck and adding it to the stuffing.  When she thought no one was looking, she would sneak little bites for herself.  She used to chop the celery with a tiny paring knife into the most precise little cubes.  Now Grandma watches over the process as Aunt Connie commands the kitchen with admirable efficiency and grace.   And Wednesday would not be complete without the legitimate fear of a pressure cooker explosion sure to splatter turkey giblets all over the kitchen.

Last Thanksgiving went down in history as the best day of my life because just before the meal, in front of 39 members of my family as well as Fritz's parents and brother, Fritz got down on one knee and asked me to marry him.  

Obviously Fritz and I are together in Germany this year, where Thursday, November 26th will be no  more significant to the locals than Thursday, November 19th.  We knew one of the sacrifices of this adventure in Germany was going to be missing American Thanksgiving, and I knew it would likely be one of the hardest parts about being away.  I'm not usually one to get homesick.  I love my home and I love my family more than I have words to express, but I tend to focus my energy on the cool things I am seeing and doing rather than the things I am missing.  But every time I thought about missing Thanksgiving, a little knot got all caught up in my throat.  

We decided the best thing to do was turn Thanksgiving into an opportunity to share our favorite holiday with the people who have mattered to us here in Germany.  So, please read as I outline...

30 Simple Steps to Pull Off an American Thanksgiving in Germany!

Step 1: 

Invite all of your friends.  For us, this means Mikko (our Finnish AirBnB buddy and housing savior) as well as Johanna, Frederic, and Carl (our three favorite German grad student pals).  

Step 2: 

Two weeks before Thanksgiving, reserve a turkey at the public market where the best poultry vendor in Frankfurt has a shop.  When I went, I was prepared with the German word for turkey, Truthahn, but you should also know how to convert kilos to pounds quickly so you don't end up with a turkey that looks like it ate another turkey.  I was not ready with the kilo-to-pounds conversion and got nervous when the turkey lady started throwing out numbers so I quickly settled on the first number she said.  8 kilos.  Great.

Well, maybe not so great.  For those of you not familiar with the metric system, 8 kilos is nearly 18 pounds!  Oh and I forgot to mention, one of our Thanksgiving guests is a vegetarian.  This means over 3 pounds of Truthahn per person!  

Step 3: 

Acquire the proper cookware.  Our little apartment came equipt with the basics, but certainly not enough to pull off a Thanksgiving feast.  Mikko and Johanna came to our rescue, each lending several casserole dishes and baking pans!

Step 4:

Create a Thanksgiving Menu.  Here's mine:  

Appetizers

Assorted Cheeses 

Bread

Crackers

Grapes

Main Course

Turkey (duh)

Gravy

Mashed Potatoes 

Grandma's Sausage Stuffing

Kale Sauteed with Bacon and Onions

Savory Roasted Sweet Potatoes 

Beet and Arugula Salad

Desert

Pumpkin Pie

Apple Crumble Pie

Step 5:

One or two days before Thanksgiving, go to the grocery store so you can buy all the stuff you need for this rather ambitious menu.  For the stuffing, I got 4 mini bags of "Breakfast Butter Bread," which looked a lot like plain white bread to me.  They don't make Wonderbread in Germany in case you were wondering.  Finding the right sausage for the stuffing was interesting because the Germans have like 103 different kinds of sausage.  In the US you just get the uncased pork sausage.  There's like one option and that's it.  Hopefully, I picked the right one.  Basic veggies are the same really. There are plenty of potatoes in Germany so that wasn't a problem.  But then I started to hit some road blocks.  

Step 6:

Change your menu based on what is available in the German grocery store.  I learned that Germans don't do pie.  They don't even have a word for pie!  They don't sell pie crust in the store and good luck finding those cans of pumpkin goop that you use to make the pumpkin pie.  Clearly I had to rethink the dessert plan.  Apple Crisp became a viable substitution, although they don't really have brown sugar for the crumbs.  More like raw cane sugar that is a brown color.  I didn't think that will matter too much though.  You mix it with flour and butter and no one is going to complain.  I also could not find anything that resembled poultry seasoning, so a combination of Salbei and Thymian (that's sage and thyme) would have to do.

Great.  Now you have everything.  Go to the checkout counter and pay for all this stuff.

Step 7:

Awkwardly walk down the street with four giant bags of groceries to get to your apartment building which is 5 blocks away.  Once you get there, fumble for your keys and unlock the door without dropping any of your bags.  Remember, there are eggs in there.  Now climb the 80 (yes 80) steps to your top floor apartment.  

Step 8:

Drink a glass of water, because those steps were a workout!

Step 9: 

Unpacked your groceries and set up your Bread Staler.  It was quite fortuitous that our apartment came with its very own Bread Staler.  The annual problem we have at Aunt Connie's is that the bread is never stale enough to make the stuffing. We often end up toasting it in the oven to dry it out at the last minute, but this year, all my staling problems were solved. 

Ta-da!  Ok so it's actually a clothes drying rack, but it doubles really well as a bread staler, don't you think?  

Step 10: 

Go pick up the turkey.  When I got to the market, I explained that I had reserved a bird 2 weeks ago.  As soon as I said my name the German lady just started yelling at me!  She kept waving the paper I had written my name and phone number on saying in broken English that she had been calling me and calling me all morning.  Apparently my number was incorrect.  Oops!  She was calling because the turkey ended up being only 6 kilos instead of 8.  I couldn't have been happier about that.  6 kilos is closer to 14 pounds which is much more reasonable for 5 people to share.  But the turkey lady was really quite upset about the whole thing.  

Step 11: 

Apologize to the turkey lady for giving her the wrong phone number.  Luckily we were able to put that foul matter behind us and ended the turkey exchange on a very positive note.  I even bought some extra chicken broth to brighten her up a bit. 

Step 12:

Realize that there is no stinkin' way this 6-kilo turkey is going to fit in any baking pan you have at home.  

Step 13:

Go hunting for a proper roasting pan.  In my case, it didn't make sense to go all the way back home to deposit the bird, so my turkey and I went trotting all over Frankfurt in search for a pan.  After 3 different stores and no luck, I finally asked a mommish-looking lady if she had any idea where I could buy a pan.  This was a bit of an experience because she didn't speak very much English.  Here I was in the middle of a store basically playing Charades with a stranger as I gesticulated putting an invisible roast pan into an imaginary oven.  Remind me never to put this lady on my Charades team because despite my very good acting, she just wasn't getting it.  Finally, I gave up and pulled my dead turkey out of the bag to show her what I was talking about.  Breakthrough!  She knew what I needed, but she had no idea where to buy a roasting pan.  But now she was on a mission to help me.  She hunted down a second lady and explained my situation to her in German.  The second lady knew where I could go, but also did not speak any English.  She found a man, explained the situation to him and he basically just pointed out the window to a department store down the street.  Then both ladies passed my phone back and forth typing in suggested brand names for good roasting pans.  Teamwork makes the dream work people.

Step 14:

Go get that roasting pan!  I rode the escalator with my turkey in tow up to the 5th floor of the department store where I secured a sizable roasting pan.  It even came with a free spatula.  Joy!  Time to go home and start cooking. 

Step 15:

Realize that you live in Germany and you have a tiny kitchen and a German refrigerator which is like half the size of an American fridge.  The turkey basically occupied 50% of the available fridge real-estate.  Serious strategizing is the only way to pull off this meal.  Usually at Aunt Connie's, we cook one turkey, make the stuffing and the potatoes all on the day before Thanksgiving.  I was planning on doing this too, but then I remembered Aunt Connie has two American-sized refrigerators and an entire porch to keep things cold.  She also has a big enough oven to warm multiple dishes at once the day of Thanksgiving.  Our oven can barely accommodate our turkey never mind multiple casserole dishes.  

Step 16: 

Figure out what you can cook in advance.  To make this determination, you must consider things that will not need to be refrigerated or will occupy only a very small portion of the fridge.  I decided I could do the apple crisp and make the stock for the gravy.  

Step 17:

Make the stock.  This is what will later be used for the gravy and the stuffing.  At Aunt Connie's, we make the stock by putting all the giblets in the pressure cooker with celery and onions and a little water.  Well, when I reached into my turkey's fanny in search of the giblets, the only thing waiting for me was the turkey's neck!  I guess the Germans don't like turkey liver pate.  Also, I didn't have a pressure cooker.  Slow cooking the stock this year.   

Step 18:

Since you really can't cook anything else tonight, clean your house so it looks pretty for your guests.  

Step 19:

Go to sleep.

Step 20:

Wake up!  It's Thanksgiving!  There is a lot of stuff to do!  Luckily, no one cares about Thanksgiving in Germany, which means no one has off from work, which means none of our guest will be arriving until at least 7pm, which means plenty of time for cooking.  What  luxury!

Step 21:

Start the day off right with a Turkish Döner.  They are made with chicken but the whole "Turkish" thing seemed appropriate on Turkey-Day.  

Step 22: 

Go back to the grocery store to buy all the stuff you forgot the day before.  

Step 23: 

Prepare your bird for roasting.  

If it's your first time cooking a turkey, you might want to consult Aunt Connie and Fritz's dad for tips that the internet doesn't provide.  My favorite new trick is to cut carrots in half longways and lay them on the bottom of the roasting pan.  That way the turkey can perch on top of them allowing air and juices to flow underneath.  The carrots also prevent the turkey from getting totally stuck to the bottom of the pan.  Thanks for that trick Mr. B!  Also, do American turkey's usually come with all the feathers fully plucked?  Because I definitely had to do some extra plucking on my German guy.  

Step 24: 

Put the turkey in the oven and set the timer for 3 hours (if you have a 6-kilo bird).  Every 45 minutes you are going to have to drizzle the turkey with its own juices so set a second timer for that.    

Step 25: 

Ask Fritz to brown the sausage for the stuffing.

Step 26:

Ask your cousin Cindy to scanned pages from Aunt Connie's Thanksgiving Bible associated with Grandma's Sausage Stuffing recipe.  I will treasure this recipe for as long as I live!  Definitely my absolute favorite dish of the Thanksgiving meal.  You are going to have to get your hands dirty when you make it so just suck it up.  It's going to taste great!

Step 27: 

Ask Fritz to peel all of the potatoes with the poor-excuse-for-a-peeler that came with your tiny kitchen apartment.  Sorry about that Fritz, but you sure look good peeling those spuds!

Step 28:

Use a meat thermometer to determine when the Turkey is done.  Since you are in Germany, you want the meat thermometer to say at least 73.89 degrees Celcius.  Take the tin foil off the turkey at the end so his little turkey skin can get all crispy.  

Browned to perfection!  Well done.  

Step 29: 

While waiting for  your guests to arrive, cue up the football game.  For some, Thanksgiving means food with family and friends.  But for others, Thanksgiving means food with FOOTBALL!  In Germany, the games start a lot later since we are 6 hours ahead of the East Coast.  

Step 30:

Open the door when your friends arrive!  You did it!  Now it's time to enjoy the feast!

By 8:15pm we each went down the buffet and filled our plates! 

We sat down and I had every intention of explaining the origins and meaning of Thanksgiving.  I was going to go into the Pilgrims and Indians and blah blah blah.  I started off strong thanking everyone for coming.  I told them that Thanksgiving was my absolute favorite holiday and that this is the first time I was not celebrating it with my family.  I tried to express how thankful Fritz and I both were to be sharing our traditions with our new friends, but I just got all blubbery and my eyes started leaking all over the place.  Gosh, how embarrassing!  I guess I'm just not cut out for making sentimental speeches.  Especially when I am missing my family.  I ended my toast with a "Happy Thanksgiving," we clinked our glasses and dove in!  

I have to say, we might have been eating a German bird a million miles from Aunt Connie and Uncle Doug's house, but it sure tasted just like home!  And I think our friends had fun too! 

Here is the whole gang as the tryptophan was starting to settle in.  Everyone stayed and chatted for a while.  Johanna brought the most amazing chocolate mousse for desert.  Unfortunately the party had to end because unlike in the US, everyone here had to wake up for work the following morning.  Well.... almost everyone.  

The night ended and the next day began with two super fans glued to the Green Bay Packers game.  Fritz and Carl watched football allllll night long, saying their goodbyes at 6am after a heartbreaking loss.  Now that is commitment! 

Aside from the Packers sad defeat, I'd say Fritz and I had a pretty successful German Thanksgiving!  Thank you to our friends who came to share it with us!  And thank you to our families who taught us this beautiful tradition and gave us so much to be grateful for!

The Jewish Cemetery and The End of Warsaw

On our last full day in Warsaw, Fritz and I got up and checked the weather.  You wouldn't believe the predicted forecast... that's right, cold and dreary.  Ah, something new.  Instead of trying to fight the weather, we decided to match it with our itinerary for the day.  

The Jewish Cemetery was established in 1806 and is one of the largest Jewish cemeteries in the world.  Although nearly all of Warsaw was demolished during WWII, the Cemetery remained mostly untouched.  

The Cemetery was overgrown with trees bursting through the middle of the graveyard.  Tangled roots caused gravestones to tip out of alignment.  At one point, Fritz commented that the lines of headstones looked like they were in need of an orthodontist in many places. 

Some of the graves had small rock piles left by visitors. 

 A memorial for all the children who were killed in World War II left visitors weeping. 

Grandma Masha had twenty grandchildren 

Grandma Hana had eleven

only I survived

~Jack Eisner

The Little Smuggler

Through a hole, through a crack or a cranny

Starving yet stubborn and canny

Sneaky and speedy like a cat

I daily risk my youthful neck

And if fate will turn against me 

In that game of life and bread

Do not weep for me mother; do not cry

Are we not all marked to die?

Only one worry besets me

Lying in agony; so nearly dead

Who'll care for you tomorrow

Who'll bring you, dear Mom, a slice of bread

~Henryka Lazowert

Ghetto Warsaw 1941

We left the Cemetery and headed down the street to the Warsaw Uprising Museum.  

The museum commemorates the Warsaw Uprising of 1944 when the Polish Resistance Home Army fought against Nazi forces for 63 days with little outside support.  The Home Army planned their attack as the Soviet Union's Red Army was approaching from the West.  The Home Army was counting on aid from the Red Army, but instead of helping as the Germans were retreating, the Soviet's stopped short of the city allowing the Germans to regroup and defeat the Polish resistance.  It was the largest single military effort taken by any European resistance movement during WWII.  

We concluded our last day in Warsaw by heading to the "hipster" part of town for dinner.  Having skipped lunch, we were nearly starving by 4:30.  I suspect this place is a pretty happenin' spot, but the cool kids don't usually show up for the Early Bird Special on a Friday night.  Fritz and I basically had the place to ourselves.   Mmmmm hipster burgers with a side of micro-greens or whatever they put in the baby food jar!

Warsaw and Jacob

One of Fritz's Warsaw accomplishments was meeting Jacob (you pronounce it Yah-cobe since it's Polish), a 6-foot-5 Polish guy who recently finished his master's in English Philology.  He's an expert on Steven King novels, which was the topic of his master's thesis.  In addition to being extremely well-read when it comes to classic American literature (and Steven King thrillers), he hopes to publish the Polish translation of Nathanial Hawthorn's last untranslated novel.  

We met Jacob for dinner and found him to be one of the most earnest and focused people imaginable.  While Fritz and I were trying to small talk him at the start of dinner, he wanted to jump right into the meat and potatoes of Fritz's project.  Fritz and Jacob were connected because Fritz needed a Polish speaker to help him search through Polish financial archives and then translate them to support his research on communist debt during the Cold War.  Not quite as exciting as The Shinning but Jacob seemed totally motivated to go right to work on the project.  

Fritz and Jacob spent 3 hours together on Thursday morning searching for resources that might be relevant to Fritz's topic.  

I joined the two of them for a morning coffee, but skipped out for more walking and exploring while the weather was nice.  

The Palace of Culture and Science is pictured on the left.  

I made my way back to Old Town since the rain kinda put a damper on my sightseeing experience the day before. 

Can you see me?  I'm over on the right side of the picture. 

You can tell this area is meant just for tourists based on the average "uniform".  When they think no one is looking, the Polish royals take calls on their smartphones. 

No city is complete without its very own Pigeon Man!

Pictured above is the famous mermaid statue.  It's in the central square of Old Town.  When we asked Jacob what kind of traditional Polish gifts we should bring back for our families, he suggested a miniature of the mermaid statue.  Sadly, we never made it back to the souvenir shop to pick one up.  Sorry family, we did not get any of you a Warsaw mermaid paperweight. 

I took this picture because as Fritz pointed out, "the average car driven on the streets of Warsaw, is far nicer than the city itself."  Though I have to say, I think many of the pictures I took capture some rather lovely parts of the city. 

We Saw Warsaw!

Being from the USA really is awesome most of the time, but for many Americans, it can mean a deficit in geographical awareness.  I realize some of us have more than a vague sense of what Europe looks like, and I'm not trying to out anyone, so for everyone's benefit, here is a map of Central Europe so we can all be more informed Americans.  

My geographically-informed fiance brought me to Warsaw, Poland last week.  While he presented at a Cold War conference and did some additional research in the Polish archives, I did what I do best... aimlessly wander around a city.  

I have begun to realize how much I seriously LOVE walking around a novel city.  Skip the subway, pass on the metro, forget the cab.  Walking is the only real way to take in the true rhythm and unique energy of a new place.  I have to say, Warsaw is not exactly beautiful.  It is also highly possible that we got the worst weather week imaginable.  It was cold, dreary, windy and rainy.  But I wasn't going to let some gray skies stop me from learning Warsaw as best I could. 

I also really think that Nike should consider sponsoring me.  I bought a pair of Nike sneakers the first  week we arrived in Germany.  I got them because I had a feeling I was going to be doing a lot of walking and I didn't want to wear my good running shoes all the time.  I figured I'd treat myself to some "fashion" sneakers to rock the streets of Europe.  Pinterest, as well as some initial observations of the German sneaker fashion, indicated that black Nikes were all the rage, so that's what I got.  I have no idea how many miles I have covered since my purchase, but it is definitely a lot! And I predict there will be many more to come.  I've started to brainstorm some advertising slogans for Nike.  Simple things like "Just do it."  There's definitely money to be made with that one.  Or like, "Nike.  For when you're ready to step outside of the gym."  Or maybe, "Nike. Expanding your comfort zone."  I like that last one.  And then, of course, there would be a sweet picture of my feet in my slick Nikes walking up the steps of some awesome European monument.  I just think there is a big marketing potential here that I'd be happy to help them with.  So Nike, if you are reading this, feel free to contact me.  

Ok.  Back to Warsaw.  The first morning it was actually pouring rain outside, so I wrote for a while in a coffee shop until the sky stopped spitting so much.  I'll tell you one thing, if I thought German sounded funny, Polish is even more foreign to me.  There are some frequently used sounds in Polish that when incorporated into a coffee shop din result in a distinct buzzing sound.  "Zzzz djjjjch shhhh chzzzzz chdddjjjj zzzddjjjj."  It sounds kinda like that.  I wonder what a non-English speaking Polish person would think of the din in an English-speaking cafe?

The rain stopped after lunch and I went into city-walker-exploration mode.   I mentioned that Warsaw is not the most beautiful city, and there is an important and unfortunate reason for that.  During World War II, the Nazis basically obliterated the entire city.  It was their intention to wipe Warsaw off the map.  After the war, the communist government rebuilt much of the city and the architecture reflects this.  There is one section of the city called Old Town that was built to look like it would have before the city was destroyed.  It's really just a tourist attraction, but still nice to walk around. 

My first destination was a pretty church down the street from where I had eaten lunch with Fritz before he returned to his conference.  After some heavy reflection on the Paris attacks and the current state of our world, I thought some private meditation in a church might yeild some peace of mind.  It was about 2:30pm on a Monday so I wasn't expecting a service to be taking place, but when I stepped into the sanctuary, the pews were packed with people led in worship.  I assumed a seat in the last row and followed along as the congregation stood and sat and sang.  I didn't understand anything being said as the service was entirely in Polish, but growing up in a Lutheran church with a fairly traditional liturgy made it easy to understand the structure of the service even if I didn't know which Bible verses were being read.  I listened as the Lord's Prayer was sung in Polish and when it came time to share the peace, I realized how little language really matters.  Peace is something that you share with your heart, not your words. 

Palace of Culture and Science

The Palace of Culture and Science is a massive building in the middle of Warsaw.  It was built in 1955 and is the tallest building in all of Poland.  I used it as a point of reference for all of my city wanderings.  I didn't go in it, but as the sun set on our first day in the city, the Palace was lookin' pretty in purple.  

The second day in Warsaw was also a cold and dreary one.  The weather forecast indicated that the rain wasn't supposed to start until 2pm, which gave me at least 4 hours to get to Old Town and explore for a while.  I was coming from the city center with Old Town to the north along the river, so it was a little less than a 2-mile walk.  On my way, I took pictures to capture the world around me. 

I learned that Warsaw is really big on sculptures.  They are all over the city.  I stopped taking pictures of them after a while, but I like the one of Copernicus.  

I was only a few blocks away from Old Town when I felt the first rain drops.  It was only 12:30, but I guess the rain was going to come early.  Naturally, I did NOT have an umbrella.  In a matter of minutes, the sky got dark and it went from a light drizzle to pouring rain.  

I ducked into the nearest pierogi restaurant where I decided to wait out the storm over a lunch of the local cuizine.  

Now I admittedly have never looked at the nutrition facts for pierogis, but if you know anything about the ingredients, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to conclude that a plate of pierogis is probably not the healthiest meal.  Which is why the menu totally cracked me up!  This place was trying so hard to sell you on the nutritional benefits of their pierogis.  

"...Source of potassium, calcium and vitamin C.  Helps keep the proper heart rhythm.  Russian-style dumplings are recommended for lovers."

For lovers?  Are you trying to tell me pierogis are a lesser known aphrodisiac?  I'm learning so much on this European adventure!

Hello heart-rhythm-helper pierogis.  Are those bacon bits I see? Why yes, indeed they are.  The secret to all healthy hearts. 

By the time I was done with lunch, the rain had settled back down to a drizzle, so I bought an umbrella for 30 zloties, the Polish currency, and headed for Old Town.  

The streets were pretty deserted with the exception of a few head-strong tourists who were determined to see the sights in rain or shine.  

It didn't take me long to realize it wasn't very fun to walk around in the cold rain.  My shoes were sopping wet from stepping in unavoidable puddles.  Additionally, the wind had picked up, which meant that I spent more time battling with my new umbrella than actually using it to stay dry. 

I did witness several umbrella-walker accidents.  In an attempt to block the rain that was flying in sideways, people were holding their umbrellas in front of their faces, completely obstructing their view.  I tried not to laugh too hard as people buried behind umbrellas collided straight into one another.