Black Friday

Obviously, there is no "Black Friday" here. I mentioned it to my classes, but it's definitely not a thing, and that's okay with me--not something I miss too much while abroad. With a few exceptions.


I've never been one to take Black Friday too seriously in the States--I value my sleep too much for that--so for me it usually means getting out of bed around 5:30 or 6am, hitting Fred Meyer, Target and a smattering of other stores with my mom and cousins, then grabbing my first peppermint mocha of the season from Starbucks before heading over to IHOP for pumpkin pancakes.

So, really, it's just an extension of Thanksgiving, with the food as the highlight.

Which turned out to be a pro and a con so far as my "celebrating" it today went--no pumpkin pancakes or peppermint mochas to be had, but Starbucks does still exist--there's one not three blocks from my apartment--and they do still have holiday drinks. They're just different.

So today, I opted for a cranberry white mocha, which I'd seen them selling when I went on the field trip at Hanmin, and set off to order it. What I'd neglected to remember, though, is that even Starbucks is a foreign concept here. I went through the whole some Chinese-some pantomime-some English routine and eventually got my drink (which was delicious, though not as good as a peppermint mocha), but was reminded of yet another reason that I rarely patronize Starbucks here: the coffee isn't good enough to merit the embarrassment of not being able to competently order at the one place where I should (by college location and personal habits) be an expert at ordering.

In other, more exciting news of the holiday, I got to talk to my family twice today! This morning, over a cup of coffee, I got to watch as a parade of relatives passed behind the computer screen, their plates heaped with delicious-looking food, and this afternoon, with a turkey sandwich--tryptophan at last!--I got to talk to my parents, brothers, sister-in-law and one of my cousins. It was nice seeing inside my family room on the holiday, even if I couldn't be there in person or eat the turkey which my brother waved mockingly in front of the camera or the stuffing my mom told me she had too much of.


I'm already thinking to what time I will have to wake up at to partake in my family's Christmas...because YES, that's happening. They'll just have to move the computer into the living room...


But that's the thing about holidays done internationally: you have to be willing to improvise.