Thanksgiving in Taipei

Well, thanks to the unfortunate paradigm that interesting days leave no time to write about them--(I should really name that situation; any suggestions?)--this is going to have to be short.

Tonight, the Fulbrighters attended a Thanksgiving meal in Taipei hosted by the Director of the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT--basically the US embassy, except that we don't have diplomatic relations with ROC, so they can't call it that). It was a much smaller gathering than, for instance, our 10/10 celebration, but it was still located in a swanky, marble-and-grand-staircase loaded suite on the 10th floor of a magnificent building not far from Taipei 101. (Also, as I noticed, just down the road from the Taipei offices of such companies as Microsoft an 7-11--it's kind of a big deal!)

The food was AMAZING. They went all out to make us "feel like you're back home for Thanksgiving" (though I don't know about that, since I, for one, don't have massive glass chandeliers and cast-iron-and-marble staircases at home--or, for that matter, one of the best chefs in Taipei cooking and serving the turkey), and the food was stupendous: moist turkey topped with warm whole cranberry sauce and gravy, real Italian-style rolls (not sweetened or air-filled like much of the bread here), mashed potatoes which were more butter than potato (yumm!), and a whole menagerie of scrumptious side dishes which I won't go into here lest you drool on your keyboard.

And, to top it all off, they had real pumpkin pie--a dish absolutely unheard of here--as well as cheesecake, apple torte, and bread pudding. Given that my family always celebrates Thanksgiving (and every other holiday) with more desserts than we have people, this was the one portion of the buffet that felt just about right--if anything, they had not enough choices to match home.

But of course, the main thing that was missing was family, the true cornerstone of the holiday.

After dinner, our "Kaohsiung family" went to a hot pot restaurant to have a few drinks and chat with Alex, who won't be our boss for too much longer, much to our chagrin. Though the weather here has been much warmer than we were led to believe, I decided that, warmth or no warmth, I was going to break out my Seattle-weather clothes. It felt great to be in a trench coat and hat again, whether or not they were truly necessary. Anyway, we shared some good laughs at the restaurant, then headed back to our hotel, where I decided to take advantage of the marvelous jacuzzi bathtub (banishing all thoughts of the negative possibilities of actually using a hotel bathtub from my mind for the sheer pleasure of taking a bath in a cool room).

And that brings us up to now! All in all, it was a stupendous day--but one about which I can't write any more tonight.