My Thanksgiving (and Saturday, too)

It is rare that I write these posts prior to typing and posting them.  Presently (at the time of writing, not typing), I am on an elektrichka (an uncomfortable commuter train) making my way home from Kyiv.  It's about 4:15 PM and it is already mostly dark.  There is nothing I'd like to do right now but sleep, but I've lost my talent for sleeping on bumpy, abrupt rides; woe is me.

You may ask about my motivations for a day trip to Kyiv.  Quite simply, I wanted to go to T.G.I. Friday's.  Not only did I want to, I did go!  I had a Jack Daniel's Burger.  This was a large meat patty topped with cheese and bacon.  Lettuce sat underneath the burger, and there was a bit of Jack Daniel's barbeque sauce served on the side.  To say this was delicious would be an understatement.  This phenomenal burger was served with all the western decadence the T.G.I. Friday's brand name implies.  For such a large burger, I must have finished it in record time.  Not only did I finish the burger, I did everything short of lick the plate to capitalize on all that delicious sauce.  After such a meal, I may not be able to eat for the next couple of days . . . a Toby Keith song comes to mind; it's unfortunate, but I'm not as good as I once was.

It is Saturday today, and I'm pretty sure I will post this tonight, but I"m not positive.  While at Friday's I was shamed by the cover story of Kyiv Post, the English-language newspaper of Kyiv.  My burger cost 91 UAH.  Converted that sum is equal to about $11.50.  I will post a link to the cover story here:  "Living on 30 Hryvnias [Ukrainian currency] A Day."  The article discussed the Ukrainian national minimum wage which is currently 907 UAH.  Five people were chosen as volunteers to try to live for one month on the minimum wage.  It was almost impossible for them.  Only 1 out of the 5 volunteers completed the challenge.  Today I spent 4 times that 30 hryvnias per day amount on one meal, and transport to and from Kyiv.  While I am fully sated, this article has been a bit of a buzzkill.  Needless to say this isn't my proudest hour as a volunteer.  But, I'll just say it was a Thanksgiving present to myself.  For the record, it was 8 hours round trip for the T.G.I. Friday's trip, and I had no other business in Kyiv.

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In terms of Thanksgiving, I hope yours was wonderful.  Thanksgiving is a much different holiday when far from home.  A lot of the joy is taken, but the importance of the day is by no means cheapened.  Some things for which to give thanks have become even more apparent to me.  I hope I am home for next Thanksgiving, but it was intriguing to celebrate the holiday away from home.

On Monday in English club we read, translated and sang “Over the River and Through the Woods.”  We made hand-turkeys, fattening them up by naming Thanksgiving foods.  As no turkey would be complete without the stuffing, we stuffed the turkeys with things that we are thankful for.  This was followed by a pretty basic rendition of the story of the first Thanksgiving.  One of the things I was/am thankful for was/is my friend Yana for translating the story for me so I wouldn’t have to bumble through my broken Ukrainian.

Tuesday and Wednesday passed by pretty unremarkably, especially Tuesday, when I stayed up to follow the score of the PC – LaSalle game online.  I knew this would be a rebuilding year, but I didn’t expect Providence would be a scheduling, let alone losing to, a high school team (sorry A-10 fans, you know I can’t help these jabs).

That brings us to the day.  Thursday started off a bit rough.  While having my morning coffee I felt a sting of loneliness.  My heart and mind were both somewhere around the northern suburbs of Chicago.  This is the one holiday we generally spend with my dad’s side of the family.  Because I don’t get to see that side often, I really value the time we spend together.  But, around my final sip, I realized these were feelings and I stuffed them deep, deep down where they belong.

Peace Corps had granted us an unexpected holiday, but I elected not to use it, and went to school anyway.  I spent most of the day singing “Over the River and Through the Woods.”  The fourth formers were disappointed it wasn’t the “Hokey Pokey,” but they humored me and sang along; though I assume their thoughts weren’t on Grand Beach and football (of the American variety).

After school, it was time to start the celebration in earnest.  My site mate and I met to decide how to go about our Thanksgiving party.  The party was with our English club, and we actually had one of our best turn outs – 15 people.  During our meeting we decided on turkey (turkey breast, not a full turkey), gravy, mashed potatoes, and krabovyni salat (which is a salad with crab sticks, corn, cucumbers, potatoes, hard-boiled eggs, and of course the ubiquitous mayonaisse).  All of these things were homemade, as Mr. Quigley once said, “no instant mashed potatoes in the Meegan household.”  I must say, I have a lot more appreciation for the Thanksgiving meals I enjoyed when I was younger after having to prepare this small-scale affair.  The shopping took over an hour, which left us with about 3 hours to make the food.  Unfortunately, my site mate had meetings all afternoon, so the preparations, and cooking fell largely on me.

I’ll admit that I probably did not have the turkey cooked enough.  There was still a bit of pink inside, but it was tasty.  I have no experience seasoning meat, or cooking anything other than eggs, pasta, potatoes, and onions, so I was pretty proud of the result (when I say it was undercooked, it wasn’t raw, it was in the oven for almost three hours, it just wasn’t dried out enough, nobody got sick, that I know of).  In terms of seasoning, we used some mixed herbs, salt, black pepper, and paprika generously smeared over the buttered-up turkey skin.  I really enjoyed it, and, afterwards was actually gnawing on the turkey bone getting the last scraps, though I probably should not publicly admit this.

We failed to procure any apple cider, and that was a bit disappointing, hopefully I can find a way to make some in the near future.  But, we did have delicious fruit juices, none of which were homemade.  When we got to English club, some of our members had brought food, as well.  There was another batch of krabovyni salat, some chicken wings (very tasty), and a number of desserts.  My site mate gave a short presentation on Thanksgiving (though, this New Englander, and Roman Catholic would argue some of her historical facts), and we ate.

Following English club, an American friend came to visit.  We picked up some chips, and some beer, and came to my apartment.  We chose not to stop by a café because the Patriots and the Lions were playing.  Now, I was once a Barry Sanders fan, but that was because I liked Barry Sanders not the team he played for, and I think this was the first time I ever met a real live Lions fan.  I thought they no longer existed.  We turned the game on in the second quarter (streaming online) with Detroit leading.  During the game, I learned that I am thankful for Alphonso Smith.  I wish more teams had cornerbacks like that for Patriots to run around.  In Smith’s defense he did take responsibility for how poorly he played:  I just want to apologize to my teammates because they played so hard.  I feel as if I was the catalyst for this loss.  I also want to apologize to the this organization and the fans."  I’m not sure apologies are going to help Detroit very much, though.


After the game, I was able to talk to my family on Skype.  Usually, when I say my family it means my parents, or perhaps my brother or sister.  This time I got the whole bag:  aunts, uncles, cousins, parents, siblings, cousins' children.  It was a lot of fun.  A half hour on Skype, and it was one of the best half hours I have had since being in Ukraine.  Hearing from friends and family, especially those I haven't talked to in some time exponentially improves my mood.  So, if any in the Thanksgiving crowd read this, thank you for taking a few minutes to talk with the prodigal son, and humoring his self-imposed exile.

But, that's about all I know for now.  A reminder to my stateside friends:  don't forget to watch The November Christmas tonight at 9 on CBS.  This year's Hallmark Hall of Fame Presentation is based on a short story written by my uncle, Greg Coppa, and it is sure to be terrific.  If the film presentation is half as good as the short story you won't be disappointed.

Be good, and remember only 27 shopping days left until Christmas!

Pete