Ex-Pat Thanksgiving

Everyone has a favorite holiday and, for many Americans, Thanksgiving falls into that category. It is hard to be away from home and tradition when the season calls for togetherness. If you are abroad at Thanksgiving, there are many different ways to handle it that will dull the pangs of homesickness significantly.

The most common remedy is to recreate the Thanksgiving feast in your host country as best you can. Invite friends, new and old, to something resembling turkey, sides and pumpkin pie. You can even make it a pot luck and insist on weaving local holiday foods into the meal. This will relieve your burden of hosting.

Another option is to ignore the routine of Thanksgiving altogether and celebrate differently. Chances are, if you are living abroad for school or work, you will not have Thursday off so you could go out to a fancy restaurant you want to try or venture to a new neighborhood and try a new food.

If none of these present as appealing and all you really want to do is go home, but you can’t afford to actually this, get technology on your side. If you and your family are willing to deal with the glitches, you could Skype or FaceTime for Thanksgiving. You don’t even have to do a formal call during which everyone filters past. You can just put the cameras on and cook with your mom, talk or don’t talk, watch Grandma put way too much whipped cream on her pie and interject when you feel like it. It seems weird, but everyone will adjust and in a brave new world way, you will be home.