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somebodyisfromhere.com
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The destination destination.
An Expat on Thanksgiving.
<<< To this point in his life Somebodyisfromhere.com has been on Earth for 25
Thanksgivings. He has spent 24 Stateside with his family. For the most part, these
festivities improve with both maturity and additions to the family. Like a mob hit
proving one's worth to the organization, holidays initiate girlfriends, fiancés, and wives
to the family. All have performed admirably.
It's with that reasoning that Somebodyisfromhere.com likes holidays. His immediate
family all started in one place but have calculatedly spread like a cancer throughout
the Northeast (and whatever Washington DC is). In other words, holidays are
something to be counted on.
But like tasting eel, spending a holiday, an American holiday, abroad is something
that should be done once, if only once.
Thanksgivings. He has spent 24 Stateside with his family. For the most part, these
festivities improve with both maturity and additions to the family. Like a mob hit
proving one's worth to the organization, holidays initiate girlfriends, fiancés, and wives
to the family. All have performed admirably.
It's with that reasoning that Somebodyisfromhere.com likes holidays. His immediate
family all started in one place but have calculatedly spread like a cancer throughout
the Northeast (and whatever Washington DC is). In other words, holidays are
something to be counted on.
But like tasting eel, spending a holiday, an American holiday, abroad is something
that should be done once, if only once.
In 2003 Somebodisfromhere.com lived in London with several friends for a few months. Being American, he and the
others recognized the importance of what was just another Thursday to the locals. The meaning of the holiday perhaps
lost, but the collective inner-clocks suggesting it was time to do something.
This, Somebodyisfromhere.com is glad to know, is not an isolated case. He recently (just now!) typed "Thanksgiving in
London" into Google and received a variety of options. For example, this past Sunday, for 21 pounds you could have
celebrated the 6th annual party on the Queen Mary with over 700 people who are, by varying degrees, American.
Somebodyisfromhere.com wasn't this well organized. Heck he couldn't even find a place with an appropriate bird to serve.
So he and three friends ate Italian on Marylebone High Street in London.
In the US, Thanksgiving is an ordeal...which is good. It's football (high school and pro). It's parades. It's stuffing. It's tukey.
And, god yes, it's pumpkin pie.
Spending the holiday abroad, even a west leaning metropolitan city that speaks the same language as you do, it's
something different. It's a secret. Not the kind of secret of which to be ashamed. It's just yours. The reason for the smile
on your face.
Though, the holiday might not have been spent with blood relatives. After all, there was American-Italian and
American-German blood flowing across the table from Somebodyisfromhere.com's Irish. To spend time with them though,
eating Italian, in London, they were family (you know, like the Olive Garden Commercial).
Still, Somebodyisfromhere.com is glad to be in New Jersey this year.
others recognized the importance of what was just another Thursday to the locals. The meaning of the holiday perhaps
lost, but the collective inner-clocks suggesting it was time to do something.
This, Somebodyisfromhere.com is glad to know, is not an isolated case. He recently (just now!) typed "Thanksgiving in
London" into Google and received a variety of options. For example, this past Sunday, for 21 pounds you could have
celebrated the 6th annual party on the Queen Mary with over 700 people who are, by varying degrees, American.
Somebodyisfromhere.com wasn't this well organized. Heck he couldn't even find a place with an appropriate bird to serve.
So he and three friends ate Italian on Marylebone High Street in London.
In the US, Thanksgiving is an ordeal...which is good. It's football (high school and pro). It's parades. It's stuffing. It's tukey.
And, god yes, it's pumpkin pie.
Spending the holiday abroad, even a west leaning metropolitan city that speaks the same language as you do, it's
something different. It's a secret. Not the kind of secret of which to be ashamed. It's just yours. The reason for the smile
on your face.
Though, the holiday might not have been spent with blood relatives. After all, there was American-Italian and
American-German blood flowing across the table from Somebodyisfromhere.com's Irish. To spend time with them though,
eating Italian, in London, they were family (you know, like the Olive Garden Commercial).
Still, Somebodyisfromhere.com is glad to be in New Jersey this year.
| With new content weekly, Somebodyisfromhere.com takes a look at travel albeit from the perspective of somebody who probably watched a little too much TV as a kid (or yesterday). The site doubles as a venue in which you can share stories or pictures from your vacations because, let's face it, your friends are sick of hearing about it. |
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