Celebrating Thanks-Giving Day with my friend and local Ambassador Natalie Moore is also one of the amazing cultural explorations during my stay in the United States. Thanks-Giving is a public holiday in the United States, in which families spend time together and enjoy a lot of food as thanksgiving dinner. I am so grateful to my friend for inviting me and providing me an opportunity to closely observe and enjoy the celebration.
A lot of delicious of food was cooked by my friend and her mother including Turkey, mash potatoes, sweet potatoes and others, the names of which I couldn’t pick up. After dinner, we had coffee, tea and desserts including different types of cakes. We watched football game, which my host family is very fond of. The football game here is different than the one played in Pakistan. I couldn’t stop myself asking my friend if there are any rules in playing the game. Of course, there are a lot but it was just new for me watching the players kicking each other and playing with hands.
Having different political opinions in the family, my friend was also concerned about her uncle who is a Trump supporter and they decided in advance not to talk about politics during the thanksgiving dinner. So, there was no political talk during the celebration. For me, it was quite interesting to see how much people care about politics in their personal lives.
We also played Names Game, in which each person is supposed to write someone’s name and one person can collect the names and list them. Then the entire players will guess who has written which name. It was fun and quite interesting and we played three times.
My friend has a lovely family; I had already met her mom and sister and had spent quality time together. I met her father for the first time. My friend and her family changed my assumption about the US family system. I witnessed the true love, respect, and care which strongly bond them together. I am so pleased and humbled to meet this wonderful family. I am grateful to the Atlas Corps and US State department for providing me this wonderful opportunity.