foreign language: Our First Friendsgiving! by blogger of the month, Jixi He

Preparation!

The third Thursday of November 2014 is not Thanksgiving, neither in Canada nor in America. It is nevertheless the Thanksgiving for this group of people in Beer Sheva, Israel: the MSIH Class of 2018.

It wasn’t very realistic for us to get a turkey because in order to get one you would have to order 2 turkeys from Tel Aviv and someone would have to spend a whole day cooking it. So we decided to go with chickens instead, a brilliant alternative. There were garlic chicken, beer can chicken, and chicken drum sticks. It was a potluck dinner at our classmates’ apartment. I brought crackers and a bowl of pumpkin spice dip, which was described as “orgasmic” by a fellow classmate. But don’t get full on the crackers; there’s more to come!

Brian and Shauna playing Shesh Besh

I wish I had fasted before the dinner when I saw so much delicious food made by my talented classmates: 3 different types of chicken, sushi, Israeli couscous, spicy Indian dish, sweet potato with marsh mellows, pumpkin pie, gluten-free diary-free nut-free chocolate cake, apple pie, and more unlisted. I’ve never been in a class as small, close and intimate as this one where we treat each other like brothers and sisters, even without the sibling rivalry part. There are only 29 of us, small enough to put all of us in one apartment. We tend to each other’s needs like it’s our own—evidence shown as below: the massage train! Who doesn’t love a nice shoulder massage, especially when you can get one in return too?

The night ended with most of my classmates going to watch The Hunger Game. I’m thankful for this Thanksgiving. Even though we’re at a place away from home, we are spending it with our classmates that are just like family.