Thanksgiving in Ireland

This year, I was able to celebrate an American holiday abroad: Thanksgiving. I was unsure about how one would celebrate this holiday in a country other than in that of its birth. I was very well expecting to teach my students about it and have my first go at assembling something that I hoped would look and taste like pumpkin pie... but I had no idea that we would be invited for a full Thanksgiving feast! I also didn't know that my school would have the lounge decorated in American flags and have treats for all. I was touched to be able to share this holiday with so many others.

I successfully made a pumpkin pie although I very much feared that horrible things would happen to it. I don't even think that I have eaten pumpkin pie on more that 2 occasions in my life so I had no idea if I did it correctly. My first class students, however, absolutely loved the pie and were even very excited about the whipped cream I also brought. I wish I could have brought enough to make pie for all my classes, but I see 9 different teachers (although a few cater to the same students) throughout the week, so this might have been difficult to fit in my luggage. My lessons on Thanksgiving went very well. Information was shared, books were read, turkeys were drawn, thanks were given, and pie was consumed. All in all a very successful Irish Thanksgiving.

After school on Thursday, Maggie and I went to a local family's for dinner. They are also American and are here on a missionary trip. They have 3 daughters who were all wonderfully nice and we all celebrated together. They had made all of the Thanksgiving favourites! There was turkey (naturally), green bean casserole, yams, cranberries and rolls. It was delicious and friendly. We were even granted the great pleasure of watching the Packer game on Sky Sports as they ordered the channel for the night. The only way for it to have been more perfect was if we were able to catch the Macy's Parade. We did play Apples to Apples though, which I have sorely missed!

Thanksgiving was a great expereince, followed by a very relaxing (and, sadly, internet-less weekend) where I got many things accomplished. We spent a great deal of time with our host family as well, including attending their service on Sunday. They have their own church, which they have built so I was very interested to learn about another congregation.

I cannot believe there are less than 3 weeks left! So much teaching to do! So many places to see! I hope that I will share everything here with you!

Below are some pictures of my first class celebrating Thanksgiving:



More pumpkin pie enjoyment!


We made a chart talking about whether or not we all liked it and used it to talk of some mathematical concepts.
Drawing and cutting out all of those little pumpkins was a long but ultimately satisfying task!


This is rather unconnected with the theme of this post, but it is one more project that I worked on with my students. I also made the title that is placed in the centre, which took a great deal of time. Here 'tis: