Charlene’s explorations of a big, beautiful world

traveler: Turkey day redefined in London

November 26th, 2009

First Thanksgiving in London. Of course, they don’t celebrate Thanksgiving here, so it’s just another late November Thursday in London, with the sun setting at 4pm, workers gearing up to battle the commuting crowds on the tube, and me haunting a cafe with free wifi. I can’t seem to convince my body that it’s NOT a holiday though, as every fiber in my being seems to resist getting work done. Update my portfolio? Freshen up the CV? Work on a submission for one of the many contests ending next week? Indignation courses through me, from my foggy head and tired eyes to my slouching shoulders and heavy legs. But, but, today we should be indulging in an enormous meal of turkey, mashed potatoes and sweet potatoes, with family or friends, to be followed by vegging out in front of the TV under one of my mom’s blankets in her invariably chilly house!

I call my mom in New York, and she’s watching the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade on TV over a bowl of oatmeal. She is, as usual, cheerful and distracted. “Look! It’s the Hello Kitty balloon!” she says, “How cute — the head is so big and the body is so small.” She’s heading over to my aunt’s house in the afternoon for Thanksgiving dinner with my other aunt, uncle and cousins. Oh, and by the way, “I’m going to Nashville for Christmas! With my traveling friends.” Ever since she and my father divorced, she’s been on a traveling tear, encouraging her retired and semi-retired friends to join her on trips to the Mediterranean, South America, and now Nashville. Why Nashville? “You know, music and all that! And it will only be $400 for 5 nights!” ok… “Hey, do you have a British accent yet?” I struggle to keep my voice steady and tinged more with amusement than annoyance when I reply, “Does it *sound* like I have a British accent?”

I get off the phone with my mom, vaguely dissatisfied, like there had been contact made but no connection. I had just read another Chinese-American’s remembrance of Thanksgivings past, and I sympathized with his longing for a tradition that wasn’t even his, though most of my childhood Thanksgivings came with turkey. When my mother, father and I moved to Northern California, my mom threw herself into American traditions, complete with Christmas trees, turkey and mashed potatoes, and Valentine’s cards. In a way, she seemed the most eager to fit in of the three of us. I was busy alienating my new classmates by loudly proclaiming any chance I got how much better New York City was than California. My father, the absent-minded professor and occasionally absentee parent, was enthusiastically and obliviously alienating his colleagues in his own way.

I consider calling my father, but it’s too early — London is 8 hours ahead and the man doesn’t get out of bed before noon if he can help it. Instead, I hop on Facebook to play voyeur on other people’s Thanksgivings and find an unexpected connection: my cousin Eva in Albany, bracing herself for Thanksgiving dinner at her mom’s — where it’s not unheard of to not sit down for dinner until 11pm. There was a 10-year gap when we had virtually no contact, and now, how pleasant it is to find myself casually bantering with her over the oddities of our family. Perhaps I’m mistaking longing for connection with nostalgia, but I think I faintly remember the two of us being bored and entertaining each other at long-ago family gatherings, back when my grandmother was alive and we had family gatherings.

In any case, no turkey dinner for us this year, to be followed by no turkey congee for leftovers. I don’t recall what we had for dinner last Thanksgiving in northern Sweden, but it was probably sad and not so tasty. I meet up with RC at SPACE on Mare Street for a conversation between architect, artist and designer Usman Haque and author/city enthusiast Adam Greenfield. Slides of inspiring projects are shown, interesting points are raised about cities, technology and our interactions with the two, and we come away pondering the ways that both cities and technology serve to connect and alienate us. We also come away hungry, so we wander to the Turkish restaurant farther up Mare Street and have an unexpectedly delicious dinner of chargrilled kebabs: plain lamb for RC and lamb meatballs with aubergine for me. New tradition: Food from Turkey in lieu of turkey for Thanksgiving dinner.

Entry Filed under: Traveler, London, UK