Finally...my post on Thanksgiving dinners!
    - Sunday, October 16, 2005

I've been meaning to post something about my two thanksgiving dinner but I was waiting for CK to pass me photos cos my camera battery died so he helped me take photos with his cam..So yup..here it goes...the first thanksgiving dinner..

On the 9th of October Sunday, I and CK left Victoria earlier so that we could go over to the Cottle's place to celebrate Thanksgiving. It was our first time celebrating it so we were really quite excited about it. We didn't really know what to expect and stuff so it was really quite an experience. The worst thing was we somehow got lost even though the instructions given were so clear...ha..I found out that even within the same area,a few avenues away, there could be houses with the same house numbers!We went up to the wrong house and a little cute girl opened the door and when we asked if this was the Cottles' place, she smiled the sweetest smile ever and said no..wow..haha..Luckily it was not an adult who opened the door man..So we had to call the host family again for directions and finally we did end up at the correct place.

There were about 20 people in the house comprising of the host family-the husband called Robin, his wife Margaret, their daughter Merna and Robin's mother Merva and some other relatives and friends. It was really a wonderful occasion to enjoy the food and each other's company. It was abit awkward at first because we did not know anyone but the people were really friendly and soon after, we were engaging in conversations. There were also 3 other international students from UBC at the dinner- Mani from Iran, David from Scotland and Nuria from Spain. A good mix of people from all over the world.

Now coming to the best part of the night..the food!There were appetizers follwed by the main course and then desserts. I never ate so much in my life man..ha..For appetizers, there were plain biscuits, of which I had to put some spread on it and the spread was so so good! It was actually cheese and on top of the cheese was maple syrup, caramel and pecan nuts. So I had to cut a small part of that cheese thingy and eat it together with the biscuit!I simply loved that so much I kept going back to take some more even after desserts.ha..There were also nacho chips with three different kinds of dips.Plus there were salads too..How is that for appetizers huh?



For the main dish, of course there was oven-baked turkey, nicely cut up for us. Accompanying it was delicious gravy, mashed potatoes, stuffings made up of bread and spices, corn and baked pumpkin. Dessert was even better with the various different kinds of pies for us to choose from--meat pies, pumpkin pies, some chocolate chip and cinnamon cake, the homemade birthday cake(It was Merva's birthday the previous day) and there was even Breyers Vanilla ice-cream to go along with it!Following dinner was more mingling and singing together with the accompaniment of the piano.Truly heart-warming...Kept talking to this cute elderly lady called Eunice and she was sharing about herself and her past.She even showed us the cap that she sewed herself and she was really proud of it, considering that she just recovered from the stroke she suffered a while back ago.

I also took the chance to interact with the other UBC students as well. It was really quite an international experience as we shared about our countries and our academic backgrounds. This thanksgiving dinner was so good that I told my mum that I wanted to celebrate Thanksgiving in Singapore when I return next year..ha..I truly enjoyed that night...It'll definitely be a special part of my exchange memories..
Sing-along session..
By the fireplace...
Eunice and her cap
David and I..He's so tall!
Takuma and Aya..half Canadian, half Japanese..really cute..
Robin, Margaret, Merna, David, Mani, Nuria, CK and me!

raeanchiq penned her thoughts @ 10:44 PM