Thanksgiving

‘Does England have Thanksgiving’

‘No’

‘But you have Christmas though, right?’

For my first ever Thanksgiving holiday I was fortunate to experience it in true American style as I was kindly hosted by the Tripp family in Kentucky. With mountains of food piled up to my eye balls, stepping onto the scales is going to be a painful experience!

Filling the long drive from South Carolina with snapchat videos and karaoke singing, I’m sure Lindsay and I would make a tuneful international duet! With no idea what Thanksgiving was all about, Lindsay ensured that I did all the stereotypical American things including watching ‘A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving’ and of course the Macys Thanksgiving parade in New York. Thousands of people prance down 34^th street as part of the parade, children with perfect white teeth, dance around ginormous floats dressed as pretty much anything; santas, elves, munchkins from ‘The Wizard of Oz’, clowns and cartoon characters. Whilst hundreds of adults hold onto giant balloons including; Buzz Lightyear, Ronald McDonald and figures from Sesame Street.  With Gavin DeGraw and songs from ‘The Sound of Music’ blasting through the TV I couldn’t help but sing along, thus receiving a compliment from Mommy Tripp; ‘Alice sounds like she should be on Broadway!’ (Oh I wish!) The parade continued with kids who look way too young for a career in the music industry belting out Christmas songs and waving frantically at the camera whilst Miss America Nina Davuluri ironically passes by standing on top of the Drake’s Cakes float. Who ever heard of Beauty queens and carbs?

But carbs are basically what Thanksgiving is all about. Pumpkin pie, mashed potatoes, turkey, stuffing and green bean casserole dominated the dining room table as we sat down and said our thanks for being so fortunate to enjoy this food. Lindsay and I even attempted some baking ourselves, which was a lot more difficult than we originally anticipated! Anyone who has tasted my little sister’s baking knows she’s a fantastic cook – especially when it comes to Victoria Sponge and Millionaire Shortbread! So with my sister’s recipe to hand, we decided to attempt the Millionaire Shortbread, but we had a few minor issues to overcome…. Firstly, we didn’t have the right ingredients, the Tripp’s had never even heard of Golden Caster Sugar or Golden Syrup so we had to try and find American equivalents! Furthermore, all the measurements were in grams, which completely baffled my American chef. When I asked where the scales were I was just laughed at! It turns out in the States they measure in volume, not weight and so we had to convert everything into ‘cups’. Eventually we sussed out the recipe and the sugar coated shortbread was a success, alongside Lindsay’s infamous home-made cinnamon buns (which were my personal favourites).

This holiday couldn’t have come at a better time. As my first semester at USC draws to an end it allowed me to reflect on the truly amazing opportunity I’ve been given to study abroad. At the dinner table on Thanksgiving Day everyone wrote things down that they were grateful for on small pieces of card, then drew them out from a bowl and guessed who had said what. Apart from Lindsay’s comical brother adding ‘The Queen – God save her’ to the list, it was pretty easy to work out which card was mine. But, instead of giving a long list of all the things I’m thankful for (there’s so much!) I’ll just say how thankful I am to my parents for giving me the chance to see the world from a new perspective. I’m also incredibly thankful for the friends I’ve made State side and, of course, for being invited back to the lovely Tripp household to celebrate my first ever Thanksgiving holiday.

Old Kentucky Home

You know you’re road tripping in America when the satnav says ‘continue on interstate for the next 200 miles’……

Last week was fall-break, which means two things; first, I have made it alive to the half-way mark of my first semester at USC and second, that I got to go cross country to the ‘Bluegrass State’ aka ‘my old Kentucky home’.  Known for its thoroughbred horses, horse racing, tobacco and college basketball, I was fortunate enough to be invited to stay with my American self; Lindsey. After the 7 and ½ drive from Columbia I was happy that she didn’t want to throttle me after putting up with my chatterbox mouth and karaoke singing for 500 miles. But we made it, eventually, and spent the long weekend gorging ourselves on home-made cooking and copious amounts of REESE'S Mini Peanut Butter Cups. Yum! There are so many details I could bore you all with, so instead of telling you an intricate hourly account of everything we got up to, I’ll pick some of my favourite moments.

Before I came on my year abroad, I knew that it would be the people I meet and the memories I make that would make this year unforgettable. If you had predicted that I’d be spending my October break in Kentucky betting, hopelessly may I add, at the races, I probably wouldn’t have believed you. But with the sun shining gloriously, I attended my first ever horse race at Keeneland. It almost seems a little ironic, after living so close to Ascot, Windsor for over 13 years that I had to go across the globe to enjoy the thoroughbred racing industry. Pretty Fall dresses, strawberry margaritas, and $2 bets; my day at the races was certainly one to remember. Although I’m not quite sure I understand all the terminology; who beat who, who had the mount, and how to make well educated guesses, I had enormous amounts of fun putting my money on the horses with the most outrageous names. My favourites included ‘Lovesmelovesmenot’ and ‘Kitchen Police’. But don’t worry Mum, I didn’t spend all my pocket money and I’m not addicted to gambling just yet, I think I’ll need to win a little more than six bucks to get hooked!

The rest of my break was filled with cheesecake, calves, mountain hikes and roasted marshmallows over a bonfire on a starry night. Kentucky, it was a pleasure; 2 States down, 48 to go!