Polite Wontons
It was a day of firsts. It was the day I met my first friend, the day I experienced my first conflict, and the day I learned my first lesson about being American.
It was the first day of school.
“Class, this is our new student who came from China,” the teacher announced. Continue reading
不一样的感恩节
8th grader
我们家一般会在感恩节放假的一个星期外出度假， 但是今年， 我们决定要在家里过一个不一样的感恩节。
谁都知道在美国过感恩节是离不开吃火鸡的。节日前几天，爸爸妈妈召开全家大会，会上大家一致通过，今年要赦免火鸡，让鸭子做替罪羊。爸爸从网上找到了中式烤鸭的秘方，提前一天就忙开了。感恩节的上午，妈妈把外公外婆接到我们家。一进屋子，外公外婆和爸爸妈妈就开始研究制定节日菜谱。我和姐姐知道我们今天有口福了。今天的主食是猪肉包子。妈妈从她的朋友那儿拿来了食谱，早就想自己独立试试了。于是，爸爸和面发面，妈妈调肉馅，姐姐忙着搅拌，我赶紧到后院摘了一把我自己种的葱，大家一起坐下来擀皮，包包子，蒸包子。另外，外公外婆做了中式的珍珠圆子和粉蒸排骨，妈妈的紫薯圆子和甜点，爸爸的秘制烤鸭，我也准备了西式的土豆泥和肉汁。大家边聊边吃，越吃越香，最后撑得都弯不下腰了。
今年我们家的感恩节真是有点特别，全家动手，中西结合。我珍惜和感谢这一切，真希望以后年年都可以这样过感恩节。
My family usually goes on vacation during Thanksgiving break, but this year, we decided to try something new and stay home for a truly unique Thanksgiving.
It is an undisputed fact that Thanksgiving and eating turkey are one and the same, but we all agreed that we wanted have our own unique dinner, so, a few days before Thanksgiving, my parents called a family meeting. After some heated discussion, an unanimous vote was reached to “pardon the turkey”, and, instead, let a duck take its place on our dinner table. My dad found a Chinese-style duck recipe on the Internet, and promptly began the process of preparing the duck the day before Thanksgiving. On Thanksgiving morning, my mom brought my grandparents home to celebrate with us. The moment they arrived, my grandparents and parents began to form a menu for the day. My sister and I knew, at last, that we had a say in matters, so we immediately gave our opinion for the day’s menu. We agreed that this year’s Thanksgiving dinner’s main dish would be pork buns. My mom had learned the recipe and technique from her friend, and had long been waiting eagerly for the opportunity to try it out herself. Soon, we split up the tasks and began preparing our Thanksgiving meal. My dad kneaded the dough. My mom made the pork filling with help from my sister. I ran to the backyard to pick some of my homegrown green onion so that they could be diced and mixed in. After the preparation process, we kneaded the wrappers, wrapped the steamed buns, then steamed them. Besides the main dish, my grandparents made my favorite Chinese-style pearl meatballs and steamed pork ribs, my mom made purple sweet potato puffs, and my dad roasted his honey duck. In addition, I also prepared some traditional Thanksgiving dishes, such as mashed potatoes with gravy. We ended up eating so much that we couldn’t even bend over!
This year’s Thanksgiving was truly special. Everyone pitched in and we all had our own parts in the creation of our Thanksgiving meal. We managed, through some hard work, to combine our favorite Chinese foods with our favorite American foods. In a way, our meal represented our mix of cultures; part Chinese and part American. Although the foods from both cultures were enormously different, we were able to create a well-balanced mix. I really loved this year’s Thanksgiving experience, and am looking forward to having similar experiences in the future.
Dining in the Past
Grade: 7th
During Thanksgiving, everyone should be thankful for having friends, family, or education. Thanksgiving is a big holiday for my family and the best one was during the year 2012, and we also talked to each other about what we were thankful for and this made me realize that many people had gone through of terrible experiences that I hadn’t gone though. This made me think that I am lucky because there are many people that have gone though many though many hard things. Continue reading
I am thankful for a lot of things. I’m thankful for the things that everyone else is also thankful for, like food, clothes, school, somewhere to stay etc, and I’m also thankful for things that aren’t so common, like pecan pie, the ICC chess club, and Stephen Curry’s jump shot. But fundamentally, I’ve realized that the thing that I’m most thankful for is this era that we live in, an era with a culture so unique that even someone twenty years ago would have trouble imagining it, and specifically that we now have the chance to finally bring the human race together. Continue reading
7th grader
I had to google the history of thanksgiving before I started. Being in a traditional Chinese family gave me the illusion that thanksgiving, like Halloween, was just another American holiday that lost its true tradition, smothered by excessive amounts of food and gifts. As of November 29th I had already received more than my fair share of “holiday presents”, and I hardly thought twice about it. Sure, I was thankful too my parents, who raised and fed me my entire life, but my thankfulness was never expressed with more than simply saying thank you. Continue reading
TURKEY DAYS
There’s another word for Thanksgiving. It’s still sort of a nickname at this point, a bit newer and a lot less formal. It resurfaces every November, and it’s been popping up more and more lately, especially in conjunction with things only barely related to giving thanks: football games, blowout sales, TV specials and the like. I suppose that’s fitting, because there’s something sinister and unnerving, manufactured and commercial, maybe even soulless in the rise of “Turkey Day”. Continue reading
For me, China means family. Every few years, my family goes to China over summer break to visit my countless number of relatives; there are cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents, grand-aunts and grand-uncles, and more. Each time, the weeks pass by in a flurry of meals at restaurants with large tables of people. Relatives I haven’t seen for many years pat me on the back and smother me with their hugs, telling me how big I have gotten. I am always perfectly aware that I have grown since I was four, and such gatherings can be tiresome at times, but meeting and spending time with my cousins makes up for it all. Continue reading
Contemplation is unusual within the peers in my life. Outside the two-dimensional world that I seem to live in, I’ve been noted as one of the few thoughtful individuals that exist.
So when Thanksgiving rolls around every year, I am not laughing with the rest of my class about creating Thanksgiving cards. Instead I am happily writing a message in my folded piece of blue construction paper. Continue reading
The Graced Change
10th grader
She doesn’t think too much when Thanksgiving comes ‘round the corner.
After all, Halloween was just a few weeks ago and Christmas is coming up soon. Between the two festive holidays that provide her treats and gifts—and not to mention finals that’ll be the death of her soon—Gracelyn hasn’t had much time to think about the holiday where massacring turkeys is joyous. Continue reading
