Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving from Colombia!

I had a very nice Thanksgiving meal at the Centro Colombo Americano (where I work). It started 2.5 hours after the invitation said it would, but hey, it’s a Colombian Thanksgiving so what do you expect?
In addition to the late start time, there were several other fun Colombian twists on Thanksgiving including:

• Pre-Meal Entertainment: 4 songs (singing, guitar, and a violin) by Juan Pablo and his friend Oscar, 3 songs by another teacher whose name I don’t know (guitar), and very enthusiastic karaoke version of What is Love, Baby Don’t Hurt Me (about an 8 out of 10 on the Unintentional Comedy Scale). Also a 1 scene play written by JP and performed by JP and another teacher’s wife.

• Meal Entertainment: The national anthem of Colombia and the US as performed by a guy on the sax and another guy on the keyboard. The Sax was really struggling with the Star Spangled Banner and eventually he gave up and just let Keyboard finish the song solo. When the meal actually started the duo stuck to playing slow versions of 90s pop classics in the background. Good times.

• The Meal: Holy God I have missed turkey. It is absurdly expensive in Colombia, so I haven’t had any in almost 4 months. MMMMMMmmmmm…..Turkey….

• Decoration: What Thanksgiving would be complete without a full-size Christmas tree and a life-size Santa doll? Not ours!

• Photos: I’ve been meaning to mention this, but I keep forgetting. You know how we say “Say CHEESE!” for photos? Colombians say “Whiskey!” Whatever works I guess.

• Post-Meal: Mr. Sax and Mr. Keyboard kicked it up a notch and the tables were cleared away for dancing. Conveniently, I had to peace out for Spanish class.

Finally, a great quote from the Utah Jazz’s Mehmet Okur, who was asked if he celebrates Thanksgiving at the pregame shootaround. "No we don't. I like turkey, though," he said, before adding. "Country first, then bird."