Pseudo- and Real Thanksgiving

Happy kickoff to the holiday season (a little late)!

Last Thursday was business as usual here in Switzerland (not to mention the rest of Europe, Africa, Middle East, Asia, South America, etc.). But back home it was, of course...Thanksgiving! The holiday coincided almost exactly with our three-week Swiss anniversary date which provided some difficulty. We had read that after approximately three weeks the "ex-pat vacation effect" expires, that is, the "extended vacation" feels over and it's time to head home. Now after experiencing it, we'd say it's fairly accurate.

Things were particularly tough on Steph who of course worked both Thursday and Friday and also received lots of happy Thanksgiving emails from old coworkers, family and friends--that plus the three-week timing pulled the heartstrings a bit. On the other hand, I was NOT working Thursday and Friday, had been cut off from email since Monday, and spent virtually all my time apartment hunting anyway, making my heartstrings slightly less accessible. Nonetheless, we each called our parents Thursday evening for a brief conversation and felt pangs from not spending Thanksgiving with our wonderful Chicago and Indiana friends as usual.

To assuage the raw emotion, I had decided earlier that afternoon at the grocery store to improvise a Thanksgiving feast. My best attempt was a rotisserie chicken, thyme-roasted carrots and some celebratory man-shaped bread, named Mr. Grittibänz (Swiss-German, therefore no translation available). Combined with a green salad and white wine, I found it quite difficult to discern a difference from a regular Thanksgiving; Stephanie as usual was slightly more perceptive.

Thankfully friends Dave and Heather had devised bigger plans. On Saturday evening they hosted five couples (!) at their newly fully furnished and finished apartment in Zürich's Oerlikon neighborhood. Heather spared no expense (literally, the thing cost a fortune) with a 15-lb. turkey imported from France from a Swiss butcher; they apparently grow turkeys to just baaarely fit a Swiss oven. All the usuals were present, such as stuffing, gravy, sweet potatoes, green bean casserole, white rolls, and cranberry sauce. Stephanie made the mashed potatoes--fortified with Swiss cream and butter--and I constructed an apple galette for dessert (with the help my assistant pastry chef, pictured here). Working together in our tiny apartment kitchen provided an elbow-bumping challenge but regardless we always enjoy cooking for a crowd.

Unbelievably, four of the five couples (including Dave & Heather and us) came from Chicago within the last six months to three weeks, now living in the Zürich area; the other extremely nice couple had moved from Amsterdam to Zürich in July. Other than Stephanie and Dave who work together, Heather had met the wives of the couples through the American Women's Club of Zürich. Women's Clubs are common social clubs and support groups for ex-pat wives whose husbands have been transferred to a foreign city. Before you ask, I'm not certain of the women's rules regarding membership for "trailing males," but rest assured it's not my cup of tea (pun intended) as I'm too busy immersing myself in Swiss culture to stop and talk about it routinely with other ex-pats' spouses. However, I admit that the Women's Club has assembled a very useful Living Guide to Zürich, of which Heather was kind enough to give us a copy, with a particular standout being the extremely thorough section translating the names of various hams, sausages and offal meats.

To cap the evening, we learned a valuable transportation lesson by staying overly long after the party chatting with Dave and Heather (how do you dispose of a 15-lb. turkey carcass in Zürich?). Our exit time of ~12:30am matched exactly when 95% of the city's bus and train service stops running. Who knew? A special Night Schedule exists but we're not overly familiar with it and, after our 15 minute walk to the Oerlikon train station, reluctantly settled for a cab instead. Simply hailing a cabs costs 8 CHF and the fare increases rapidly from there. Luckily Oerlikon and Kloten both lie on the city's north side and while the total cab expense was somewhat appalling, we're certain it was just a small fraction of the cost of that turkey.