Well, my Thanksgiving was quite a bit different from any I've had to date. First off, it was 80 degrees and sunny and humid for most of the day (though it did rain later, imagine that!) where I've had Thanksgivings where there's practically a blizzard outside. Also, it's the first year that I haven't been with my immediate family for Thanksgiving. :( My day was pretty uneventful. I slept in a bit, went to school to turn in my grades (it's a long, boring, complicated story which I will spare you) then went to AutoMercado to find pie crust and whipped cream. Then after lunch and a short rest I made my pumpkin pies (also a first, as I've never made pumpkin pie before). Then around 5:15 I took a taxi to the ISEP office to drop off the pies and whipped cream, as well as the table cloths they were renting from my host mom, and then I went to my friends' dance show. That too was a cultural experience: I saw karate demonstrations (Japan), belly dancing (Middle East?) and then some modern-day Costa Rican dances. After my friends danced I went over to the dinner where we had a delicious Thanksgiving meal, complete with turkey and mashed potatoes. The only weird thing was that the "sweet potatoes" were yellow/green. They weren't really sweet potatoes. But everything was really good, and there were a ton of desserts. It was really fun to just hang out and talk and laugh with (almost) everyone one last time. There are a few people I'll see yet, but some people I won't see again till who knows when. Sad.
Now, on to my pumpkin pie story. Yesterday I went to AutoMercado, which is a nice grocery store that has lots of American foods, to find the ingredients for pumpkin pie (I found a recipe online). I was able to find canned pumpkin, evaporated milk, and the spices I needed for not very expensive, so I went ahead and got enough to make two. That way, I could make one for Bible Study and my family to try, and one for Thanksgiving. The only thing they didn't have were ready-made crusts-- they had graham cracker crusts, but I wasn't sure if you could make pumpkin pie using graham cracker crust. So I decided I would go home, look up a recipe for pie crust, and then check the Hipermás to see if they had pie crust or just the ingredients to make a crust. Well, every recipe I found for crust required it to be refrigerated for several hours, and I didn't have several hours, so I hoped I could find a crust at Hipermás. Not only did they not have pie crust, they didn't even have graham cracker crust! People in Costa Rica really don't do a lot of baking, I think. So I figured I could make a graham crust pretty easily, except that they didn't have graham crackers. Finally I settled on these graham cracker-like crackers and made a crust with those and butter, because I didn't want to go all the way across town to find the ready-made crusts again.
Well, as you know, the one yesterday turned out well (so well that, apparently I can get married), and today I went back to the AutoMercado to get pie crusts and whipped cream (it was kind of expensive, but you just can't have pumpkin pie without whipped cream). The recipe I found made lots of batter, so I used the leftovers from yesterday mixed with today's to make two pies. And I think they turned out pretty well. There were so many desserts though that we only ate one pie, so I brought the second one home. I figure we have so many people in and out of this house that it will get eaten eventually. :)
So that was my Thanksgiving. I'm very thankful for all the friends I've made here, for my host family, that I'm done with classes, for all that God has been teaching me this semester, and that I get to see my family in 3 days!
Over the next two days I will be packing, and tomorrow I'm going to go see Harry Potter with my friend April, and then on Saturday a bunch of us are getting granizados one last time. It'll be a full few days, but I'm very much looking forward to them.
Happy Thanksgiving!
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