A Chinese Thanksgiving

November 28, 2008

Yesterday, I celebrated Thanksgiving in Changsha. Going out to lunch with administration from Yali, and the three other foreign teachers that work here, I was treated to a pleasant, upscale lunch. Albeit, the cuisine was of the Chinese-kind.

During the day's six classes that I had to teach, I passed the time playing "Thanksgiving Jeopardy". This was an enjoyable break from the often-mundane classes that I have been holding. For one, the students seemed burned out, but I myself have been experiencing a lot of fatigue in the classroom. These lessons were also effortless, in that they required little planning. For the most part, I think the students enjoyed it.

Later that night, I met up with other volunteers and expats at the Sheraton hotel in downtown Changsha. For 190 RMB, I actually was able to eat pumpkin pie, turkey, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, and much more. It was a buffet, and it was well worth the price.

Apart from food though, this Thanksgiving gave me reason to be thankful for so many things. The whispers of lovers on a moonlit night, the purr of a kitten, I'm just kidding. In all seriousness though...

What I have came to realize, is over the past four months, I have bared my conscience, fears, thoughts and heart to China. I have felt frustration, self-loathing, anger, sadness, happiness, confusion, grief, wonderment and inadequacy. I have been moved and I have moved others. I have been lost and I have been found.

I am thankful for the family and friends that I have in America. I am thankful for the new friends I have made in China. I am thankful for my dog, my health, my ability to pass freely across oceans and timezones. I am thankful for being an American. I am thankful for our country. I am thankful my freedoms and the quality of American life. I am thankful for efficiency, structure and functionality. I am thankful that my ancestors worked on cold nights in the hills of West Virginia and across the rainy forests of Washington. I am thankful that my grandparents boarded a ship in the 1920's out of Yugoslavia. I am thankful that I was created, not as an inferior man, because of my sexual orientation, but as a unique individual that has the ability to see the world through unfiltered eyes and unlimited imaginations. I am thankful for God, His son, and their teachings.

There is so much to be thankful for. In a world, often cold, often uptight and always in endless distress, there is much to be thankful for. In its natural beauty, its flora and fauna, its animals, its people, and its soul. I am thankful to be alive.