Thanksgiving Speech, roughly translated from German to English

Celebrating Thanksgiving doesn't necessarily involve the single day marked on the calendar in November. Kids are out of school by Wednesday and some adults are able to take an extra vacation day around Thanksgiving. Many of my relatives live far from my hometown of Athens. So when we come together we try to hang out as much as possible from the time of arrival to departure, often as late as Sunday. Four things have to do with celebrating Thanksgiving: Family, Food, Football, and getting ready for Christmas.

Thanksgiving is always a time to get together with family. Months ahead of time the is question arises: whose house will we celebrate at? For my dad's side we are always on the farm, at my grandparent’s house or my aunt's house. Then for my mom's side it is either her house or my uncle's house. Thanksgiving is celebrated with more than just immediate relatives; cousins, aunts, and uncles all come together.

Three different programs come on TV for Thanksgiving. The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, which we don't sit for 3 whole hours and watch. But it is playing in the background of our morning as we begin the Thanksgiving Day. (The other 2 programs I will mention later.)

FOOD is important to discuss with Thanksgiving. Perhaps intentionally or maybe because I’m still a youngin’ I haven't been given the responsibility of preparing a dish for Thanksgiving but the Grandmas and Aunts and Moms in my family decide among themselves who will bring what. Most of the foods we eat are only served for Thanksgiving, with the exception of some also happening for Christmas. Some of my favorites are broccoli casserole, sweet potato casserole (with pecans and brown sugar preferably but marshmallows are also good), cranberry sauce (from the can and without chunks of cranberries please), mashed potatoes, and pecan pie. (Btw I think pecans are a completely foreign concept here. Thanks Mimi and Paw for sending me some to make in a pie for our dinner.) What is even better is because we have so much food, there are plenty of leftovers to keep eating over the weekend.

Thanksgiving in the South and maybe a few others places involves football. In-state rivalries heat up as people prepare to watch the college football teams battle it out. This weekend I will be tuning in via internet or somehow to watch the Auburn-Alabama game. Then others celebrate Thanksgiving not just with watching a football game, but also playing a football game. My dad's side of the family play a game of football at a nearby park at some point during the holiday. Some years are much colder than others. Hopefully you won't have snow like we are getting here in Salzburg. One particular game was videotaped a few years back by yours truly. I don't remember if I volunteered for the job or if somehow that was the nicest way for them to keep me off the field.

By Thanksgiving, Uncle Bobby (my great uncle) has the Christmas lights at his house ready to go. If you live near north Alabama and have never seen his lights, email me and I will tell you how to get there. It is a must-see. He has his lights on every night until New Years and you can see them from way off in the distance because they are Incredible! Right now I can envision being in the car as we drive around his house, listening to the music playing from his yard, and just seeing the thousands of lights and different decorations.

At some point during the day, I will have watched one of two movies that come on TV. It's a Wonderful Life or Miracle on 34th St. Both are quality; definitely watch them between now and Christmas if you get the chance. They always put me in the Christmas spirit and wrap up the perfect celebration of Thanksgiving.

Ok now how do you celebrate Thanksgiving?

Recent Events in Salzburg

The pictures from this post are not recent but I have taken them since coming to Salzburg. The one above is looking over the Salzach River to the Altstadt. I think there might be portions of the old city on both sides but the side that this shows is the side that I live on and where my classes are. On this day I sat at a bench by the river and did some homework. I was minding my own business, but also people watching when I needed a quick distraction.

All of a sudden the person rolls up to me on his bike. I flash a friendly smile and say Hello. The following conversation happens in German. He asks "How are you?" I say "good" and go back to reading so that he will see I am busy. Then he asks what I am doing and if I'm an austrian? When I say I'm from America he says, "you must be married". I smiled and said no. After a few more seconds of awkward, he says "have fun" or something like that and rides away.

I want everyone to know that I was incredibly polite. But honestly, who tries to pick up a complete stranger in a park??? Well it was funny and maybe a compliment to me, I guess.


There is a note by this fountain to tell people not to drink the water. But today when I was walking around, I say a faucet coming out of a wall basically. And it had an image of a cup, so you can drink that water. Very strange. At school I haven't seen a single water fountain. If I bring a water bottle, I fill it up in the bathroom. But I wonder why they don't just have water fountains and if that is an austrian thing, european thing, or just a salzburg university thing. ??

So one Sunday in Salzburg I decided to go to an English speaking protestant service that our study abroad program had listed in a packet of info we got during orientation. I walk in a bit late to the church because I missed the bus I was supposed to take.


I quickly realized I was in the wrong place because the preacher was speaking in German. Also as I looked around the congregation of 15 to 20 adults, I thought there seemed to be a lot of children. This was unexpected because the birth rate in Germany and Austria is maybe around 1.2 or so. The likelihood that so many couples in the same church would have this many kids was slim!

One toddler was walking in the aisle and went toward the stage. The preacher told the father not to worry, just let her walk around. For the service they re-enacted the birth of Moses and the Egyptian princess finding him in the river. With costumes and crowd participation and then they passed out cake to each of us.

Afterward I read a sign that the English service was being held next door. I went to that one since I was only 45 min late for it. Come to find out the German church occasionally holds a children's service. On those days the English congregation who also uses the sanctuary go to a different building.



The english service went well also. Some of the people were friendly. They announced that a student bible study was going to start that week. I have enjoyed going to that as we decided to learn about the life of Paul and then read some of his letters in the New Testament. Most of the other students have lived in Salzburg for at least a year already and the group is led by two guys who work with Campus

Crusade 4 Christ in Austria. I thought it was cool that they have it in Austria as well as in the US, since I know folks in SC that work with CC4C.

Well the weather is turning cold but it is still bearable. When it first snows, I will be sure to document it, but I hope that it is still a month or 2 away. Upcoming posts, coming to a blog near you (in my movie trailer voice): my trip to Romania, hiking down Untersberg, my trip to Vienna, and a visit to a Schloss in Salzburg.