Thanksgiving Week and a Local Glassmaker



Pilgrims and Indians sharing a feast

Well, our Thanksgiving assembly on Monday was a success!  The kids did an awesome job, and I was very proud of them.  Between their performance and the two short Youtube powerpoint videos I showed, feedback was that people truly didn't know what our Thanksgiving was all about, nor did they realize that the Indians and Pilgrims helped one another.  It was gratifying to be able to facilitate an understanding of a significant part of our American culture.  Then, on Wednesday was the school Thanksgiving dinner at lunchtime, complete with the pumpkin pies Trudy was so proud of making from the pie filling she ordered from America.  Yummy (and the kids even liked it)!  Mrs. Barnes and Mrs. Norris had arrived on Tuesday, so they were able to join us at school for the Thanksgiving extravaganza!  Trudy even went so far as to decorate the whole hall in American motif consisting of flag banners, trukey pictures, and year-six students decked out in Uncle Sam hats and vests!  Very festive!  



Mrs. Norris and our fearless leader shmoozing with kids.  Notice anything backwards?

Yankee Doodle Dandies

Naan bread just out of clay oven



Thanksgiving at Indigo

On Thursday evening (after a day of WORKING on Thanksgiving Day), the three of us went with Eileen and Maureen (another T.A. at school) for Thanksgiving dinner . . . at an Indian restaurant!  My first time having Indian food (not counting curry at Carol's house).  The owner of the beautiful restaurant called Indigo even gave us a tour of the kitchen and demonstrated how they make naan breads in a traditional clay oven.     

After dinner we went to the Crooked House Pub (which I had visited previously in this blog).  Let the photos speak for themselves.  It was the weirdest--and best--Thanksgiving ever!





Friday night found the three of us and Eileen in Birmingham at the largest German Christmas market outside of Germany.  It was quite magical with Christmas lights and vendor stalls constructed like little German log houses--and, of couse, lots and lots of people.  A lovely evening before the two travellers, who certainly crammed everything they could of London and Stourbridge and Birmingham into one short week, had to return to the reality of Colorado and Steele School on Saturday morning.  It was such a treat having them here!  They got to spend time at the school, experience a little of my "adopted" culture, and meet the wonderful, quirky friends I've made, like Carol, who told Georgie, when she was trying to fasten her seatbelt in Carol's car, to "just fasten yourself in and get on with it!"  (Funny with the Black Country accent.)  To which Georgie replied, "Boy, you're bossy!"

Yesterday as I sat on the bus home from Merry Hill Mall, observing and listening to old women with their shopping bags greeting one another and talking about things in their lives in thick Black Country accents and saying "Ta ra!" as they came to their stops, and old men having just been to the pub where they'd obviously tipped a few pints, and young people with their fast, cheeky slang, and everyone telling the bus driver "Cheers, Mate" as they got off the bus, I thought to myself, "I'm going to miss this."  These little insignificent, meaningless slices of daily life have become dear to me, and I'm going to miss them.

Today I walked down to the Stourbridge Glass factory because Eileen had texted me that there was a Christmas market there this weekend.  Stourbridge glass and crystal used to be very famous, and apparently the old stuff is hard to find now.  There wasn't much in the way of a craft fair, but I discovered wonderful shops and studios I hadn't realized were there before!  It's a beautiful old building right next to the canal and even has a lovely little tea house that Georgie and Carolyn discovered when they ventured there one day while I was at work.  (They had tea and found out what crumpets were.)  I did my part to help the local economy and bought a couple of Christmas presents (and a little something for myself), and I even got to watch a glassmaking demonstration.  A lovely way to spend an afternoon in the neighborhood before having to return home to finish laundry and mark papers.