Long Time No Post....


Hey Folks,

Sorry it's been so long between posts. Things have ben plenty busy in old Jilin. We have a lot to chatch up on, so let's get started!

When last we spoke, I was busy preparing for Thanksgiving festivities. Well I am happy to report that Jilin Thanksgiving 2005 was a smashing success! All of the hours of food hunting and preperation paid off. The meal was wonderful. Even though there have been Maryknoll vounteers in Jilin for over five years, not one of them bothered to cook an American Thanksgiving dinner. Disgraceful!So for all of the Chinese friends who ate with us, it was their first time trying all of the "dericious" food. The hit of the night was definitely the Jello. They had never seen anything like it before, and did not belive me when I said all you had to do to make it was add powder to water.

I had feared that I would be terribly homesick on Thanksgiving, and it definitely was not what I was used to, but I look at it this way: I got to share one of my favorite holidays with a whole new group of people who have never had Thanksgiving before. How cool is that?

After dinner Cletus, Chris, Tim, Holmes, Akiho, and I all went outside to play some football, anther Thanksgiving tradition. We played out in the street next to the restaraunt. It was really neat. All of the street vendors came out to watch, and some of the taxi drivers even parked their cabs to watch. I'm sure none of them had ever seen an American football before, much less a game. The only downside was that my team lost, 21-14. We probably would have won, if it hadn't been for that rogue defender coming out of nowhere to break up the 4th down Hail Mary on our final drive. And by rogue defender, I mean the taxi that almost killed Holmes in the endzone. We tried to challenge the play by citing them for having too many defenders on the field, but instant replay results were inconclusive.

And that's enough football geeking out. For now.

So, that was my Thanksgiving. It was a wonderful meal, shared with special friends, and capped off with a football game. You really can't ask for much more than that.