"Falletin Me Be Mice Elf"

Autumn is a difficult time for me to be away from the United States, from family, and from friends.

I often miss how autumn brings a transition of colors, flavors, and smells. Even though 南京 (Nanjing) experiences cooling temperatures more than 深圳 (Shenzhen), the leaves on most trees do not go through red, orange, or bright yellow phases. They immediately become brown with sickly yellow edges. They do, however, retain the gratifying crunch when stepped-on. Menus do not change, though, to favor pumpkins, apples, and spices like cinnamon, nutmeg, or clove. Pumpkins are popular year-round, and cider is completely absent in China. And I truly miss how the thick air of summer thins and reveals that lush smell of decomposition in the autumn. (Most of China has either the smell of pollution or public defecation.)

And the holidays (from October 14th through Jewish High Holidays, Halloween, Thanksgiving, and into "holiday season") trigger an automatic craving for contact with friends and family. Regardless of my criticisms of celebrating historical imperialism or commercial materialism, I, like most Americans, feel a twinge of longing for those connections we hold dearest.

That being said, I may be feeling an increased loneliness because of how void my Thanksgiving was of celebration or those connections for which I am most thankful. Last Thursday, I ate a non-traditional Thanksgiving dinner of spicy braised eggplant, scrambled eggs with tomatoes and chives, and flash-fried pumpkin over rice. After which, I rushed to put on a paisley, tan bow tie to teach a freshman English class. I treated myself and cut the class short by an hour (each class being two hours).

Throughout the week, I was teaching students about the history of Thanksgiving. I began each class asking what they knew about the holiday. Here were the answers followed by the number of times I heard them (maximum of eight for the eight classes I teach each week):

• Turkey (8)
• Family (2)
• India (1)
• Online discounts (1)
• Black Friday (1)

So, I explained the idea of expressing gratefulness as well as eating other foods besides turkey--though I found myself in a bit of a situation trying to explain cranberries to a group of people who have never even seen a picture of one before.

I had each class compose its own "Mayflower Compact" with ten laws upon which they would found a new society. I was extremely surprised to see how almost no students towed the communist line and were far more inclined towards democratic republicanism. Out of all the "Compacts," only once did someone write about labor rights. There were several "Compacts" that featured laws about free education and government provided jobs, though. Also, the entire process was surprisingly democratic in how students voted and elected representatives.

Additionally, I gave students one point of extra credit if they drew a hand turkey and wrote one reason that they were thankful this year. ("Hand turkey" sounds unfortunately euphemistic for being such a popular children's drawing.)

All in all, I'm thankful for engaged, passionate, and light-hearted students.

A few students treated me to a bull frog dinner on Friday night that made me thankful for new discoveries: This was some seriously delicious food that ranks in my top five Chinese dining experiences.

Also, I'm thankful for surrogate Thanksgiving feasts. Belated as it may have been, I had a Thanksgiving potluck with some American neighbors--missionaries who are also English teachers: breaded chicken instead of turkey (which is difficult to locate in China), gravy, mashed potatoes, homemade BBQ sauce, homemade zucchini bread, apple cobbler, and, my contribution, pumpkin ginger pie. My pie turned out spicy enough to actually be a side dish as opposed to a dessert, a sacrifice I was willing to make since the apple cobbler was stunningly good.

Making pie from scratch, in a toaster oven, and without shortening requires a lot of guess work and not just a few compromises. In the end, I have enough pie filling for four pies. I am over-dosing on pie, which would be a fine dilemma if it weren't for the bucket of cookies that my school gave to me as a Thanksgiving gift. Side note: The bucket's decorations remind me of the scene from "American Tale" when the mice sing about the streets being paved with cheese, which would be useful since there is a Dutch bakery right on the bucket!

***

Dear readers from miscellaneous corners, thank you for your support and encouragement--even if you ended-up reading "Traveling Onion" as part of a disappointing search result for the terms "moody" and "weather."
Dear friends and family, I miss you all and am so thankful for your presence and love in my life.

And on a closing side note, one of the students I tutor cannot kick the bad habit of saying: "I want to go to there." I think of Tina Fey every time.

This reminded me of a Chinese Monet painting.

Books, Music, Movies, T.V.: Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond and Chairman Mao Would Not Be Amused by Howard Goldblatt; "Islands on the Coast" by Band of Horses, "Finally Falling" by Mayer Hawthorne, "Melt My Heart to Stone" by Adele, "Do Ya Like" by Childish Gambino, "Heartbeats" by Childish Gambino, "Sunrise" by Childish Gambino, and "Civilization" by Justice; Midnight in Paris, Drive, and O Brother, Where Art Thou?; Avatar: The Last Airbender, American Horror Story (so dumb), The Walking Dead (acceptably dumb), Curb Your Enthusiasm (finally caught-up), Saturday Night Live (that Andre The Giant skit was quality on Jason Segel's part, and that crying to Adele skit got me with Fred Armisen).