Thanksgiving, Pt 2

After cooking and cleaning up after breakfast, the rest of the day was spent preparing for the Main Event that evening. I made 17 apple turnovers, and Sam made a roasted root vegetable  dish seasoned with maple syrup and rosemary. People came and left Ina's apartment where we were cooking, fetching other dishes that had already been prepared and stored in her fridge, and carrying them the 20 minute walk from her apartment to the hotel where we had rented an event hall for the dinner. We scrambled to get our dishes finished in time, and finally- carrying dishes and plates precariously stacked with food- caught a taxi to join the others at the hotel.

We  were the last ones to arrive at the dinner. The table was laid and everyone was going around, sharing the things they were thankful for. We were immediately ushered to our seats, poured wine (in true Armenian style) and asked to share what we were thankful for. My choice this year was Sasha and Andrea, our site-mate and next nearest site-made. The memory of their warm welcome to us was fresh in my mind, and without Sasha to so the legwork of getting a taxi, I'm not certain that we would have attended the Goris Thanksgiving party at all.

Once the Thanksgiving toasts were finished, we all dug in. The real highlight of the evening for me was that someone's parents had sent them a can of cranberry sauce, and they were kind enough to share it with everyone at the dinner. Another volunteer had somehow gotten her hands on some sweet potatoes (I'm not sure how, but I think some international customs regulations may have been- bent?- in their procurement...) And another volunteer made some of the best pumpkin pie I've ever had.

After dinner, the group trouped back to Ina's house, where the party continued. At this point, it transformed from a dinner party to something more at home in an undergrad frat house, and I went to bed. That kind of party has never been my scene, and it turns out that I find them even less enjoyable now than I did in college.

The next morning, Sunday, we woke up to find that the previous night's revelries had blown the apartment's only fuse, and furthermore (because he locks the fuse box) the landlord would have t obe called in order to get the electricity turned back on. The issue with this was that the apartment was a little bit trashed in the aftermath of the party, and Ina didn't want to call her landlord until it was cleaned up.

Without heat or hot water, the apartment was a chilly place to spend the morning. Most of the volunteers went to a local restaurant for brunch (there were rumors that this place serves actual bacon!). Sam and I spend the morning cleaning the apartment, doing the dishes, and in general tidying up the place so that once every one had left, Ina would be able to get her pwer turned back on. We finished just in time to join folks at the restaurant and grab a bite to eat before catching the once  daily bus back to Sisian.