While Austrians don't celebrate Thanksgiving, my friends and I still kept our home traditions and had a Thanksgiving potluck family dinner. I made a Mac and Cheese recipe that I found on Tik Tok that was really tasty. We also had soy sauce green beans and broccoli, roasted potatoes, chicken breast, garlic knots, Peruvian salsa, corn, pesto pasta, and a coconut curry Thai soup on the menu. For dessert, we had sweet potato pie, with a walnut and sugar topping, as well as a store-bought honey cake. "The bird" of choice was a supermarket rotisserie chicken as we were unsuccessful at finding anything turkey anywhere; we couldn’t even find ground turkey. Apparently, Austria has its own version of Thanksgiving on St. Martins Day (December 8th), where they roast a large goose and get together with loved ones.
Another exciting thing that happened this week is that I received my COVID booster shot! It was super quick and easy and now I have the ultimate Vienna souvenir on my vaccine card!
I started reading Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. So far, I've only read the first chapter so I can't tell you much about it, but what I do know is that this appears to be a book about a lost romance. It also focuses on the theme of what it is like to be faced with anti-Blackness and racism in the U.S. as the main character moves to America from Nigeria to attend college. I am supposed to read this class for my anthropology class next term, called fictions in Africa.
