Please refrain from turkey jokes.

Yes, I spent Turkey Day in Turkey. And no, I didn't eat any turkey.

So yesterday was Thanksgiving (see above). And despite the fact that it is strictly an American holiday, most normal Americans would never pass up the opportunity to eat an unreasonably large amount of calorie-dense food in one sitting, even if they are currently in another country. If you can mask your binge eating under the premise of "giving thanks" for things you are "grateful" for, even better. So, as a typical American, I congregated with a whole bunch of other typical Americans last night to pig out in true American fashion. It was a great night.

There was a lot of anticipation leading up this holiday, at least in my mind. How could I celebrate Thanksgiving in a foreign country with limited access to traditional, American food, and no oven? Luckily, my friend Zoe masterminded and arranged for a potluck style get together in our very own Superdorm! Stella and I (per usual, because we are essentially a couple) opted to throw together some kind of dessert. After very little planning, we set to work on a stove-top apple crisp creation. Stella did the work, and I did the documenting. Using our fantastic hot plate skills, we actually managed to combine apples, oatmeal, cinnamon, brown sugar, and lots of butter in a fairly successful way! The result was two frying pans full of some type of apple not-so crisp.

The rest of the American students that came to the potluck provided stuffing, mashed potatoes, corn, rolls, peas, rice, and plenty of rotisserie chicken, which served as a perfectly acceptable substitute for a turkey. We ended up having more than enough food, which was fantastic! Despite the fact that we all had classes on Thanksgiving and everyone had to get creative with the cooking, things turned out great. We even had a few Europeans join us, and we managed to convince them that a holiday devoted to consuming irrationally large amounts of food is actually a great idea. What's not to love?

Below, left: Dining in the cozy and atmospheric dungeon of the Superdorm. Below, right: Dining again, candid shot. I encourage you to look closely.