Even though today is Thanksgiving in the States, I celebrated Thanksgiving last weekend at school. It's a long standing tradition for international ACS teachers to make a full Thanksgiving dinner for all of the teachers at school and their families.

It's a really wonderful way for us to express our thanks for all that our Bulgarian colleagues do to help us acclimate to the routines at school and to feel comfortable in not only Sofia but Bulgaria as a whole.
<a title="ACS Thanksgiving Party by karolinka.sofia, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/29050866@N06/8209547052/"><img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8061/8209547052_ceb61e83a0_z.jpg" alt="ACS Thanksgiving Party" width="640" height="427" /></a>

We had great fun last weekend--crazy stressful fun. It's a lot of work to make Thanksgiving dinner for 200+ people in our antiquated school kitchen but we did it and that kind of makes you feel like you can do anything. Anything.

It also makes you extremely thankful that you don't have to make lunch for students and staff each day.

<a title="Me and the stuffing by karolinka.sofia, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/29050866@N06/8209558240/"><img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8059/8209558240_5c852846a6_z.jpg" alt="Me and the stuffing" width="640" height="427" /></a>

Just to give the whole thing a little perspective, we cooked 28 turkeys. Normal people of course only cook <em>one</em>. And one take a decent amount of work and a fair amount of worrying. <em>28?!</em> Well I am not really sure how P. does it but this was his second year and he was great!!

Needless to say, normal people don't think that making Thanksgiving dinner for 200+ people and think it's a good idea. The thing is, this is my fourth year cooking Thanksgiving dinner at ACS and I have to say, I know it's a lot of work but I apparently have a good selective memory so I never remember<em> exactly</em> how much work it is.
<a title="Stuffing by karolinka.sofia, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/29050866@N06/8209559388/"><img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8347/8209559388_49929257e5_z.jpg" alt="Stuffing" width="640" height="427" /></a>
Friday night the day before our Thanksgiving party,as I was staring down 15 loaves of bread that I need to rip up into squares to make stuffing I wondered why on earth I thought making stuffing for this many people was a good idea. This was before--I even started thinking about getting started on the onions, apples, celery, garlic and other spices that get mixed into the stuffing. Luckily prepping this much food goes a lot faster with friends.

And really the whole thing is worth it the day of the party.
<a title="Turkey by karolinka.sofia, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/29050866@N06/8208466599/"><img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8340/8208466599_f4aa1870b6_z.jpg" alt="Turkey" width="640" height="427" /></a>
<a title="The Kitchen at ACS by karolinka.sofia, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/29050866@N06/8209555516/"><img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8481/8209555516_b91a99d25d_z.jpg" alt="The Kitchen at ACS" width="640" height="427" /></a>
Ultimately, everything went really smoothly. All of the turkeys were stuffed with my stuffing leaving only to pans to heat up on Saturday. Easy-peasy.
<a title="P. and his turkeys by karolinka.sofia, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/29050866@N06/8209551282/"><img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8058/8209551282_db1f0b9cb8_z.jpg" alt="P. and his turkeys" width="640" height="427" /></a>
<a title="Thanksgiving turkeys by karolinka.sofia, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/29050866@N06/8208462173/"><img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8061/8208462173_c37431759b_z.jpg" alt="Thanksgiving turkeys" width="640" height="427" /></a>
<a title="Carving the Turkeys by karolinka.sofia, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/29050866@N06/8209550008/"><img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8208/8209550008_8b82a083ca_z.jpg" alt="Carving the Turkeys" width="640" height="427" /></a>
<a title="My plate at Thanksgiving by karolinka.sofia, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/29050866@N06/8209549688/"><img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8064/8209549688_90f9322583_z.jpg" alt="My plate at Thanksgiving" width="640" height="427" /></a>
We served dinner to everyone and then we ate with our friends and colleagues. Everyone was so kind--wishing the international teachers a Happy Thanksgiving and telling us how great the food was.

The one thing is when a Bulgarian wishes you a Happy Thanksgiving, how's a girl supposed to respond? I ended up just replying with some variation on Thank-you because it seemed weird to say: Happy Thanksgiving to you too!
<a title="Thanksgiving Dinner by karolinka.sofia, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/29050866@N06/8209549420/"><img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8341/8209549420_df7d785fd3_z.jpg" alt="Thanksgiving Dinner" width="640" height="427" /></a>
After everyone had eaten and had gone back for seconds, we played a Thanksgiving trivia game and then we did some dancing. This included both pop music and traditional Bulgarian music. Our Thanksgiving is probably the only one that also includes dancing the horo!!
<a title="Rakiya and Thanksgiving by karolinka.sofia, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/29050866@N06/8208458357/"><img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8199/8208458357_4317272639_z.jpg" alt="Rakiya and Thanksgiving" width="640" height="427" /></a>
<a title="ACS Thanksgiving Party by karolinka.sofia, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/29050866@N06/8208455913/"><img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8064/8208455913_7fdf13ba4f_z.jpg" alt="ACS Thanksgiving Party" width="640" height="427" /></a>
There was fair amount of food left so after the party, I filled up some tupperware containers and I've been happily eating Thanksgiving leftovers all week.  Here's to turkey sandwiches and homemade cranberry sauce.
<a title="candy turkeys by karolinka.sofia, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/29050866@N06/8209588294/"><img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8478/8209588294_ef30237078_z.jpg" alt="candy turkeys" width="640" height="480" /></a>
<a title="Turkey-scape by karolinka.sofia, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/29050866@N06/8208499739/"><img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8480/8208499739_f6ea952b64_z.jpg" alt="Turkey-scape" width="640" height="480" /></a>
I am happy to report that there was very little stuffing left at the end of the night. Turns out the fourth year is a charm! I finally made enough but not too much. It's nice to finally get it right.