A Canadian Thanksgiving

A few weeks ago Kristen and I were talking to another Canadian English teacher (Gabrielle)living in our area about how we love Thanksgiving and are really going to miss the food we usually eat. It took me all of two seconds to decide that we should have our own Canadian Thanksgiving here in Korea. Gabrielle knew several other Canadians who would most likely be interested in having one as well. She set things in motion and last night about ten of us got together for a good 'ol Thanksgiving dinner!
I had decided from the start that I was going to make the apple pie since I make the best apple pie's in the world. The only problem was, the amazing recipe I have for it was at home and my Mom wasn't able to find it among my millions of recipe books, binders, and containers so I had to settle for an internet version. Now those of you who cook are probably wondering..."apple pie? that is SO easy. Why did you need a recipe?" well, the recipe I have at home has a couple extra ingredients in it that make it just that much more amazing. I just couldn't remember what they were. Anyway, the long and the short of it is that it tasted amazing as I was making it, smelled amazing as it was baking, looked amazing when it was done...but fell apart when we cut it! I was so sad! It didn't even taste amazing either. It tasted so-so. Thankfully though, apparently no one these has ever tasted amazing apple pie because some of them told me it was the best they ever had... makes me wonder what they've been eating all these years if THAT was the best they've had! The rest of the food was amazing though. We had pasta salads, pumpkin pie (which was disgusting...I don't know what they did to that poor pie, but I'm sure glad I have good pumpkin pie in my freezer here!), rice cakes (there were Koreans there too), stir fry, and the best part... stuffing! The worst part was that it was being held in Gabrielle's apartment and she's vegetarian and won't even allow meat in her house so we didn't get meat....a little depressing, but I can't complain since everything else was amazing.
At the dinner I met another girl who is just as obsessed with horses as I am and just as depressed as I am that we can't ride in Korea and searched the internet just as much as I did for places to ride in Korea (of which there are basically none). We both got excited when we found out we both rode. It was a little obvious to tell I rode since I wear my cowboy boots everywhere I go when I'm not at my schools. Then we got into a small debate about which was better, English or Western riding. She rides English, I ride Western. She's all prim and proper about show jumping, I get thrills riding cutting horses and galloping my horse across open fields. You'll be glad to know I didn't argue with her. Though I like to think I'm right most of time I know better than to get into a serious debate about something when I first meet them. Most of the time anyway.
It was nice to meet more North Americans though I could've done without the American guy. I try not to be sterotypical most of the time, but this one guy there reafirmed all my previous asumptions about many Americans. He was one of those ignorant, cocky, America-is-the-best-country-in-the-world kind of Americans. After he said his first sentence to me I knew I wouldn't get along with him and that if he didn't shut up soon I'd probably get into a debate with him and that was the last thing I wanted last night. Unfortunately for me he didn't shut up. All night. When he first arrived we were talking about something to do with Canada and then he goes "well our president just won the nobel peace prize". Clearly he didn't think things through carefully before he said that in a room of Canadians. So I said "for doing NOTHING!". Then we got into a small debate about whether Obama deserved the prize or not. I wasn't arguing Obama isn't a good president or that he hasn't done good things so far, I was just arguing that he hasn't done anything worthy of the prize YET. Maybe during the next three years he'll do extrodinary things, but they could've waited until he did those things before they gave him the NPP. But lets not get into my political views on here. The rest of the night he said annoying arrogent things proving to me he knew a lot about America, but nothing about any other country in the world. He was one of those Americans. (I should note here that I have nothing against American's in general, just the American's like him).
Other than him, the night was great! Well, I guess he did make things interesting and gave me a story to tell on here. At least he lives in the city next to us so the chances of me seeing him often are very slim indeed.

In other news, I finally have a cell phone that works! It's about time. I have the coolest ring tones ever on my phone. Currently it is set to 'Surfin' the USA'.
I finally got my health card so now I can do stupid things without worrying if the hospital will fix me up afterwards.
My vacuum cleaner is still broken which means since I hate sweeping my apartment cleanings are few and far between.
I got a package in the mail the other day and got excited because up until now I've only got cards from family. Then I realized it was actually for Kristen. She gets her mail sent to my school since her school won't let her send there so it'll say Tara Heeg on the mail, but the return address actually says who it's from. Hint hint Mom and Dad... I still need my new visa sent here so that would be an excellent time to send me some other stuff as well...
Yep. That's about all I can think of right now. Sorry, no pictures this time. I didn't take any at the dinner last night.
Hope you all have a very happy Thanksgiving and enjoy the fairs that I am so sad I can't go to this year. First year since I joined 4-H back in grade three that I haven't been to the fairs. Depressing really.