Beyond Sonora: The Holidays Abroad

Thanksgiving in Aleppo

Maite and I decided to have a Thanksgiving dinner at our home. This was to be my first time hosting a Thanksgiving, so there was lots of research to be done regarding how to prepare, cook and carve a turkey, make pie crust, etc. While trying to track down appropriate ingredients from around the city, we failed to find pumpkin or squash of any kind. So instead of pumpkin pie I made a sweet potato and carrot pie with a walnut honey topping. Sounds a bit strange but it was really delicious and with the orange color and pumpkin pie spices, it was almost the same. We found a turkey, but it was extremely expensive and due to other reasons I will elaborate upon, Maite roasted a chicken stuffed with apples in pomegranate syrup instead. For sides, we made mashed potatoes, stuffing, green beans, and rolls.

We had sent-out an open invitation at work and when it was all said and done we were 13 in all, representing 10 countries: America, Syria, Spain, Austria, Italy, Belgium, Central African Republic, Mongolia, Germany and France. We barely fit in our little house, and some people had to use spoons instead of forks, but it was lots of fun!

About the Turkey: we found a frozen Butterball turkey at the new foreign-owned super-market by our house that imports most of its foods from outside Syria. I was debating whether or not to buy it, since it was from imported from so far away, and thus had a large carbon footprint. Maite also mentioned how eating turkey on Thanksgiving was something many people boycott because of the American meat industry, etc. On the other hand, I was feeling pretty nostalgic in addition to wanting to show the foreign guests a “real” American Thanksgiving which meant having a "real" turkey. But the price of the small turkey was almost 1,800 Syrian pounds, which is almost $40. I'm not sure what the typical cost of a turkey in the U.S. is; maybe about the same. But in Syria, where the average salary is $200/month I couldn't justify the cost. It isn't that I couldn't afford the turkey; I didn't want to “afford” it. I'm living here along side Syrians who make extremely low wages and I don't want to perpetuate the stereotype of all Westerners being rich and greedy consumers. So, we had a delicious local chicken instead, for a mere $5-7. :)

I made a toast before dinner and then we all dug-in and enjoyed not only the delicious dinner but a feast of desserts as well! In addition to the pie I made, we had two chocolate cakes and a tiramisu! It was a very fun evening and I felt very thankful indeed to have such a wonderful group of friends here in Aleppo to cook for and share my American holiday with. Only two of the guests had been to a Thanksgiving dinner before, so I think it was a fun experience for them, too.

My very first pie crust - it's about time!

Showing off my finished product.

Maite cleaning the chicken.

Maite's roast chicken.

Friends at the Thanksgiving table.

December

December was a very busy month; lots of socializing! I'm posting some pictures from a few of these events. First, breakfast at Abu Zaytoon's home (his name literally means "Father of the Olives") with his wife and extended family. He is a technician at ICARDA that had worked closely with Maite. He's very They had fun dressing me and Maite up and taking photos.

Then there was the couscous feast at Dr. John Ryan's home. He is the senior soil scientist at ICARDA and a delightful human being. From the moment I met him, I really loved him, and not just because of his darling Irish accent. It turns out that he went to school at the UofA, which is where he met his wife and they own a home in Tucson and regularly visit. He and his wife also lived in Morocco for maybe 10 years, so we connected over that as well. I was thrilled when he invited me to their house for couscous. They had brought their Moroccan housekeeper here with them to Syria and that she made truly amazing couscous. It really brought me back. Plus, they had all sorts of Arizona memorabilia around their house (my fave was the javelina mug in the bathroom) which made me feel right at home. I hope I can meet up with them in the future in Tucson!

Maite & Abu Zaytoon's wife.

Visiting with Abu Zaytoon's family.

The Ryans' couscous night.

Christmas decorations in Sulemaniya neighborhood.

Church decorated for Christmas, AlJadaida.

Apartment decorated for Christmas.

Lona trimming fir trees to create our x-mas tree.

Trashy Christmas lingerie.

Ho-Ho-Ho, Happy Christmas!

Then there was Christmas! I believe it ended up being a blessing spending Christmas in Aleppo rather than Turkey. First of all, many of my friends were staying in town and we decided to all celebrate together with a big dinner party. My friend Keri came up from Damascus and it was really nice having another Tucsonan around. Secondly, because there's such a large Christian population in Aleppo, there was a many stores and apartments decorated for Christmas which made it feel a little more like "home". Since it was my first Christmas away from home, it was definitely hard. But, I made the special Christmas cookies my Dad always makes successfully and was able to Skype with my family on Christmas morning and later that day with my extended family as well.

Lona was house/cat-sitting for her advisor who has a very nice, big flat (with heated floors!) in the New Sha'aba district that we were lucky to be able to party at. The original plan to get a live tree transformed into the slightly more environmental choice of trimming some of the fir trees at ICARDA which Lona skillfully molded into a tree shape, a decorated with trimmings I brought back from Turkey. Lona also arrange ahead of time to get a turkey from one on the villages around Aleppo. I guess you need to arrange far in advance so they can start feeding it properly before they kill it. It was also both Lona and my first time roasting a turkey, so that was a fun experience. It turned out to be a delicious success, mostly thanks to Lona's amazing marinade.

We also had a secret-Santa gift exchange, decorated Christmas cookies in the Seidler tradition (I used arak for the anise flavor since I couldn't find any extract), and watched "Dinner for One" which is a wacky German play (but in English) that is a holiday tradition for Lona. It was a really nice night; we didn't go home until well after 2am!

Our "Christmas Tree". The creepy Krampus-like wooden statue behind it was later removed.

Our turkey marinating.

Cutting the cookies!

Christmas dinner.

Aleppo friends :)

Opening secret-Santa gifts. Peter got a drum!

How very "Lawrence".

Getting ready to decorate the cookies!

Narryne takes her decorating very seriously.

On Christmas Day, Keri and I slept in after out long Christmas-eve celebration. Maite prepared an amazing Spanish feast and we had some guests over to celebrate. It was another long and entertaining evening.

Maite's Christmas Day Spanish feast!

Getting ready for dinner party #2!

Photos from sight-seeing in Aleppo with Keri:

Minbar at the Ummayad mosque in Aleppo.

Shrine of Zaccariah.

Keri & me inside the mosque's courtyard.

Ummayad Mosque courtyard.

Interior mosque door.

Inside the mosque.

Nouria (waterwheel) at Hama.

Keri gazing at the wheel.

Hama water wheels on the Orontes at night.

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Maite & Keri working on their New Year's wishes.

We wrote our New Year's wishes/ resolutions and sealed them inside small clay jars to open a year in the future. :)

Maite sealing her secret New Year's wish.

My wish, sealed up tight!

2011
I rang in the New Year with Ahmet in Ankara. I took the bust to Mersin and we drove the next day to Ankara with his friend Caner, a very goofy 23-year-old Kurdish man. Ankara was lovely - chilly but decorated with colorful lights and Christmas trees (except in Turkey they are New Year's Trees). We stayed in Ahmet's family's flat which was pretty centrally located. We had a very nice dinner at a pub where we also rang in the new year, surrounded by lots of other young Turks, some of us wearing pointed hats, but all drinking and having a rowdy, good time.