Dia De Gracias

Yesterday we finally got our chance to celebrate Thanksgiving here in Ecuador. Last Thursday was a pretty homesick day for probably every gringo at USFQ that I encountered, but last night definitely made up for it. All 30 of us K kids organized and put on one heck of a feast for each other. We had the party at Sari's house, which is huge and is kind of like hogwarts with lots of hidden rooms, stairways, and an indoor pool and spa which a few of us enjoyed before dinner (reminded me of swimming at grandma's house in Maui).
Each person/pair brought something to share, and god we had tons of food. Lolo and Sari spent Saturday cooking the beast (which was awesome, I must say) and everyone else brought everything. With 30 people, we had tons of food and just as much dessert. We had turkey, gravy, jalapeno cornbread, mashed potatoes, stuffing, meatloaf, veggies, pumpkin pie, apple pie and crisp, tres leches, and so much more. I brought haupia for everyone, and apparently it was well appreciated :) We all were stuffed, to say the least. My madre (and apparently others' too) teased me about how I ate a tiny lunch to "prepare myself" for dinner. Here, lunch is such a huge deal that a giant dinner is rare. I definitely followed that Ancog saying "If you stop you get full" and just powered my way through dinner. Needless to say I am still not that hungry today.
All in all, although we all missed our families, it was a great time to sit and enjoy the company of our own little Kalamazoo-Ecuador family with good food and friends. With so much love going around the room, it definitely felt like the real deal.

All of us after our great Thanksgiving dinner