Thanksgiving

Everyone here was interested to learn about the American Thanksgiving holiday. People have political and religious holidays, but something like Thanksgiving is not so common in the world (I know Canada has one). So I told them about it. Th is my main teaching day, and even my students were curious. That, or they were trying to get professor off track from lecturing on liberal theories of international relations (morning class) or Presidential-Congressional bargaining (afternoon class).

I invited three friends to dinner for T-day. We went to a wonderful restaurant in St. Paul's Bay, Tarragon. Turned out our waiter (and manager, I think) was from the US and had fallen in love with Malta while on a visit during an Army leave. We did not have turkey, stuffing, pumpkin pie or any of the traditional things, but the food was excellent. We had some very nice wine, followed by a digestif (not sure how to spell that) and then our waiter asked if we would like some cognac on the house. Sure. He brought it out slightly warmed--the bowl of the brandy glass was set in the top of a glass with hot water in it. It was an attractive presentation and released the aroma of the brandy perfectly. We had a lovely carrot soup, I had an Indonesian style chicken, others had duck and there might have been a pork dish. Tiramisu was dessert (not a half bad idea for Thanksgiving, I think). We laughed a great deal. I was and am grateful for their friendship and for the chance to be here in Malta.

I hope any American readers out there had as nice a Thanksgiving as I did.