Thanksgiving in Rome
In 1995, while abroad on an Italian language and literature
program in Rome, I spent Thanksgiving in front of my laptop computer
writing a term paper. It was not a holiday, of course, in Italy, and
doubly so because the end of the semester loomed. But I wrote all
morning, afternoon, and evening, and by about 11 p.m. I was out of
creative juice for the day.
Fortunately, at that very moment (5 p.m. Pittsburgh time),
my family was settling in for Thanksgiving dinner as usual at my
aunt's house. I phoned them while they were at the table, and they
passed me around on a cordless receiver so that I could speak to
everyone in my family. It was no substitute for turkey, stuffing, and
pumpkin pie, but it was the only time I have spent Thanksgiving
anywhere but with my family, and even then I was able to travel, in a
small way, to see them.
--Padraic
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