Don't Be Sad, Just Eat a Potato

In honor of Thanksgiving, this past Sunday I held a Friendsgiving at my apartment. All of the English teachers from the center were invited and brought either food or drinks to share. A true American potluck if you will.

Because it was Friendsgiving, I, of course, had to make mashed potatoes. That Sunday morning I had a quick chat with the parentals, finalizing the menu for my guests. Alongside the potatoes, I would attempt to make a gravy using chicken broth and spices; a true feat to be sure. After the chat, I headed out to the grocery store to buy my potatoes, sour cream, chicken broth, and spices. Once I got to the store, I grew wary with the lack of patrons going to and fro. The metal gates pulled all the way down confirmed my suspicions; it was closed. Feeling a little disgruntled, I quickly pivoted and made my way to a different grocery store. The second store was also closed (surprise, surprise). I had a feeling finding sour cream would be the bane of my existence seeing as how it’s not necessarily a popular product here, but it was becoming clear the grocery stores themselves would be my downfall. Keep in my mind I had also walked over 20 minutes to the first grocery store and then an additional 15 minutes to the second grocery store. I was simply walking off the calories I would soon earn through dinner. After the second defeat, I decided I would head back to the small store near my apartment that would at least get me 2 of the 4 ingredients I so dearly desired. Only once I got to the third store, I saw the blasted metal gates (this actually was a surprise for me).

Feeling quite dejected, I took a moment to collect myself and came up with a new game plan. I, unfortunately, had to scrap the idea of making gravy. Although, to be fair, I had no idea how it would turn out to begin with, so it might have been the universe sending me a not so silent signal. Without the gravy, I decided to make a batch of garlic mashed potatoes. Looking around at my meagre options, I spotted a woman selling vegetables on the sidewalk outside the store; a literal angel sent to me from who knows where. I bought all of her potatoes (about 5 pounds of small, russet-esque potatoes) and headed to the nearest convenience store to see what options they had for me. I grabbed a couple of small cartons of milk and a package of mini cream cheeses to ensure the potatoes would, at the very least, be creamy. I had garlic already at my apartment, so that was one less item to worry about. I quickly paid and made my way back to my apartment.

When it came time to actually make the potatoes, I brought out all my ingredients and realized the garlic I had was moldy. Honestly, I could not catch a break. Thankfully, I had some garlic salt that would need to suffice. The actual cooking portion turned out fine, and my potatoes turned out as tasty as I could hope given the circumstances.

The guests arrived starting at 6:30 and brought along lots of yummy food. We had potatoes, green beans, vegetable rice, air fried ham and cheese sandwiches, pasta, deviled eggs, and an ice cream cake. We all filled our bellies with the scrumptious food and simply had a nice time talking with one another because obviously the large amounts of time we spend commuting and working together is not enough. As the host, I, of course, insisted each person share out one thing they were thankful for before we dug in.

Prettiest pot of mashed potatoes you will ever see

After the plates had been cleared (thrown out), we moved on to playing games. I had borrowed several board games from work, including Uno Attack, so we settled in for a fun night of competition. Once we had our fill of Uno, we switched to a game called Werewolf. Essentially, each member is assigned, at random, a person, such as troublemaker, werewolf, or villager. As a group, you had to determine who all was the werewolf (if there was one at all) by going through who all was each character and what information they could provide based on what they had seen during the game. Several times I had been accused of being a werewolf, and when the time came for voting, they soon realized they had killed a poor villager (joke's on them since they lost as well). We played easily like 40 rounds of this. By the time it was around 2am, only 4 of us were left in my apartment. We then played another card game before finally calling it quits at 3:30am.

English teachers in the wild

While it was not ideal for me that I was not home with my family for the holiday, this Friendsgiving did help me feel a little less lonely. Tentative plans are in place for a similar night come Christmas time, so keep reading for the next adventure.