24 November, 2011

Thanksgiving Day in the USA

Today’s session at Window on America center Dnipropetrovsk was dedicated to the Thanksgiving Day in the USA.
The slide show reminded to the club members the basic historic facts about this holiday. The glass model of the “Mayflower” ship in a bottle caught everybody’s attention and enhanced the atmosphere.
Our American guests Sam and Tondraya clarified some unclear situations about this holiday traditions in different states. The questions asked to the Peace Corp. volunteers about various aspects of the holiday - typical foodstuffs, menu, ceremonies, etc.
The video from You Tube illustrated the topic in more detail. We learned how to
·       save on buying food for the feast,
·       carve the roasted turkey
·       how to behave at the Thanksgiving table and keep up conversation.
 The American guests explained how the holiday is celebrated in school – with lots of craft activities.
This prompted the creation of the Club’s turkey – each person wrote on a feather shaped piece of paper for what he/she is grateful. The numerous feathers gave the Club’s turkey a nice tail.
On this day English Speaking Club speaker Tamara likes to meet the club members in the historic outfit of a Pilgrim lady.
This year she expressed the wish to have a Pilgrim gentleman at her side. So the club members formed two teams and started to create a hat for the pilgrim man.  Each team had its own designer. The Pilgrim model Vlad (also dressed in the historic outfit)   tried both hats on and made some funny photos with the Pilgrim lady.
The clubmembers voted for the best Pilgrim’s hat.

Once the official part was over we continued the tradition of the last year and had a collective dinner with turkey and traditional foods – pumpkin pie, Three sisters (beans), etc.
The session and the after party were enjoyed by all the participants and strengthened the Club’s team spirit.
The number of participants – 30 persons.
Have a look at more pictures, please 

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