For some expatriates there comes a point of surrender. Keeping the back-home traditions becomes too much trouble. Or the allures of the host country become too strong. Call it Thanksgiving Up.
Such is the case for Susan Partington who lives with her family in Gisborne, New Zealand. "After seven years down under, I've completely given up on the traditional foods. Spending a Thursday cooking lots of hot food during summer is absurd."
Still, she finds ways to mark the Thanksgiving holiday occurring thousands of miles away. "My family and I invite any random Americans we know out to a restaurant," Susan says. "And whether it's fish curry or pizza, we always go around the table and say what we are thankful for — which is really the best part of Thanksgiving."
**
We hope American expatriates will share photos of Thanksgiving celebrations and tables and gatherings from around the world. Please send them to us on Thanksgiving Day — and over the long holiday weekend --at protojournalist@npr.org or post them using the hashtag #nprexpat. We will display as many as we can.
**
The Protojournalist: Experimental storytelling for the LURVers – Listeners, Users, Readers, Viewers – of NPR. @NPRtpj
Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.