Happy Thanksgiving

This week in my english class I tried to teach my students about Thanksgiving. We did the usual reading about the history of the day and learning about what we do in America and such. And then the speaking activity was to think about what you were thankful for and talk about it with a partner. I always know when they don't understand something cause they all sit silently and look at their papers. So I started giving examples of what I was thankful for like my family, the opportunity to live in Latvia and learn Latvian and so on. They still gave me puzzled looks and I said well aren't you glad that Latvia is independent and that you get to live in a free country. And they were like no that's fate...I guess I didn't think that trying to teach about being thankful about things was so hard. Finally after about 20 mins they admitted that they were thankful that they get to learn English for free and other things like that. It was just an interesting cultural experience and another lesson to add to the many I have learned about cultural differences.
Also speaking of thanksgiving one of the Fulbright professors and his wife hosted us for Thanksgiving dinner last night and it was so nice to chat with fellow Americans. I think its like therapy living abroad to share your cultural stories and mishaps with other people from your country who have had similar experiences. Still it was nice to get together with other people who understood the idea behind Thanksgiving!

Me and some of the women from my english class!