Thanksgiving....more than just turkey

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday because we always get together with my entire family and last year especially I experienced more laughter than I had in some time. I will precede this story by saying that I absolutely love my family. Ever since I left for school I have really grown to appreciate how wonderful they are and how lucky I am to have such a close relationship with them. Nothing makes me happier than the seldom breaks in school when I get to go home and see my family.

We love to play games when we are together during the holidays and one of our favorites is Catch Phrase. Everyone in my family is pretty competitive except for my dad and his brother. They are extremely laid back and they love to be on the same team and use that against the rest of us. On this particular occasion, most of the adults had been drinking for a while which may have added to the humor of the situation. Nevertheless, it is something I will always remember as probably being the hardest I’ve ever laughed in my life. My uncle and my dad had decided that they were going to cheat and it took us a while to catch on. Every time it was their turn they would say one adjective like “red” and the other would say a noun like “glasses”. They would pretend that that was the right answer and pass it to the next person. If you have never played Catch Phrase this may not make sense to you, but basically the purpose is to get your team to guess the word on the card by describing it to them.

It wasn’t until they started laughing that we finally figured out what they were doing. I have never seen either of them laugh so hard in my life—they were having trouble breathing and their faces started to turn purple. I was actually a little scared my dad was going to have a heart attack. Part of the reason it was so funny was because their responses were unexpected and some of them were even inappropriate. They were laughing primarily at each other because whoever had the card would be surprised by what the other one would come up with. It was like that game when someone says a word and you say the first thing that comes to mind. Most of the time you laugh because you’re confused at why that just came out of your mouth.

The main reason we were laughing was because they thought they were so funny. Part of human nature is to imitate others. This is shown most obviously when someone yawns and most people near them will unknowingly yawn as well. In this same fashion, when someone is laughing at something it is normal for me to laugh too just because they find it so funny. Naturally, we all were laughing nearly as hard as they were—partly at their inappropriate responses and partly at how funny they found it to be.

I think laughter is one of the most natural and important parts of any relationship. If you can’t laugh with each other or even at each other, then I find the relationship to be boring. Laughing uncontrollably in the way I have described above is one way that people bond with each other and make memories. You could ask any member of my family what the most memorable part of thanksgiving last year was and they would all recall this exact situation and they would remember it in great detail just as I do. I have found over the years that reminiscing is something that brings people together—and usually you are recalling the times that made you laugh.

I believe that laughter is the most powerful form of medicine. It relieves stress, brings you closer to others, diffuses tense situations, and simply makes you happy.

Turns out I'm pretty good at pool!

            On Friday I met with Terrence again, but this time we decided to do something a little different. He has been telling me for weeks how much he loves to play pool, so we decided to meet in the bottom floor of the rec center and play a few games. I haven’t played in years but I surprisingly beat him 2 out of 3 times! I thought it was interesting that when we were tied 1-1, he said that he would rather end with it that way. He didn’t care about winning as long as everyone was happy. We ended up playing one more game—my competitiveness came out a little bit—but at the end he kept telling me how much fun he had despite the fact that he lost. That’s definitely not something I’m used to hearing but it was refreshing not to care so much about winning. Afterwards we talked for about a half hour and I continued to learn more about him.

            We started the conversation talking about parties because Terrence was having a party with his friends this weekend for Halloween. He was telling me how parties in America are so much different than parties in China. He said this was because people in America are crazier and don’t care what people think of them. He likes this better because there is always music and dancing and people can do whatever they want. This is very different than China—their parties consist mostly of standing around talking and eating food with no music or dancing involved.

            Being the day after Halloween, it was appropriate for us to talk about holidays in the United States and China. I asked if he had ever celebrated Halloween before he came here and he said that he hadn’t. However, I found it fascinating that they decorate for Halloween still in China. In public places, like shopping centers, there would be Halloween decorations up to create the ambiance of the holiday without actually celebrating it. He said they do the same at Christmas time even though most people don’t celebrate that holiday either. I think this is very indicative of the impact Western culture has on other parts of the world. We place such an emphasis on these holidays (especially Christmas) that their influence has travelled to countries that don’t even celebrate the holidays.

            When Terrence started to tell me about the spring festival, which is their big holiday they celebrate, I asked him when it was. He told me he didn’t know how to explain it in English because their method of keeping the date is so much different than ours. He told me they have two methods of keeping track of the date—there is a national way that all of China shares and there is also an individual way that is based on when the person was born. I found this very interesting so I did a little bit more research on my own. It turns out that the Chinese calendar is on a 60-year cycle, while ours counts years in an infinite sequence. They don’t number the years, but rather give them a two-part name that tells you which year it is in the cycle. The second part of the name is an animal, which is commonly used to see what characteristics those born in that year are supposed to have—similar to the western horoscope.

            I had another great meeting with Terrence and I can’t wait to see what’s in store for next week!