A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
A huge turkey and a refrigerator big enough to hold it, sweet potatoes topped with mini marshmallows and canned pumpkin for pumpkin pie - well, that, of course, is a standard-issue Thanksgiving in America, but not the case overseas. We spoke with Americans abroad about how they celebrate Thanksgiving far from home.
AUSTIN FOSSEY: My name is Austin Fossey. I'm from the Boston area, but I currently live in Copenhagen, Denmark.
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FOSSEY: So the refrigerators are very small, but it's OK 'cause the grocery store is right downstairs. But the turkey that I got is very big and won't fit in there, so it's right now outside on our balcony, brining in buttermilk and pickle juice for three days. But it's cold enough outside that it's OK, I hope. And as long as seagulls don't find it, it should be fine.
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KIMBERLY MITCHELL: Hi. My name is Kimberly Mitchell. I'm originally from Arkansas, but I'm currently living just outside Lisbon, Portugal. I do have a really funny story about the first year that we got the turkey. My friend was in charge. And you can't just walk into a supermarket here and find a frozen turkey, so you go to the butcher and you order your turkey. We thought about how many people we had and how big the turkey should be. So she goes into the butcher shop, and she's thinking about kilos and pounds and having to make the conversion. So she asked for a 14- to 16-kilo turkey. And that is, like, over 30 pounds of turkey. So the butcher came out with this giant turkey. They called it a monster turkey in Portuguese - o peru monstro.
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KARNIKA: Hi. My name is Karnika. I'm originally from California. I grew up in the Bay Area, really close to San Francisco, and right now I'm living in Seoul for work. I've been here for a little bit over a year. Korea has this holiday called Chuseok in October that is almost exactly like Thanksgiving. Like, the idea is that you go back to your hometown, spend time with your family, cook a, like, large meal together. And there's, like, special foods that they cook just for that holiday, and it's almost exactly like Thanksgiving. So sometimes, to my Korean friends, I'll explain it as, oh, it's American Chuseok.
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JOYCE KINKEAD: Hi. I'm Joyce Kinkead from Logan, Utah, and I lived in Paris, France, during Thanksgiving in 2011. I went to the Bastille market on a Thursday two weeks before Thanksgiving. And so then I commenced to ask, in my limited French, la fete americaine - les pilgrims et les Indians. And she goes, oh, oui, oui, oui. I ordered a turkey for Thanksgiving two weeks then. Our friend Bob showed up, and he and I went to the Bastille market to pick up the turkey. It was a beautiful golden-brown turkey, and she had wrapped it beautifully and even put sparklers on it. Maybe she got it conflated with the Fourth of July. OK, but it was a American holiday, and so she was going to do it up right.
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PAULA LANDART: Hello. My name is Paula Landart, and I'm from Connecticut.
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LANDART: And I'm currently living in Venice, Italy.
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LANDART: I've lived in Italy for almost 40 years. I make a pumpkin pie. In fact, I make it every year for about 30 people, maybe. We choose a day - it's always a Sunday - in which we all sail out to a particular island, which is called Poveglia. And for the past 10 years, I've been bringing pumpkin pie. They thought it was pretty strange, but with the years - you know, the first year, they said, what is this? And the second year, they said, oh no. Not again. And the third year, they said, well, where is the pumpkin pie?
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MARTÍNEZ: Tales of an American Thanksgiving in Denmark, Portugal, South Korea, France and Italy.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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