Turkey-Gate '08

So, I think last time I posted, I was very optimistic about Thanksgiving in Italy. Let's just say my optimism has been deflated a bit by what I'm now (fondly?) referring to as "turkey-gate '08." I think the simplest way to explain this little adventure is just to say that the Italian women who run the house DO NOT understand this very American holiday. The tension first emerged last Wednesday when I went with Laura (one of the Italian ladies) to a paper wholesaler and to Rialto market. The paper wholesale shop was where Laura intended for us to buy table cloths, paper products, plastic utensils, etc. So I meet Laura near the shop in the FREEZING weather, which did wonders for my lovely cough, but whatever, the show must go on. We go in to this shop and a burly man probably 3 inches SHORTER than me starts bustling around to "help" us. And by "help," I mean "show Laura 500 things we never knew we needed that are ridiculously overpriced." So Laura's just throwing stuff on to the counter like it's Christmas, and our burly little friend adds it up and announces that it's 197 Euro, but he'll knock it down to 190. Hey thanks, bud. Laura takes this all in stride and writes the man a check, meanwhile I'm slowly dying inside, because our ENTIRE Thanksgiving budget is 600 Euro...you do the math there. Adding insult to injury is the fact that I had looked in to buying all of this from the Italian Wal Mart (Panorama) and it would've been at least half as expensive and not all that much of an inconvenience to transport.

Before the ink was dry on that check, Laura dragged me to her personal butcher so we could order turkeys. Now I did some intense guest-list calculations and predictions and realized we're going to expect around 60 people. And the rule of thumb, or so I've been told, is to get 1 to 1 1/2 lbs of turkey per person, so I was aiming for 75lbs of bird....also known as 35 kg. Laura refuses to listen to this logic, and initially orders 4 separate 6 kg turkeys, but I use my excellent powers of persuasion and convince her to order a 5th (which STILL isn't nearly enough). As I'm already fretting about this, I learn a)this will set us back 50 Euro PER FREAKING TURKEY and b)the restaurant that agreed to cook the turkeys might cook them Tuesday or Wednesday. So now I'm thinking "great, I'm going to be serving cold, insufficient turkey to a bunch of grumpy, homesick kids." When I express my concern to Laura regarding pre-cooking the turkeys, she says to me "but Jenny, it is winter. We will cook the turkeys and just set them outside until Thursday." Lord help us all...luckily at this point we had to go our separate ways, or I might've hurt her. Also, if you're keeping tabs, this means Laura and I spent about 450 Euro in a matter of 1 hour, leaving 150 Euro to prepare every last remaining item for 60 people...

Later that day, as I'm still trying to figure out how to deal with this, especially since the students are now freaking out (I made the mistake of venting with them), Laura, Roberta, and Massimo (our handyman) call me in to the office. Like a little firing squad, they rapidly inform me that every prior year, 25 kg of turkey is PLENTY and we will only be getting that much. Have a nice day. At this point, I'm really just ticked...I'm sorry, but this is an AMERICAN holiday and I'm pretty sure that automatically makes me more qualified than any of them to assess our turkey needs. On the other hand, I've never done this before (not for 4 people, not for 60), especially not in ITALY, so, I'm pretty inexperienced, and if they don't think I'm qualified, they shouldn't have gotten me involved in the first place. So, I go downstairs, and end up realizing that we can get turkey from the army base in Vicenza since Caroline and Charlotte mentioned it. Done. Trip planned for the upcoming weekend. Whew.

If only it ended there. So, Charlotte and Caroline get stuck with a HUGE list of requests from people for American ingredients from the base to make typical dishes. Which wasn't supposed to be a problem because Jen and Karen were supposed to go help. Well, they overslept and decided not to go, so the girls couldn't get all the items on the list, not to mention 30+ lbs of bird. No big deal, they planned to go Saturday for a second trip. Caroline was too hungover. Not a problem, how about Sunday? Oh, well, Charlotte had a friend in town. Eh, they'll skip class Monday and go then. Oh wait, it snowed, so the grocery store on the base was closed (which they discovered only upon arrival). So, now, we have a mere 3 6kg turkeys on order from the butcher (the most he will give us, not to mention the most we can afford), and the girls are attempting to return to Vicenza tomorrow, however a)it is 2 days from Thanksgiving and Lord knows if any turkeys will be left, b)it's supposed to snow again, c)they can't even leave here until after lunch and it's a 2 hr trip each way. OH MY LORD. Honestly, if I had my way, I'd have just not worried about offending Laura and Roberta from the beginning (not using their butcher is a faux pas apparently) and sent enough people with the girls to the base to get all our turkeys there, especially because it's significantly cheaper (1 USD per pound), but now it's too late, and we'll be lucky to even get enough turkey to supplement the turkeys coming from the butcher.

On top of that, we still don't have very much of the budget left to buy ingredients for the remaining dishes. Eeek. I knew this would be complicated, but, I figured the oven logistics and that sort of thing would be more problematic than literally having enough food. In the grand scheme of things, I realize this is one day, one holiday, but everyone is so homesick, plus, we have a)Italian guests who I want to show a real Thanksgiving and b)families of students here who willingly flew across the ocean and gave up a holiday with their whole, extended families, so I want this to NOT be a pathetic train wreck! Cross your fingers for me...

The rest of the time since my last update has flown...I've mostly been making a serious effort to get over my horrible cough/cold (a success, I think), doing as much pre-Thanksgiving organizing as possible, and hanging out as much as possible with the kids here because I'm going to miss them terribly when we leave! I did some shopping in Padova on Saturday and got really tall black pumps (a necessity, I say), another little black dress (emphasis on little, but whatever, I'm short), and a great sweater (highly useful this time of year, no?). We've also been doing a bit of a restaurant tour to hit both unique places (like the Indian restaurant near the Frari) and Italian places we've never tried ("Sport-rant," "the good bread restaurant," etc), which has been GREAT (then again my enthusiasm about eating should surprise no one)! I'm also running around like crazy to get David's gift together on top of weird Thanksgiving errands like buying enough flour/eggs/sugar/milk/butter/foil baking pans/etc, but, I LOVE being busy, so, I promise I'm not complaining! OH and I sent in my last official law school application today...so, unless I add a school in the DC area or an off the wall place (California??), I'm DONE with that and I'll hear from places starting as early as December (but as late as April for some, unfortunately). Also cross your fingers there...

Ok, the novel-length crisis update is over, but, just fyi, the pictures are my attempt to capture what the driving snow looked like this morning when I woke up : )