do you sell sour cream?

Two years ago I spent Thanksgiving in Ireland with my family. It was slightly odd, not being in the USA, but it wasn't too strange, because I was still with my family. Clearly, Hannah and I still enjoyed Thanksgiving.

This Thanksgiving, however, I was not only in London, but I was not with my family. It was my first Thanksgiving without them. Luckily, my program decided to have its own Thanksgiving dinner. Our UNC professors said that they would provide the turkey and the pumpkin pie as long as we all brought in a side dish. Great!

Wait...now not only was it my first Thanksgiving away from my family, but it was the first time I was responsible for REALLY contributing to the meal. Hm...

So I emailed my mom and got a recipe for broccoli casserole. It seemed manageable. I was in Sainsbury's on Thanksgiving grabbing a few last minute ingredients for the casserole and I was reminded that some things just aren't the same here. For example, I could not find Ritz crackers. Or any proper substitute for a super processed, buttery and salty cracker. As I was running around, attempting to figure out the conversions for ingredients and the proper substitutes for what I couldn't find I noticed a young man with a cart. In his cart were two entire turkeys, a wide range of vegetables, and a few other seemingly obscure items. He was going up to every employee in the store and asking them "Do you carry sour cream?"

I'm not sure what Thanksgiving dish involves sour cream, but his southern drawl was a give-away; he was an American student attempting to recreate Thanksgiving, just as I was. It was some what comforting to know that someone else was having a makeshift Thanksgiving. I was tempted to speak to him, and tell him I knew how he felt. Hopefully he figured out a good substitute for sour cream.

My flatmates and I all managed to pull off our dishes, and it was a successfully yummy Thanksgiving meal. We had turkey, pie, casseroles, sweet potatoes, rolls, and cranberry sauce, just to name a few. It was nice to be around people who had ties to UNC, and North Carolina just as I do. But, while I am not quite yet ready to leave London, I decided it would have been nice to return just for Thanksgiving. It's just not the same without family.