Jenny arrived there nervous and serious, expecting this to be the same as in China, where students just go to a huge hall, with directors and supervisors sitting in front, who were going to hold a speech, and maybe some student representatives as well, and after the whole thing was done, it would be over.
She expected them to be talking about the school’s history, about the culture, about the study environment, and about life outside the classroom.
Her expectations were right, there were students from different countries with different dialects talking in English, and it was quite interesting.
But because she was taller than others, she was sitting in the back of the hall, as usual. In the beginning it all sounded really interesting to her, but after some time, she started to doze away.
When the event was over, Wendy woke her up.
“Let’s go and join the barbecue!”
“Barbecue?”
Jenny was still a little sleepy, but when they walked out of the assembly hall into the bright sunshine, she smelled the food, and started to rub her stomach.
There was a huge crowd at the square near the main teaching building, they were international students from all over the world.
On the lawn there were separated barbecue grills. Some of them had really good equipment as well.
Each of the grills had a crowd around it, the boys were responsible for getting the fire started, and the girls were standing around, fanning wind for the fire and handing over things the boys needed.
Jenny was watching the situation, and thought that it was all just too perfect.
Wendy dragged her into one of the crowds, the students were from Italy, Korea, And also Africa, and there were two students from China as well. Everyone was chatting nonstop.
After a while, there was another crowd which started walking towards them. They heard that these were seniors who came to help the first years and new students.
Walking in front of them must be the president of the student representatives, an American. He had the fair and soft skin, and long eyelashes, which were curled, they covered his bright dark eyes. They were walking calmly towards them.
Right behind him, were students carrying thermo boxes and handing them over to the grilling groups.
Jenny and her troupe opened the box and saw inside all kinds of marinated meat, ribs, beef, and fish as well.
There was also vegetables, corn, mushrooms, bell pepper and others.
Other than that, there were also bread for hamburgers, ketchup, mayo, mustard, and so many other salad sauces. And there were also chopped fruits and fruit salad.
Everyone was happy about starting the barbecue party.
The student from Africa had dark skin, in his one hand he was holding the metal fork and getting the coal to burn, in his other hand he was holding a fan to fan the fire.
He got the fire started, and it was burning really high up, so that the students around the grill stepped a way back. The African student turned to them and smiled, his white teeth in contrast with his dark skin.
After that it took some more time before the barbecue fire was burning properly.
Everyone was putting on meat to grill, and the African boy was helping to get the food ready. After a while he used a tissue to wipe his sweat.
Some of the other students offered to take turns with him, but he didn’t want to. He wanted to continue working on the grill.
On the barbecue there was already full of meat and veggies, the fire under the food was burning, cooking the food slowly, the beef turned from bloody red to brown, the oil and fat dripping on the fire and making a sound. The smell of meat was wrapping around everyone’s heads.
People were surrounding the grill, everyone holding their plate in the hand, and waiting for the food to be ready.
The cooked food was taken to everyone, and the students thanked the grill master for his help, and then everyone took their plate to the tables to eat. Once in a while someone would shout and tell the cook that he did a wonderful job.
Jenny took some bread and made a hamburger with her meat and vegetables, and added some sauce and started to eat.
The food was way too much to eat, even though it looked like a normal burger from McDonald, but when she was eating it, it felt much more.
Jenny was holding her burger, trying to find the right angle to get all the layers into her mouth, but when she opened her mouth she noticed that it was not big enough for the burger. So all she could do was to eat it in small bites, first the upper half then the lower half.
She saw Wendy sitting by the side, eating a banana by herself, and walked towards her.
“There’s so much food, and you have picked a banana to eat.”
“You know how bad I feel just watching you guy eat? I have gained too much weight these days eating, otherwise I wouldn’t be sitting here with a banana.”
Wendy took another bite.
“I don’t think that you have gained much weight, it is not gonna do you any harm to eat a burger.” Jenny said while waving her burger in front of Wendy’s eyes.
“I am not like you, you just eat and eat but you don’t get fat, do you have any idea how much calories this burger has? I would be surprised if I don’t gain another pound after taking just one bite.”
Wendy was looking sadly at Jenny, nagging.
“Just take one bite, only one, this burger is so much better than from any other store!” Jenny took her burger and was trying to feed Wendy.
“No way, stop seducing me like this, if I say I am not going to eat, then I am not going to eat.”
Just like this, Jenny with the burger in her hand, was running after Wendy and chasing her over the lawn. In the end, both of them were happily eating a burger on the side.
“See, I told you, and you didn’t want to believe me. You took one bite and realized that you almost missed this wonderful delicacy.”
“Yeah, yeah. I didn’t know this would be so yummy. I swear after this meal I will go on a diet.”
Then, both of them were laughing.
…
Time was passing so fast, and Thanksgiving was around the corner, just like every fourth Thursday of October. This was the festival of Americans getting together.
Erica invited Jenny to her house and to spend Thanksgiving together, but all Jenny could think about was her script, especially since she never had the habit of celebrating this day in China.
Thanksgiving was lasting from Thursday till Sunday of the same week, it was just perfect for her to use the time and focus on her homework.
Jenny declined Erica’s invitation. She won’t have the time to enjoy the turkey and the pumpkin pies.
Erica still hoped that she would come to her house and spend the day with her, she has even told her parents that she was going to bring a friend with her. And Thanksgiving was a day to spend with families, just like the Mid-Autumn festival in China.
But Jenny still wasn’t able to accept her offer, even though it would be a lot of fun, but she felt that she would not fit into her family, so Jenny decided that she would stay back and study.