A Dominican Thanksgiving/Cigar

Thanksgiving Day = El Día de Acción de Gracias (lit. The day of the action of thanking)

Anyway.

I’m not really too too used to spending holidays away from family. Since I started college, I’ve spent two Easters in Pittsburgh, but I always had a solid group of friends or my Godparents to spend time with. Never Thanksgiving though- this one was the first one I’ve spent away from home. O sea, the first Thanksgiving I’ve spent away from my family, cause I have spent a few Thanksgivings in Jersey. In a good part of Jersey. Good parts of Jersey do exist. Para que sepan ustedes.

But I digress.

So yesterday was a Thanksgiving unlike any that I’d ever had. First of all, I got up at 7. Ugh.
730-830 Gym
9-11 Film class (all Americans, waiting for their Thanksgiving lunch. It was torture)
1130-1230 Hung out at the ISA office and stared at all the food people were bringing in
1230-4 Potluck lunch!/ISA meeting
4-6 Did homework at the Shell [gas station] with a friend
630-7 Skyped with about half of my Mom’s side. Which is still like 15 people. I think. I couldn’t really see. It was blurry.
7-8 Culture and Society class

For our Thanksgiving lunch, ISA had us all bring a dish to share (they provided the turkey)… (well, technically, Supermercado Nacional provided the turkey). I brought another Oreo Pudding Pie, which was one of like five other pies. There were also a ton more desserts too… cheesecake, cookies, Jello…

And I guess normal food too. Stuffing, green bean casserole, salad, Irish soda bread, potatoes, etc. One of the ISA directors even brought rice. No. No rice on Thanksgiving. It doesn’t work that way. Yesterday was probably the third or fourth day out of the whole time I’ve been here that I did not eat a single grain of rice.


MmmMMmm dessert table.

Anyway, that was yesterday. Today I went for a walk and bummed around, then at 3 a bunch of us ISA kids met up for an excursion to a cigar factory. It was only about 10 minutes away, and it was actually pretty cool. There were two guys working there, and they roll all the cigars by hand. All the tobacco had aged for at least two years, and up to seven years. I’m hardly a tobacco connoisseur and had no idea that it was such a long process.


A guy rolling cigars.

A few of my friends and I bought a box of five to split among us, and I bought another box for some friends at home/school. I bought the cheapest box there was, and it was still $12.50 for 5. One kid in my group is really into cigars, and he spent over $120. These cigars were really nice though- especially because they’re hand rolled. They’re one of the DR’s main exports (along with rum, fruit, coffee, and sugarcane). I did smoke one (sorry Dad) and it took me over an hour to finish it. These things are massive.