What I learned from my first thanksgiving? It’s actually not about the meal….it’s about sharing moments with strangers, friends and family…sharing love between human beings and making connections that might not have been there before.

Oh….and about 24hrs of solid prep work!

I have not worked so hard for any meal in my life! Having arrived at 8pm following an 11hr journey, I was put to work as my friend and I stayed up cooking, preparing and generally setting the world to rights until 2am. 6am came around quickly and after my hour of yoga we collected another friend from the train station and set to work on yet more cooking and preparing. We finished at 6:30pm ready for 20 guests due at 7:30pm sharp. We didn’t even stop to eat.

If you’re American I’m sure you know a lot about thanksgiving, so this post is not going to be about the history or the traditions, or the string bean casserole and weird sweet potatoes with marshmallows in (which had tinned pumpkin in too in our case as the sweet potatoes in Italy ended up being white and pretty tasteless), it’s about how I felt.

I booked my flights over to Italy to join my American friend two months prior. I was excited to see her and check out apartments for my upcoming move, as well as catch up with old friends and new, that I’d last seen at her wedding in the summer. I was expecting one big party.

Don’t get me wrong, it was a pretty big party, but for me, the best part was feeling at home. My friend and her husband welcomed me into their home as if I was family, which at this point I guess I pretty much am. I shared a bed with another friend who I’d only met in the summer, having heard about her for years, but she already felt like a sister to me.

The three of us stayed up way later than I’m used to, setting the world to rights and sharing our deepest secrets. On Saturday morning, my friend’s husband took me out to look at apartments, and for a walk to his favourite coffee place for breakfast. It was Saturday. He didn’t have to, but he went out of his way, pulled some favours and found me an amazing apartment in the same building as them, and paid for my breakfast.

There are some people in your life who go out of their way to show love to all they meet. This thanksgiving taught me that. There were two American basketball players who came to dinner because Erin picked up on their accents in a coffee shop and didn’t want them to be on their own for thanksgiving in a foreign country, her doctor and her friend from her favourite coffee bar, and me, the reserved English girl who used to live here. All different people with different backgrounds coming together and laughing with each other, grateful to be shown and be able to show love.

This is what I learned. It doesn’t matter who people are, or what their differences are. There is a way to bring them together. Just show them love.