November Coffee morning, USA

Our November reunion was hosted by Sheryl Flake, spouse of the American ambassador. On this occasion, she invited us to celebrate what is the most important national holiday in her country: Thanksgiving.

The day started with our usual SHOM meeting. We welcomed two new members from the International organisations group: Elena Sadikov, spouse of IMF Head of mission, and Miki Takahashi, spouse of IOM representative.

We then had some news from the activity groups.

The Charity group is putting together the next Recipe book, which will focus on Salads. If you wish, please send your recipe by 3rd December to Beatriz, spouse of the International federation for the Red Cross head of mission, at beatrizgarlaschi@gmail.com.

The Book club will meet on 8 December to discuss "In the shadow of the yali".

The Walking group is moving to Dikmen park for the winter, meeting there every Friday mornings. The Cooking club will learn to make Kimchi, a Korean dish, on 23rd Nov.

The Green group is preparing a fashion show with clothes from recycled textiles and is calling for volunteers to model!

The Movie club attended Ankara international film festival, and will go to another festival in Ankara: Festival on wheels, early Dec.

Hwa Kyung, spouse of the ambassador of South Korea, announced that the Korean cultural center will provide some traditionnal textile to the Green group.

Ross Sunclair, spouse of the New Zealand ambassador, a marine biologist, will soon talk about the carbon cycle and what we can do in our individual capacity.

Treasury update: Hala was very pleased to announced that we have reached above 60 members this Fall! We thank you for engaging actively in SHOM, and welcome the male spouses who were 5 on that day.

Sheryl had the good idea to have us pick the number of our dining table, so that we would not sit with the usual friends. This led to a lot of laugh!

Our hostess could then open the amazing Thanksgiving buffet, with the turkey (coming directly from the United States), gravy, stuffing, fresh cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, corn..

On the table were additional salad with the real ranch dressing among other delicacies

We of course continued to mix as we gathered for desserts and coffee

This beautiful lunch ended with a cooking class by the residence chef on how to make traditional american apple pie.

We also received cookies from the SHOM board, through a beautiful cornucopia prepared by the Vice-president Louma Kabalan, spouse of the ambassador of Lebanon.