10 Weeks Down, 31 to Go!

Hello again! I've lasted yet another week here in Spain. The weeks seem to fly by, now that I am a little busier with extra classes and whatnot. This week went especially fast since it was Thanksgiving and I had a few things to prepare.

Some of you may be wondering what we did for Thanksgiving here in Spain. Well on Thursday Meagan, Melanie, Theresa and I went to the American University's Thanksgiving dinner. The abroad program run by AU includes a Thanksgiving dinner, and as alumni of the program we were invited to this years festivities.

It was a little odd, but still wonderful. It made me think of my semester and how much I loved that, but also about how somethings never change. For example, when we were on the abroad trip MariCarmen introduced us to the song Gracias a la Vida which is a Spanish song that basically just gives thanks for all the parts of life, good and bad. We sang it back in 2006 and Thursday night. The song really is fitting with Thanksgiving because, for me, the holiday is a good time to reflect on what life has brought you and to appreciate where you are in life. I can honestly say I am happy in my current situation.

Another wonderful aspect of Thursday night was that we got to take a group photo with MariCarmen. She is probably the nicest person ever and I couldn't imagine living in Spain without her support and the support of the other people connected to her. To give you an example of how wonderful she is on Thursday she spilled salad (which was dressed in oil) all over her dress. I found her in the ladies room trying to wash it off. At a time when most people would have been mortified or angry she just smiled away and we chatted. Later Melanie told me that she spent a long time talking to MC in the Mosaic office. This time included the story about the salad, but MariCarmen cheerfully told Melanie that it was OK because she got a chance to have a nice conversation with me. Talk about perspective!

We had a "traditional" American Thanksgiving on Saturday at Eimear and Blair's apartment. They were in charge of making the bird and a side and our apartment was going to bring mashed potatoes, pie, sweet potatoes and an appetizer. Melanie was responsible for the potatoes, Audrey did the sweet potatoes and appetizer and I elected to do the pie. What was I thinking? Until Friday afternoon I had never made pie crust from scratch! Luckily I had made pumpkin pie filling a few thousand times so that wouldn't be too bad.

I looked up a recipe for pie crust and got to work. It turned out alright, a little gummier than I thought pie crust was supposed to be, but hopefully no one else would know. Then it was on to the filling. I purchased the can of pumpkin puree at the American grocery store. Thankfully it came pre-spiced so I didn't have to buy several jars of spices to mix into pumpkin pie spice. I took the can opener to the can and tried for a few minutes to get it to latch on. No success. I asked Melanie for help, it stumped her too. I then went to buy a can opener.

The only ones available were the kind that punch a hole into the can, like you would use for a can of pineapple juice. I bought this kind thinking that I could just punch several holes around the top and pop the lid off. Nope. The grade of metal was too much for my cheap can opener. It punctured the evaporated milk with ease, but couldn't get to the pumpkin. So then I decided to get in any way possible. I hammered at the top with the cheap opener and finally made a hole big enough to fit the kitchen scissors in. I cut the top of the can as much as I could an scooped out the pumpkin. Next I used the evaporated milk to wash the sides of the can. After the filling was made the pie went into the oven to bake. I was nervous about our conversion from Fahrenheit to Celsius, but everything turned out fine.

The next day we piled into a cab and went to our late lunch party. When we got there the apartment had about a half dozen Spanish ladies in it. They were all very nice and excited to see what Thanksgiving was all about. One asked if there were any songs, but seemed a little disappointed when we said no. We put out appetizers and sangria and chatted in Spanish.

Next Anna, Morgaine and Fiona showed up. All three are from the UK. For Anna and Morgaine it was their first Thanksgiving. Fiona later told me that she had a roommate at university from New York, so she had participated in a Thanksgiving before. In all we had a total of 13 people, only 5 of which were from America.We squished our party into the table and dished up plates.

There was soooooo much food, but it all looked amazing. If forced to pick a favorite, I'd have to say the sweet potatoes by Audrey (i'm working on getting the link, when I do I will put it up here!). Before chowed down, we went around the table to say what we were most Thankful for. We did this in both English and Spanish.



I almost cried when one of the Spanish girls told us that she was very thankful to have been invited because she missed her family very much and she felt at home with our crowd. I had to agree with her. Thanksgiving is a holiday that I had gotten used to spending with a crowd of at least 10, but usually more and this time was no exception. Everyone at the party was just as wonderful as could be and it really felt like a family Thanksgiving.

P.S. The pie was a hit!