I've been SUPER busy lately and haven't had much time to update the blog but I figured I couldn't NOT post on Turkey Day! Here's a brief recap of all the Thanksgiving goings-on in my life this week...
I've been preparing presentations and crafts for the big day allllllll week. On Tuesday, I taught the 5-year-olds to make traditional hand-print turkeys (which apparently the auxiliar from last year did too). Because I let them trace their own hands, most of them ended up looking pretty malformed, but hey, they were cute! The 4-year-olds colored various Thanksgiving pictures...inevitably, their turkeys all ended up being purple, pink, green, and blue instead of the traditional brown, red, orange, and yellow.
The 5th and 6th graders and 1º ESO learned about the history and modern day traditions of Thanksgiving from a PowerPoint presentation that I made them. Also, they learned how to talk about things that they are thankful for. We went around the room and each kid had to say "I am thankful for [insert ONE thing that you are thankful for]." I was surprised at how difficult this was for them. And not because it was in English, but because they're just kids and it still hasn't really hit them how lucky they are to have family, friends, health, etc.
Lastly, I helped my favorite class, the 1st grade, make a poster of a giant turkey with feathers made of different-colored handprint cutouts! I'm definitely most proud of this project...it turned out really well, as you can see below!
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| My favoritesss :) María, Ainhoa, Francisco Cruz, Adrián, Aroa, Francisco Garcia, Zaira, Julián, and Yeray |
With all the projects and presentations leading up toThanksgiving, it's quite a letdown not to be celebrating it at home with FAMILY and FRIENDS and of course all the delicious AMERICAN FOOD! This is, hands down, the most I've missed home so far.
We are planning on having a Thanksgiving dinner in the piso, but Martín and Tomás left for Rome on this morning to visit a friend who is studying there, and we won't be celebrating it until after they come back the following Wednesday. This is actually fine by me because since I've been so busy lately, I haven't had much time to prepare recipes and definitely haven't had time to try any of them out (and with my incompetence in the kitchen, trying them out for myself before serving them to anyone else is a must!
And now, here's the bad news. My roomies and I aren't going to get to experience the deliciousness of a true Thanksgiving...and no, it's not because I can't cook (though that doesn't help the situation). There are NO whole turkeys!!!! Besides sliced, the only turkey I've been able to find is turkey legs. Not sure if I'm gonna go with turkey legs or if I'm gonna try to cook a whole chicken instead. Also, there's no cranberries or cranberry sauce, no Jiffy corn bread mix, and worst of all, NO CANNED PUMPKIN so I can't even make a pumpkin pie unless I buy a whole pumpkin, clean it, cut it, cook it, and then mash it! :( :( :( Wow, what a depressing Thanksgiving dinner this is going to be. Thanksgiving without pumpkin pie shouldn't even exist. Come on, Spain. Get it together.
Though I haven't finalized anything, besides either turkey legs or a whole chicken, the menu will likely include mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, green beans, devilled eggs, and apple pie! I'm hoping to get my grandma's old recipes for sweet potato casserole, though it'll require some modification since Spain doesn't have brown sugar either :(
Considering how much food that's gonna be and the fact that we've only got 4 people in the piso, I'll probably end up inviting the whole crew over for an American Thanksgiving Dinner! Tomás has insisted that we download the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and watch it while we eat hahaha!
Despite the fact that today doesn't feel like Thanksgiving to me at all and, unlike every other American, I won't be eating even a bite of turkey, stuffing, or pie today, I would still like to make a list of all the things I'm thankful for. Here goes...
I am THANKFUL for...
- family--I haven't been able to talk to y'all as much as I'd like lately, and I just wanted to say I love and miss y'all SO much! I'm super bummed I'm missing the huge Zein-Eldin/Powell family gathering with the addition of Uncle David, Aunt Nessa, Cameron, and Joanna. Make sure to eat enough for me and make sure you call Mike to make his say grace before you eat! hahahahah
- friends--I MISS YOU ALLLLL! I have been blessed with some of the most loyal and dependable friends anyone could ask for and I'm so glad that we continue to keep in touch so regularly even though I'm half a world away from y'all. Bear with me as I try to make time to talk to everyone...it's quite time consuming because everytime I call someone I usually end up talking for at leasttt 30 minutes, and as you can imagine that eats up quite a bit of my time.
- Skype/AIM/the internet--I don't know what I would do without these 3 things. The fact that I can see y'all's lovely faces via skype, text you from AIM whenever I'm at my computer, and creep on all of your lives via Facebook, gives me so much comfort. Makes me feel so much closer to home than I actually am. What wonderful inventions!
- my new overseas family--I could not have asked to be placed in a better situation here in Spain. I live in a BEAUTIFUL town, the school where I work is awesome, I've got Jose and his family here to take care of me if I need anything, I've already made TONS of really good friends, I get the opportunity to watch world-class professional volleyball for free like every other week, I've found a small group of American friends (Kelli, David, Greg, Chris, and Sarah) who can relate to most everything that I'm going through here, my 2 groups of friends, while entirely different from one another, are both SO much fun to be around, and (**sung as in The Hangover**) I've got the 3 best roommates that any girl could have, I've got the 3 best roommates that any girl could have, I've got the 3 best roommates that any girl could have, and we'll never, never, never, never, ever leave each other! hahahahhaha
- the opportunity to be here in Spain--I decided a little more than a year ago after returning from Málaga, that coming back to Spain and working here was what I truly wanted to do after graduation. The fact that I'm really here, living, working, making friends, and improving my Spanish every day really is, as gay as this sounds, a dream come true. Some days, everything feels normal, but others, I find myself overwhelmingly grateful, proud, and still shocked by the fact that I'm on my own, half a world away from nearly everyone that I know, and managing to do just fine for myself.
Even though I'm not able to be with my family and friends to celebrate today, writing this list has made it feel just a little bit more Thanksgiving-y. I am EXTREMELY blessed to be mentally and physically where I am today and I am so grateful for all the people I know and opportunties I've been given.
I hope that everyone back home is eating lots, experiencing tryptophan-induced comas, spending time with family, watching AMERICAN SPORTS (I'm still bitter), and just overall enjoying this wonderful holiday and what it's all about. ¡FELIZ DÍA DE ACCIÓN DE GRACIAS!
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