A Spanish Thanksgiving, Round Two

This year was technically the third time I’ve been in Spain for thanksgiving. Although it is an American holiday, not celebrated here, I have never let the day go by unrecognized. The first time I was in Barcelona and the family came to visit. Although we did not have anything close to a typical thanksgiving feast, it was nice to be surrounded by family—a very important part of the holiday. During my semester abroad in Madrid, I did not have family visiting, but I did make a delicious meal with my roommate Christina (she actually made most of it) and we had a little celebration in our home stay with Conchi, Louisa and some friends.

This year was a little different because I had to work all day on Thursday, at school and then tutoring. Even though I didn’t get home until 6pm, I still got to celebrate thanksgiving with a proper meal thanks to my roommate Chelsea and her mom who is here visiting. They spent most of the day cooking for us: stuffing, green beans, mashed potatoes and gravy. We bought some rotisserie chicken because we couldn’t find a turkey, nor would we have been able to cook one in our oven. For desert we had a delicious apple pie because pumpkin was just too hard to find. We also added a little Spanish flair with a tortilla española (potato omelet) and olives and bread. (only took one picture that doesn't properly capture the yumminess of the meal)

Although it wasn’t a typical thanksgiving, I still had a great day. At school we celebrated Fruit Day, Day against Violence, Children’s Day (everyday no?) and we even dedicated a small part of the day to discussing thanksgiving. I had to stand up in front of the whole school and speak to them, in Spanish, about the holiday. At first, I was pretty nervous to have to speak in front of so many people in Spanish, but I was glad I did it. One of the second grade classes did a cheer for me when I finished, so that made it all worth it.

I had a lot of fun at school yesterday. We got to eat fruit, yummy! (however, I was not happy about how many bananas I had to peel, yuck!) They were playing music (New York, New York when it was my turn to speak) and the kids, and some teachers, were dancing. There was also a nice moment when the students released balloons with an anti-violence ribbon on them into the sky. I don’t know exactly what the significance of that action was, but I suppose it had to do with the release of violence at the school and in the town.

Now I have the post-thanksgiving uffs. I had another plate full of leftovers for lunch, which I am really regretting. But it only happens once a year so why not enjoy it while you can!

After two consecutive weekends of travelling, I am looking forward to staying in Seville this weekend. Hope everyone had a happy thanksgiving day!