Holiday Cheer

As you might imagine (or know from experience), Thanksgiving away from home can be kind of sad. Especially since virtually no other culture acknowledges this sacred American ritual (or even has anything more than a vague awareness of it). Lucky for me, though I was thousands of miles from home, I still got to spend Thanksgiving with two of my cousins, as well as several of the great American friends I've met here in Madrid. And despite this country's general ignorance of the awesomeness of Thanksgiving (or "Dia de Accion de Gracias" as the Spanish ever so succinctly translate it), I was still able to get in the spirit by teaching my kids all about the holiday. This included showing them pictures of all the traditional Thanksgiving foods- which they generally interpreted as American versions of foods they were familiar with, calling the stuffing "migas," the potatoes "puree," the cranberries cherries, and the pie cake- the yams they were pretty stumped on though, hah! (Maureen's kids interpreted the picture of pilgrims as "brujas.") It also included indoctrinating them with an overly simplified and largely disproven version of the story of the first Thanksgiving. Only one of my more advanced classes finally thought to ask, "If they were so thankful to the Indians, why did they kill them all?"

Holidays in Spain

On Thanksgiving night (which in Spain was just Thursday night), Maureen, Deirdre, Emily, Justin and I went to an Italian cafe that serves Thanksgiving dinner. Though an Italian cafe in Madrid might not sound like the ideal place to find an authentic Thanksgiving dinner, they actually have an American chef so it was very authentic and delicious. (I had gone there for Thanksgiving when I was abroad so I knew it was good). Of course, no matter how delicious and authentic it was, a restaurant meal could never compare to a home-cooked Thanksgiving feast. But not to worry, we were not to be deprived of this crucial aspect of Thanksgiving: Our wonderful and ambitious friend Justin organized a full-on feast at our friends Mateo and Ashley's apartment. Among the four of them, Justin, Emily, Mateo and Ashley prepared an amazing roast turkey, gravy, stuffing, potatoes, cranberry sauce, green bean casserole and biscuits, all of which were delicious. Maureen and I together were given only the responsibility of making the yams and bringing lots of wine- you can tell where they think our strengths lie. To be honest, I was a little skeptical of how authentic the meal would be, not because I doubted my friends' cooking abilities but because so many key ingredients are very hard to come by in Spain (the whole idea being that Thanksgiving foods are native to America), but much to my surprise, our meal was very delicious and not lacking a single thing!

Though it's always sad when Thanksgiving's over, it also means that you get to start celebrating Christmas! Maureen and I celebrated on Sunday by spending the whole day watching Christmas movies then taking an evening stroll to view all the beautiful Christmas lights-the center of Madrid is all dressed up for Christmas with lights and giant trees everywhere. We also got in the spirit by getting seasonal Christmas drinks at Starbucks and going to an advent mass at a beautiful old church near Sol (the first time we had seen the inside of a Starbucks or a church since arriving.)

One unrelated but (to us) very exciting incident: Maureen and I went to one of the bars in our neighborhood on Friday night. After having ordered several rounds of food and drinks, Maureen went to the bar to pay. As she did not have the right change, she called "Genny" across the room to get me to come over. The bartender looked at her in surprise. "Where are you from?" he asked; "the US," Maureen responded; his response? "OH, I THOUGHT YOU WERE SPANISH." (caps not meant to convey yelling but just the utter amazingness of his response). That's right, somebody thought we were Spanish! This one single event - perhaps the crowning acheivement of our entire time in Spain- made up for all the language gaffes we've made over the past few months, all the times people have responded to our accented Spanish with disdain and condescension. As we walked home we were literally jumping for joy, provoking stares from passersby and encouragement from the nearby construction workers. The only sad part is we actually like that bar and now we can never go back there lest we accidentally shatter our image as perfect Spanish-speakers.

Well, that covers a lot of what's been going on here lately, except what we did on Saturday. That adventure merits its own post. Stay tuned...