Thanksgiving

Although Spain doesn't celebrate Thanksgiving, I spent more time this year talking about the traditions and history of Thanksgiving than ever before in my life. Every teacher asked me to present about Thanksgiving, so I explained the history and some of the ways we celebrate in my family (watching "It's a Wonderful Life," drinking sparkling cider at dinner, playing basketball or soccer before we eat) and had each class make a traditional turkey craft using their hand. My students then wrote four things they are thankful four on each of the fingers (I had to help a lot with the vocabulary) and we shared them as a class.

Because we had to work on Thanksgiving Day, the other Fulbright Scholars and I decided to celebrate the Saturday before Thanksgiving. Our friend Shelby was kind enough to host more than twenty people at her house, and we had a potluck-style meal. I brought mashed potatoes, and I am a little embarrassed to admit that I had to look up a recipe because I had actually never made them by myself. We don't have a mixer, so I had to use an immersion blender, which resulted in a weird texture... but I did my best, and everyone was too nice to say anything.

One of the things that we didn't really anticipate is that it's very hard to find a turkey in Spain unless it's Christmastime. Shelby's host family ended up asking their friend to kill two turkeys from their farm, but when she got them home she realized that Spanish ovens are too small to fit a turkey into. She stuffed the turkeys and brought them to a bakery, where she rented out two ovens (didn't know you could do that, learning new things every day). They took the turkeys and said they would call her when it was time to come back.

The turkeys were delicious, and everyone's side dishes were also amazing. My favorite was a pumpkin mousse that someone made for dessert, and my friend Katie's sweet potatoes (she makes them with peaches and cashews). We ended up having two Spanish families join us, as well as several of our friend's host siblings. Being away from home during the holidays is a little sad, but I'm glad that we were able to have our own little celebration here in Spain. I also was able to FaceTime my family on Thanksgiving Day for a little bit, which was so nice. There's definitely a lot to be thankful for this year!