An American Thanksgiving in Spain

This year I completely embraced the Thanksgiving tradition!  Luckily, I work at the US Embassy on Thursdays so being an American holiday, all my students got the day off.  Therefore, I did too! I took advantage of the oportunity to prepare a Thanksgiving feast for my roommates and some close friends.

I made several trips to the American store in the Embassy to pick up a few essentials and ordered my turkey from a local butcher.  Turkey isn't as popular here as in the US so we bought only parts of the turkey.  It was easier since there were only 5 of us and faster to cook.

My friend Melissa, a Puerto Rican girl who recently moved to Madrid, was super excited to try a traditional mainland US Thanksgiving meal.  She stopped by my place early in the afternoon to help me cook while all my other roommates were at work.  We cranked Christmas music all afternoon as we were starting the feel the holiday spirit.

By the time my all my roommates got home, it was around 10 o'clock (typical dinner time in Spain).  I put together the table and we all sat around where Nikki and I told stories about our past Thanksgivings back in the United States.  We had to explain what all the food was to our Spanish compadres as they hungrily and confusingly stared at all the rarities on the table.  When everything was out, we went around the table and said what we were thankful for that year.  I said for the opportunity to share my culture and for experiences that I have been blessed to have throughtout my time here in Spain.

Then we dug in everything and went to sleep content and FULL!


That Saturday was also my company's Thanksgiving luncheon. This year we had it at Nicoletta, a really nice Italian resturant. It was fun getting a big group of Americans and non-Americans together to share amazing food, wine and some laughs.





 

After the lunch, a large group of us continued to some pubs and bars where we drank, chatted and danced the night away.

It was yet another interesting Dia de Accion de Gracias and I wouldn't have changed a thing :)

Gluglu Gluglu… Gobble Gobble

The months are passing ever so quickly here in the Land of Torros. The weather turned from scorching to bitter cold in a matter of weeks. However, there’s just something magical about Madrid during the winter.

But anyhow, onto the issue at hand: Thanksgiving. I pondered how I would feel my first BIG holiday away from home. Sure I’ve missed birthdays and smaller holidays but nothing as big as Thanksgiving. As I hope all of you know, Thanksgiving is something particular to the ‘New World.’ The US celebrates it the end of November while other surrounding countries like Canada celebrate it in October. That Thursday I made all my classes a ‘Thanksgiving’ theme. Well, I was pleasantly surprised to find that many Spaniards are familiar with this American holiday, especially the US version. The majority know about the ‘Natives’ and how the Americanos stuff themselves silly with yummy treats. Some even think of Thanksgiving as the day when Americans go crazy at the shopping malls, punching and pushing each other for color televisions. I simply had to fill in some of the English vocabulary. A few days prior, my grandmother forwarded me a cute little poem that I printed out and used as a fun warm-up activity with my students:

T’was the night of Thanksgiving,
But I just couldn’t sleep.
I tried counting backwards,
I tried counting sheep.
The leftovers beckoned,
The dark meat and white.
But I fought the temptation,
With all of my might.

Tossing and turning,with anticipation.
The thought of a snackbecame infatuation.
So I raced to the kitchen,
Flung open the door,
And gazed at the fridge,
Full of goodies galore.

I gobbled up turkey,
And buttered potatoes,
Pickles and carrots,
Beans and tomatoes.
I felt myself swelling,
So plump and so round.
‘til all of a sudden,
I rose off the ground.

I crashed through the ceiling,
Floating into the sky,
With a mouthful of pudding,
And a handful of pie.
But I managed to yell
As I soared past the trees
Happy eating to all,
Pass the cranberries, please!!

May your stuffing be tasty
May your turkey be plump.
May your potatoes and gravy
Have nary a lump.
May your yams be delicious,
May your pies take the prize
And May your Thanksgiving dinner
Stay off of your thighs!

I continued with my classes in the normal matter. The teachers and I did our part of complaining to each other; knowing that our families were all together back in the States with a sweet potato in one hand and a turkey leg in the other while we were in Spain teaching superlatives and participles as adjectives. We also joked with the non-American (USA) teachers about how lucky they were not to feel so tortured by this day. I went to bed a little sad but overall, I felt like I represented Thanksgiving well in Madrid.

That Saturday, my academy was having a special Thanksgiving Luncheon (also called the 20th Anniversary of the Berlin Wall falling Celebration for all the non-US teachers haha). We met at Fass, this nice little German restaurant in Madrid. We choose our dish the week prior. It wasn’t my mother’s turkey or stuffing but it was nice to celebrate as a big group. We could choose from Beef Stroganoff to Cochillo to other traditional German dishes. Plus the beer and wine followed pretty steadily all during the meal.


(left down to right down)
Miguel, Stephanie, Kelsey, Stephen
Michelle, Cat, Martin, Christine

Danny, David, Nikki and Tim

Left to Right:
Isabel, Virginia, Maria, Giselle, Tisha, Craig's head

Devin, Eric and Dan

Jose Maria, Jeff and Jerry

Many of the teachers ended the celebration with a little bar crawl that lasted till the wee hours of the morning. I however missed out on the afterhours because I got a call to give a private lesson for right after lunch. I was hesitant but when the guy offered me 30 euro an hour, I knew I couldn’t pass it up. So all in all, it wasn’t an overly exciting Thanksgiving but I figured it would be a lot more painful. I emailed my family the following days asking what I had missed. They told me that it was an average holiday, nothing too exciting which in a way made me happy that I didn’t miss too much. My mother told me some funny stories of her Black Friday which I always find entertaining. Hopefully Christmas will go over as smoothly but somehow I don’t think I’ll be so lucky.