A Blue Thanksgiving

As soon as I decided to go abroad, I immediately started dreading the prospect of spending Thanksgiving away from my family. Thanksgiving is possibly my favorite holiday. Every Thanksgiving, I wake up and look out the window to see people running the Feaster Five in the cold while I am in my warm bed. This particular act of schadenfreude brings me so much joy. Then I go downstairs and watch the Macy's Parade in my pajamas with my family. In the afternoon, my family and I play dictionary and eat dinner. It is such a mellow, stress-free holiday. It broke my heart to not be there this year. What did I do this year on Thanksgiving? Well, I walked through cold, wind-driven rain to class, then sat in my wet shoes and socks for hours. I watched a disturbing movie about the Spanish civil war. I taught kids about renewable sources of energy. It was a normal Thursday.

However, there were some events this week that put me in the thanksgiving spirit. I had my second-graders make hand-turkeys and tried to teach them the story of Thanksgiving (some was lost in translation). Suzy and I tried to make a pumpkin pie for Rocio. We bought pumpkin pie filling at the American import store, Taste of America and struggled through measurement conversions, ingredient differences (we had to make the crust out of Digestives) and Rocio's general lack of baking utensils to create a mostly edible pie. Success! Rocio made a special Thanksgiving lunch for us. She insisted that we take pictures of the elegantly laid table and of her carving the chicken (alas, no turkey). She told us that it was "just like in the movies!" It was adorable. On Thursday night, our program hosted a dinner for us at a restaurant that used to be an Arab bath. There was turkey and apple tart. It was nice to be surrounded by other Americans on Thanksgiving, all of whom were probably also missing home. The wine was good, so that helped too.

Note the "rapper turkey" that one kid made

Thanksgiving was a hard day, but not as hard as I thought it would be. For most of the day, I was too busy to even think about what I was missing. The dinner with my program was really nice and made the day feel special. The hardest part was talking to my family and seeing them about to sit down to dinner together, knowing that I could have been there if I had not decided to go abroad. It was also hard to be in a country where no one cares about Thanksgiving. To Spain, it is just another Thursday. It made me feel so far from home. But, in just a few weeks, I will be home for Christmas. I cannot wait to see my family and feel part of everything. Until then, I will try to appreciate the time I have left here in Spain. See you in two weeks, America!