Thanksgiving - Take 1

Sweet Potato Ingredients

I had an incredible weekend! On Friday, I went shopping in Nervión Plaza and bought some great pairs of tights. Every girl here seems to wear a dress with tights and high boots. Literally, everyone. Then I went to El Corte Inglés in search of ingredients for the sweet potatoes. I bought a ton of sweet potatoes (batatas), multi-colored marshmallows, brown sugar, and cinnamon. I hauled that all home and got cookin'! Peeling the potatoes was an arm workout - as I said before, I have lost all arm strength since coming here. After that, the recipe was very easy to make and it came out delicious! I was incredibly excited to bring them to the dinner the next day.

Waiting in Line at Buddha

After a lot of reading (I finished El niño con el pijama de rayas - it was great but very sad!) and TV watching, it was time to go out for the night. I headed to my European friends' house in Triana. We hung out there for a while and I met Nite's awesome friends from Holland. Then we went out dancing on Calle Betis at Río Latino. There was a group of guys there from Belgium for a bachelor party. They were all dressed in funny hats and the bachelor was wearing a cow costume. It was quite a sight but they were a lot of fun. I also talked to them about my upcoming trip there. It was great fun dancing with all my friends, but a smaller group of us girls eventually moved on to the bigger and better Buddha to meet up with Rebecca. I had an amaaaaazing time dancing there. The music was perfect and I was rocking out to no end. We danced until I was about to collapse from exhaustion at 5 am. I had to pay for an 11.16 euro cab ride home - uncool - but it was such a great night out.

Yummy!

On Saturday morning, I woke up to pouring rain and the anticipation of a delicious Thanksgiving dinner. Luckily, the rain stopped but the anticipation did not. I dropped off my sweet potatoes at the so-called "Club Benidorm" to be warmed up before dinner. Then I went to my intercambio. There were more British girls there so there was a better balance of English and Spanish speakers than there had been before. It was fun and I learned some new phrases. But I also got the best compliment ever - Juan told me that when I talk, I speak with an Andalusian accent!! Woohoo! That was so nice to hear - maybe I have actually been absorbing something since being here. I can definitely tell that I am improving - I feel more comfortable speaking and sometimes things come out that I didn't know I knew how to say. I still have a loooong way to go but at least I can see some improvement. Another great thing was that Juan offered to show me and Brenna and Rosa all around Salamanca if we come there from Madrid. That would be wonderful.

Julie, Julia, and Sofie - Club Benidorm

I headed back to Julie, Julia, and Sofie's apartment for Thanksgiving dinner. Their place looked amazing! They set up paper tablecloths with crayons so we could draw on the tables. I joked that that was the kids' table. There were appetizers all over the place, including Julie's delicious "handmade" croquetas. People started arriving little by little and soon there was a full house. It was great having everyone together in one place and catching up with people I hadn't seen in a while. I don't think I've been that hyper with excitement since I got to Sevilla. Thanksgiving is probably my favorite holiday and I was so excited about the meal and great atmosphere. We eventually dug into the endless food and it was amazing! There was chicken (no turkey this time), green beans, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, stuffing(!), rolls, macaroni and cheese, etc. We weren't really missing anything. 'Twas delicious and, of course, we all ate way too much. But I think that's the point of Thanksgiving.

Chelsea, Me, Sean, and Turkey

Another point of Thanksgiving is giving thanks. We each wrote down three things we were thankful for (mostly funny things) and put them in a big bowl. After dinner, we all gathered around and read the papers out loud. We had to guess who wrote each thing. It was quite easy to guess in most cases and very funny. Chelsea said she was thankful for my sweet potatoes and my blog. So sweet! This is my shout out to you, Chels! One of the things I said I was thankful for was Carrefour, the superstore mentioned a few posts ago. Cat turns to me and says, "You know there's a store just like that much closer to you, right?" Ummm...I had no idea! It was a Thanksgiving day miracle. Now I have plans for Monday. After the thankfulness game ended, it was time for dessert. We enjoyed Cat's amazing apple pies, Rebecca and Nina's banana chocolate crumble, and vanilla ice cream. Mmm mmm mmm. Thank god there is always room in the dessert stomach. We hung out on the couches in coma position and chatted for hours. We spent most of the time discussing our experiences at our schools and with our students. Everyone is having such different experiences, and it is really interesting to compare our perspectives. But one thing we all seemed to have was funny stories to share.

Cat and her Apple Pies

At about 1:30 am, fully satisfied, I headed out to catch the last bus home. It was incredibly poor planning to leave that late and I was booking it to the Prado. I saw the last tram to the buses leave in front of me so I either had to run or pay for a taxi. After the night before, I didn't want to spend any more money on cabs, so I opted to run. And boy did I run - for about 13 minutes, I was jogging in my fake leather boots and dress, carrying a big shopping bag with my glass pan and leftovers. I must have looked like a complete fool, and I never recommend running directly following the biggest meal of the year, but I made it to the bus at 1:59 (it left at 2:00). I was sweating all the way back on the bus and I'm sure people wondered what my problem was. Plus, the bus driver didn't even stop at my stop, so I had to walk back from the following one. After such a perfect dinner, it was a much less than ideal trip home. Eventually I made it, got in my pajamas, and chatted with Kathy until I passed out.

This morning, I made even more sweet potatoes for my next dinner on Thanksgiving night. Then I cleaned and here I am, writing about my incredible weekend. I have a few errands to run tomorrow and have to prepare for classes this week, but it is nice to relax after such an exciting two days. I wish every weekend was Thanksgiving!