Thankful

It was really weird being here on Thanksgiving. Mostly because it wasn't actually as weird as I feel like it should have been. As I've mentioned before, I feel like I'm in a time warp or something. It just doesn't seem like the holiday season since I'm away from everything I'm used to. There are Christmas lights up on the streets (although I have yet to see them actually lit up) and some decorations in stores. The weather is colder. I've listened to some Christmas music on my iPod (I love you, Josh Groban.). But I just can't get that holiday feeling.

So I knew it was Thanksgiving, but I didn't feel like it was Thanksgiving. Although turkey and stuffing and pumpkin pie did sound delicious, it wasn't like I was absolutely needing it. Since they don't celebrate the holiday here, we of course had school and teaching and every thing else, so they day was just like any other normal day.

After getting home from my last class, I got to skype with the whole family. Mom, dad, brother, sister, brother-in-law and sister-in-law, niece, grandma, John. Lovely! Got to catch up with the fam, see Sierra sing her ABC's, get lots of love from everyone. Again, if I had felt more Thanksgiving-y that probably would have made me more emotional. But it was just nice to talk to everyone all at the same time!

CIEE had organized a big Thanksgiving dinner for us at a big hotel in town. (p.s. just this very second a Christmas song came on my iPod. Again, I love you, Josh Groban.). The event was "invitation only" and you had to have your invitation to get in. Of course everyone from CIEE was invited. But it was a big deal. One day last week our director, Caro, asked me if I was going to wear a dress to the dinner. I thought that was an odd thing and said, uhhh I don't know! She acted all surprised and said, well isn't it an important holiday? I guess....I've never dressed up for Thanksgiving before, but anyone that knows me well knows that I will take any opportunity to dress up. So I told the girls that apparently we were supposed to dress up for this thing! I had bought a little black dress in Lisbon that I hadn't yet had an opportunity to wear, so I decided this would be the perfect time. I worried that maybe that dress was too fancy, but after hearing other CIEE'ers and staff talk about it, I figured it would be just perfect.

Good thing Caro had said something, because it was quite fancy. Suits and ties and pretty dresses. And the random pair of jeans worn by those who hadn't been told that this was a formal thing. Anyway, we all got dressed up (Sarah, Sofie and I) and headed to the hotel. When we got there, there were a LOT of people. Our professors (minus Joaquin :( apparently the University professors weren't invited!) and even the teachers from our school where the 6 of us teach classes were there. All dressed up in their Sunday best! After saying hi to our teachers, we wandered in and took off our coats. Then we found the beer....and the hors d’oeuvres. They weren't really that great, but they were fancy. So we enjoyed it. Then all of a sudden the mob of people started flooding out of the mingle-room. Time for dinner apparently. So we found seats (by our friend Pari, an 18-year-old Canadian gap-year student who we met in Granada) and waited for the deliciousness.

fancy hors d'ouevres

On our way to find a table, we ran into our psychology professor, Frank. I will have to make a post later on all my professors. I love them all. Anyway, Frank is great. He is so funny and fun and smart. I think he'd had a couple of drinks already....he was so excited to see us and kept saying "GUAPAS!!!!!" after giving us besitos (since that may not make any sense, I'll translate. He kept calling us "beautiful" after the traditional cheek-kiss greeting.). After that, we found our table and sat down. Things started off really well. They came by and poured us a glass of wine. And our little waiter guy was adorable and smiley. Then it was time to go get food. Or so we assumed after seeing people flooding out of our area again (how did they know?!?!?!). We went to a buffet line for salad. I'm serious. An entire buffet line of salad. Green salad with garbanzo beans, pickled beets, carrots, corn, other random toppings. And some pasta salad. I got a little pasta salad but not much else. I wanted to save room for the good stuff.

lovely centerpieces.

pasta salad. and a raisin.

I should have got some salad...After eating our salad, and finishing off our glass of wine, we sat around chatting. And waiting for more wine. Which never came. One glass, people?! I needed more than that to get through the rest of the meal. (I may look like an alcoholic...I swear I'm not. Although I have drank more alcohol here in 3 months than I have I think in my entire life). We ate our bread, talked with Pari's 18-year-old guy friends in her gap year program. ("I never would have guessed you were 26! You don't look it!!!" Uhhhhh thanks? Is 26 really supposed to look that old?!?!!?!) Then came the real food. It look okay enough. A giant turkey leg, some mashed potatoes and some veggies (carrots, peas and cauliflower). So there was no stuffing or gravy. That's okay, turkey and mashed potatoes are a good start!

No more wine?! :(

But then I took a bite. Now, it wasn't terrible. I mean, I ate almost all of it. :D But it just wasn't quite right. The turkey was super dry. I'm positive that the mashed potatoes were instant ones. The veggies were like frozen veggies soaked in garlic. But I wanted some turkey and mashed potatoes, gosh darnit, so I ate them. I thought maybe they'd come around with some real Thanksgiving food and be like, "jajajaja (that's how they laugh in Spanish) juuuuuust kidding! Here's the real stuff!" Instead, they brought dessert. And no more wine.

yum...?

Sofie's not too excited about this food...

The one good part of the meal: bread. Note the thumb's up!

Now, I've developed quite a sweet tooth here. So I was excited for dessert. And it was an apple tart-type thing. Which made me even more excited since I love fruity desserts. It was a lovely apply tart on some sort of bright green sauce. Interesting. I took a timid bite. It tasted like what I could only describe as sawdust. There were in fact some shavings of some sort on it that closely resembled sawdust. One of the guys at our table later mentioned that he thought it tasted like pencil shavings, which is definitely more correct. Buuut I still ate it. (What is wrong with me?!?!). Our lovely Frank came over to our table after dessert and asked us how things were. We just said there wasn't enough wine. Apparently that's because all the professors got it. He said, "I got two bottles!!!!! I mean, our table did..." haaaahhahahah suuuure Frank. He told us to come over to his table if we wanted more. But we mostly were ready to leave. So we said goodbye to everyone and headed home.

Apple tart with a side of pencil shavings.

I am very grateful for CIEE putting this together for us. It was a wonderful thought and I'm sure took a lot of work to put together. And it really was fun. We got to mingle and talk and see everyone all dressed fancy. And I have so many other things to be Thankful for that I couldn't really complain. Here are some of those things: my amazing family, my health, the health of my loved ones (especially grateful for how well momma is doing!), my wonderful friends at home and here in Spain, the opportunities God has given me, including being here in Spain; the random scholarship that showed up in my PSU account; my living situation when I get back; the experiences God has blessed me with, both here and at home; the resources I have been given to be able to do things like study abroad; the love, peace, hope and joy that I have in Christ...so many more. But those are on the top of the list. The list that continues to grow day by day and year by year. Of course not everything is perfect, just like not all meals are perfect. But there's always the churros con chocolate to look forward to in the future :) Thank you Jesus for all you have blessed me with! I am beyond grateful!