Thanksgiving from 5000 miles away.

It's Thanksgiving back home but here in Spain it's just another work day. With my 1ESO (7th grade) students we talked about some of the history and traditions that go along with Thanksgiving so I had them all share something they are thankful for. My favorite one by far was "I'm thank you for me because I like me and school." which roughly translates to "I am thankful for my life and the fact that I am at a great school." They have not been learning English as long but they try their best and that's what counts.

I may have moved half way around the world but that doesn't mean I won't still cook a turkey dinner. A small Thanksgiving here has turned into 13 people coming and none of them have ever had a Thanksgiving meal so it's up to me to pull this off. Everything that you can so easily get in the US does not exist here. Making pumpkin pie for example has shown to be quite the task. At home I could have just bought a can of pumpkin pie filling and called it a day, but now I have to wander through the city looking for something that I can turn into pumpkin pie. 6 stops later, I have all the ingredients. The next problem is finding a turkey. They don't just sell them at the supermarket, so you have to go to the butcher shop, but they don't readily keep whole turkeys on hand, so you have to order one ahead of time. Seems easy until you ask for an 8 kilo (about 18 lbs.) turkey and the butcher looks at you like you are insane. They question your ability to speak Spanish and if you know what you mean when you say whole turkey. Once you have the turkey you have to hope that it will actually fit in your oven because every appliance is smaller outside the US. That's for tomorrow though. For now I have one fresh baked pie ready for eating and the rest will hopefully fall into place tomorrow.