This past weekend was Thanksgiving weekend and goodness, I have so many things to be thankful for! I had an amazing weekend filled with people I love.
On Thursday (Thanksgiving) I went to school like normally. I wished a couple people a happy Thanksgiving and thought though it was cool. Normally on Thanksgiving morning my sister and I color the turkey that comes in the newspaper as we watch the Macy's Thanksgiving day parade. Well I was lacking a parade and a turkey so I drew my own turkey and colored it in. (And yes this is how I spent my day at school on Thanksgiving)
As always the most colorful turkey around
I got home from school, ate real quick then walked to physical therapy.
*Side note* For those of you who don't know, I sprained my MCL which is an internal ligament in your knee. I had already sprained this ligament before so it was already weak than when my body spun around too fast and my leg stayed put during a soccer game, I sprained it again. I've had a long, interesting experience with the medical system here, but that's a story for a different time. Now I have two weeks of physical therapy
I hurried home after physical therapy and then attempted to make pumpkin pie. Unlike every grocery store in the U.S., you can't find isles and isles of pumpkin in a can, or even a single can. We had found a recipe on the internet for making pumpkin pie from scratch and it actually wasn't as hard as I expected. But my host mom had everything laying out and prepared by the time I got home form physical therapy. All I really had to do was mix it all together. Which my no means went without her yelling at me for doing things wrong. Needless to say I'm scared to utilize me kitchen here to ever cook anything because I would use the wrong bowls and spoons and constantly be under scrutiny.
Turned out as more of a pumpkin tart and kind of resembled a pumpkin pie
the taste wasn't quite on, but it was a pretty good substitute for being in Spain.
After the pie was done and me and my host parents were ready, we went and picked up Pauline and Chloe with all their food and bags for the weekend. We made our way to Santiago de la Ribera where we met up with the other 3 exchange students (Andie, Kalob and Curtis) Plus Andie's host mom and sister and Curtis' host mom Charo. Once we arrived we still had to make gravy, mashed potatoes and heat everything up. The turkey arrived in a metal bucket lined with tin foil because Andie's host family didn't have a container big enough for it.
All of us preparing the gravy and YouTubing how to carve a turkey because clearly none of us had ever done it before. It turned out pretty well though.
Total we had turkey, mashed potatoes, rum carrots, dinner rolls and this amazing gravy that was Pauline's family recipe. It was delicious and made the entire meal. Also after we demonstrated how the food was to be eaten to our 5 Spanish guests, we went around the circle and said what we were thankful for. Thanksgiving is all about spending time with your family and the people you love and are Thankful for me. This idea has never been more evident to me than this year. For the first time I am away from my normal, mellow family get together. Instead I was able to spend it with two of my new families. I've realized since being away from my safety net of a family back home, I am forced to find comfort and companionship from multiple groups of people if I am to stay engaged. This year I was able to spend my Thanksgiving with my host family, people I am immensely thankful for. I also got to share part of my life back home with them which I hope they enjoyed. AND I got to spend it with my second family, the other exchange students. I honestly would feel a bit lost and lonely without these guys. We're all crazy different, but I think that's what makes us get along so well. It's really cool to see and I'm soooooo thankful for every single one of them.
Anyways, after we went around and said what we were thankful for, Kalob requested that we do a grace. So Kalob said grace sentence by sentence and I translated each sentence into Spanish so our host families could understand. This was probably the most gratifying moment I've had on exchange so far. I never realized before how special Thanksgiving really is and what all it means to me. While explaining it multiple times in Spanish, I see what an amazing tradition it is. Through grace and saying what we're thankful for, we were able to truly demonstrate the meaning of Thanksgiving to our families and include them in our thanks. Our bilingual grace made me realize how important and cool making worldly connections is. Everyone in the world has stuff they are thankful for and just because the rest of the world doesn't have a day specifically for it, doesn't mean they can't recognize the things they are thankful for. It was an eye opening experience and amazing for being something so simple. Plus I translated everything nearly perfectly except I didn't know the word for endeavors in Spanish.
Our Dinner. Mainly turkey and gravy, but delicious turkey and gravy and that's what really counts.
Also on the far left is a thing my host mom made. It consisted of bread, salmon, pineapple rings, caviar and cheddar cheese...
Circled up to say grace and what we're thankful for
One of the most unique and beautiful Thanksgiving's I've had. No on has big tables in their houses because there normally isn't room. So we ate sitting on couches in a candle lit room with a blazing fire to keep us warm. It was amazing.
After we went for a walk we came back and had pie! We had my pumpkin pie, apple pie and walnut pie. It was supposed to be pecan pie, but Pauline couldn't find pecans. They were all soooooooo delicious and it was a perfect Thanksgiving.
Shortly after pie, my host parents left and us exchange students went and did face masks! Chloe has this organic clay something or other face mask that is super strong, so we all took our turn doing that while talking and laughing. Shortly after we went to bed because by then it was 3ish because we had pie at 12. The next morning we all had pie for breakfast because we still had a whole walnut and apple pie. We then hung around, went for a walk and took naps until it was time to go ice skating! We went to this mall in Zenia which is a community of mostly not Spanish people. Mainly English or Danish people that have retired down to Spain to live permanently. I've slowly learned that Spain is like Europe's Florida for retirees because there is great food, good wine and plenty of sun. When we got to the mall they had carolers which were all such retirees so they sang the English Christmas songs correctly. There were also pictures with Santa and an ice skating rink made in the parking lot. We all skated for and hour and a half, walked around the mall a little bit, then headed back to Snatiago de la Ribera to watch a movie and go to bed.
Saturday started with a big breakfast of toast, bacon, cookies and milk. After a late breakfast we all showered and lounged around while drinking lots of tea. It was so enjoyable! Curtis' house is very homey and it felt so great just to relax and be warm for once. Later on in the afternoon we walked to the mall in Santiago de la Ribera which was actually a way longer walk than we anticipated, but the exercise and fresh air felt good. After walking around there and eating some, we made our way back to Curtis' house, packed up our stuff and got ready to go to Cartagena. Charo, Curtis' host mom, has a friend how is an awesome sculpture artist and was having an exhibition in Cartagena. We went and saw her work, which was amazing, then went back to her apartment with more of her friends. She lives in this little cute apartment right in downtown Cartagena which has a balcony overlooking the Teatro Romano. Which is a Roman theater in Cartagena over 800 years old. I've seen pictures of it a million times, but still haven't been there because my host family says we'll do touristy stuff some other day when all the exchange students stay in Cartagena.
Standing on her balcony overlooking the theater
Looking down the street from her balcony
We then roamed around Cartagena a little bit and found this medieval street festival where I got a massive donut to share with Andie. We went back to the party at the artists house for a little longer then went to Chloe's house where her host mom made us sandwiches, we set up the basement with tons of mattresses and comforters then went to bed.
We woke up to a rainy Sunday where we had toast and AMERICAN COFFEE for breakfast. Every household here has an espresso machine which everyone uses to make a cup for breakfast. My family however doesn't have one so I relish the opportunity to have it at everyone else's house for breakfast. In Chloe's house they have an American coffee pot and make it every morning. I had 2 full cups of black coffee because I was so excited. After breakfast we helped clean up the basement and Pauline and I learned how to make Paella from Chloe's host mom. While we were waiting for the rice and then for the Paella to sit, we all took Chloe's dog for a walk and walked to Pauline's house. I had never seen her house before so that was nice to finally see how she lives.
When we came back, we had a huge lunch of Paella, bread and some Spanish tortilla which Chloe's host dad had just made and wanted us to try.
After lunch we all packed up our stuff and took the bus into Cartagena. By then it had stopped raining, but it was still cold and very wet. We went and found the medieval market again with was pretty cool despite the recent rain. I would've loved to buy stuff, but I had/have no money. (waiting to go do stuff until I get my monthly allowance)
We had about an hour to walk around the market then Kalob and Andie got picked up by Kalob's host mom. Chloe and I then took a bus with Curtis to the bus station so he could get a bus back to Santiago de la Ribera. We ended up waiting there for awhile and I actually had to get on the bus and ask for the ticket for him in Spanish then leave. I caught a bus home, completely exhausted then had an hour and a half conversation with my host parents about my weekend, Rotary and my host brother's when they were younger.
It was overall an amazing weekend filled with great company and conversation. I am so thankful for everything that has happened to me so far. The good and bad, I realize every little struggle and every triumph is making me stronger. I am making new relations everyday. From the littlest eye contact or hello with someone walking down the street or in school to the deep, constantly growing bond I have with the other exchange students. No matter what, I can already tell my life will have changed after this year. No matter what part of my heart will always be with my new family here. Despite all of the little tumbles, set backs and downfalls, I know that among the grief and frustration, I have love and growth that will truly prevail and be what I remember most from this year.
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