Feliz Día del pavo

In class and in daily life I have spent the week trying to explain to people the reason this is the only week of the year that I feel homesick or nostalgic. The problem is, the description either goes way over their heads in a description of Thanksgiving as a family holiday with travel to be with family, too much food, and watching the only sport in the world that I don't care for OR we get stopped at the part when I say "turkey" or pavo. This seems to be the only detail of our biggest holiday (in my opinion) that has made it to the peninsula here, and with that description I tend to lose all the joy and memories that I want to be able to share with my acquaintances here.


I spent the week teaching my students about Thanksgiving, which included several lessons on root vegetables that only exist in the US and have no translation here and seeking out sweet potatoes in Latin American grocers just to make sure they do exist here. They do! They are called batatas while regular potatoes go by the very-similar patatas... it is understandable that the kiddos get confused. The week with the teachers was difficult because they continued to ask me if I was OK and if I missed home this week. Hard not to when you ask me every other sentence! I also had a tough week with my acceptance of my teaching abilities. It is hard to be thrown into a school with no teacher training and where the principal, teachers, and students all expect that you have some control over the skills required for this. I want to learn, that's a given, but I'm not sure who is going to give me that training. I got through it, though!


My Thanksgiving Day included some lessons for sophomores, juniors, and seniors, and I think I got through to them on the "interest" level, which will hopefully bring them into class more excited to try a bit harder in the future. In the afternoon I went for a bocadillo with one of the teachers who was worried about me being alone, but I don't think she understands that eating a sandwich with a teacher who wants to practice her English is not really going to make me forget the things I am missing... Luckily that afternoon I got to work with my little guys, and we had a good time drawing, fighting about who gets to use the HUGE kitchen scissors to cut out the drawings of the (fairly-racist) Pilgrim and Indian, and playing verb pictionary, which the seven year old really got a kick out of. I need to come up with some more games like that, so send any ideas my way! That night I had a great hour on Skype with Mom, Gram Peg, and the cousins, definitely something I needed, and then attempted to go out with Rachel only to be told that we "can't read" by the woman at the door regarding the fact that we thought we were on time to get in free. I told her I hated her to her face in English, which is always great fun since no one speaks English.


Last night I had the REAL Thanksgiving with Annalisa, complete with an afternoon cooking together! That's what I love most about the holiday, so I was ecstatic to get to share a kitchen with her as I made my apple pie and she her incredible stuffing! We got an intense run in pre-dinner, so we were ready to take down that food! I think I ate at least my weight in the food, not to mention the dessert, but for any of you who have spent Thanksgiving with me in the past, that shouldn't come as a surprise. Some Spaniards tried to make food, which ended up being tortilla española and some really rough "pumpkin pie" that was the densest and least-flavorful dish I've had. I forgive them, but we probably should have just had them bring wine...


Today I am hoping to get out of the house for some sort of adventure, but for now I might just run out for some tomatoes to make a killer recipe I just discovered. 


I am super thankful for all of you, so thank you for being there for me! I made it through the holiday and I am back to absolutely being infatuated with and amazed by my life here and hope you all have had a great Thanksgiving, too!