This was really the first time that I took part in the Thanksgiving preparations. When you're in a country where pumpkin, pecans, and cranberry sauce are very difficult to find, and meat that's not ham is not so popular, preparations get interesting. And when 2 of the 3 hosts of the dinner don't even have ovens, we get creative...
After pumpkin pie preparations on Tuesday, I arrived Thursday (with a carrot dish I was pretty proud of...) around 6pm to my friend Hannah's apartment. I watched her as she basted our 16 pound turkey with an icecream scooper (works pretty well) and learned the correct way to take stuffing out of a turkey. With macaroni and cheese on the stove, and sweet potatoes in the oven, we were on our way. Around 8pm, the rest of the food arrived: mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, more stuffing, cranberry sauce, gravy, brownies, pumpkin pie... and after we opened up one of our eight bottles of wine (8 bottles for 10 euro...thank you spanish grocery stores!) it was finally time to eat.
5 Americans, 4 Mexicans, 2 Spaniards, 1 Italian and 1 German sat down to eat Thanksgiving dinner. Definitely the most multicultural Thanksgiving dinner I have been a part of. There was so much food and it was all delicious. In true Thanksgiving fashion, we all went around the table saying what we were thankful for. For most of them, it was their first Thanksgiving and it was nice to be able to share it with them.
After finding out that no one besides the Americans understood what we were celebrating, and also that a friend written a Thanksgiving skit for school, the next logical step was to perform it for everyone. After our wonderful rendition of the first Thanksgiving dinner (I gave a riveting performance as 'Pilgrim Children'), everyone finally understood what we were celebrating.
After a danceparty to work off all of Thanksgiving food, I returned to my house very full and happy. Another perk? leftover on Friday. It does almost taste better on day 2...
Fast forward to Saturday night, another set of carrots, and another Thanksgiving dinner. This time, however, it was more of a Madrileño Thanksgiving. There were only about 4 Americans and 20 Spaniards. While we did have turkey and sweet potatoes and other traditional Thanksgiving foods we also had some croquettas, ham flavored lays potato chips and other Spanish foods. It was nice to have that mixture. Once again, we explained the meaning of Thanksgiving. Did you know that Squanto originally came from Spain? Look at all of the connections!
Then, in true Spanish form we went out until 6am...
