Thanksgiving's One and Two

For Thanksgiving number one we all met at Jeannine's house. Most of our schedules are Monday through Thursday, so a lot of us were able to have our Thanksgiving on the real Thanksgiving day. Someone found a turkey and had to special order it. I will say that for our first time making Thanksgiving without experienced Thanksgiving makers, we did a terrific job! We all brought our favorite Thanksgiving dish. I took mashed potatoes and made the gravy. I've seen my mom do this innumerable times, but replicating it was different than I thought. Everyone loved the gravy, except for me. It didn't taste like momma's. I think I put too much flour in and not enough turkey drippings.

As we are living in a different country, everyone has foreign friends. There were people from all over Europe who came to see a true American tradition. Italians, French, Spanish, I think a couple Germans were there and a couple British. It was a mixing pot of people and it turned out pretty well. The Italian boys made bruschetta and all kinds of delicious items that included bread topped with something. The would make the appetizers in batches and they wouldn't even make it out of the kitchen. Everyone was hovering around waiting for them. The French girls made a chocolate cake, an American girl brought a pumpkin pie, and those that didn't know what to bring bought a bottle (or 3) of wine.
This Thanksgiving felt like home. There were lots of people hanging out, eating for hours and having fun. Although I miss not going to Thanksgiving with my family, this was a very nice alternative.

Thanksgiving took place at Erin's house on the Friday after Thanksgiving. This was for those who had to work on Friday. Erin and her friends also special ordered a turkey. I brought mased potatoes again and was determined to make the gravy right this time. The food at Second Thanksgiving was more traditional than at First Thanksgiving. Someone made greenbean casserole, there was stuffing, and the gravy tasted amazing this time. There was none left over. This was a different variety of people and was very fun just like the one before. We all had a really great time! It's nice to create your own family to celebrate traditions.

During this week I gave a presentation at my schools about Thanksgiving. It was complete with a lot of pictures. You need to see the food to understand it. The kids just did not get the concept of a whole turkey. It was so funny. They made a weird disgusted look when I told them, traditionally, we eat turkey on Thanksgiving. "Oh, like sliced turkey?" (this is lunchmeat) "No." I would say. "It's a whole turkey that's baked in the oven all day." And then they would make their faces at me and call me weird. But I was the one chuckling on the inside, because they have NO idea what they're missing. I can't wait for next Thanksgiving when I can be with my real family and celebrate the way we always do.

It's beginning to look a lot like...

They are starting to put up the Christmas lights! First, it was only a few. The next weekend, there was more. Today they are putting up giant ones in the plaza de la constitucion! Rumor is they will light them up on November 26th. I'm very excited. Pictures to come.

Haircut

I've been working up my nerve since I got here to get my hair cut. I have a lot of fear of getting my hair cut anywhere, but especially here because of the language barrier. Everyone Spanish person (or those that have lived here for a few years) have told me ¡No lo haga! (Don't do it!) So I didn't. But my friend Phaedra cut my hair for me. She did a magnificent job!

Aren't we cute?

Benalmádena y Torremolinos

This week Jen and I decided we needed to get out of town. We're in Málaga and we're settled in so we decided it's time to explore. We planned on going to Benalmádena because we heard it was pretty. My roommates said the beach was chulisimo. While we were at breakfast we saw a sign for a festival del vino (wine festival) in Torremolinos! ¡Qué suerte! We went to Benalmádena first. From what I can tell it is a British tourist town. There were restaurants by the ocean advertising things like English breakfast and tea and there were lots of English speakers. But the roommates were right. The beach was awesome!

I love being able to see the mountains and the sea in the same city. Basically, anywhere along the Southern coast of Spain you can see mountains and ocean. The best of both worlds in my opinion.

Next we hopped back on the metro to go to Torremolinos. Stopped and had a beer to enjoy the sunshine and reward ourselves for all our hard work. We got directions from the waiter. He told us it was 20 minutes walking, so we went on our way. As we had been walking for 20 minutes, we were hungry so we stopped for lunch. We ordered langostinos a pil pil (prawns) and almejas (clams) with garlic and butter. We hadn't had langostinos and didn't really know what they were so we tried them. They were DELICIOUS. Tip of the day: anything a pil pil is a go.

Langostinos

We were happy girls.

After we got more serious about directions and had people laugh at us when we told them where we were goin by walking. It was possible. We walked down a highway with a guardrail to get to the Plaza de Congresos. There we met some friends and drank some wine. They were all good. I can't tell you names of them, because there were waaay too many. I can tell you I like vino tinto (red wine) and don't like sweet or white wines as much.

Here: Los Amantes del Vino

(The lovers of wine)

We had a good day, knocked out 2 towns, and tasted some of Spain's and Argentina's favorite wines. A good Saturday I say.

Halloween

For Halloween, a friend of my roommates had a Halloween party. It was a real party complete with creepy food, un calabaza (pumpkin) as a punch bowl, a real scary costumes. This is me, my friend Jen in the back, Philip (a guy from America) and Marta. Marta is always adorable and very congenial. She was a fairy for Halloween. As you may be able to tell, I was a vampira but not a very good one. I don't think I look very scary, especially in my cheesy costume.

Scary black spaghetti with tomatoes and tuna. Tuna? you ask. Yes, Spain puts tuna in everything. Another kind had mejillones which as far as I can tell are clams.

Tarta de espinace and mini pizzas. Yum is all I have to say.

Here we are, the three roommates: Me as a vampire, Cami as a devil, and Marcela as a pumpkin. Who wins? I think Cami.

Afterwards we to el botellón in Plaza de la Merced. Normally it is mostly empty with a few scattered people in it. This night it was packed. I supposed that Halloween there is a city wide party in la Plaza where everyone goes here to drink. The police had blocked off the streets and it was impossible to walk through, but it was soo fun!

A picture of the plaza after el botellón and everyone had moved on to the warmer and more exciting places like discotecas. I think a lot of people didn't make it anywhere but home...like me. I was tired as I had worked all day and didn't get my Spanish siesta.