A Spanish Thanksgiving Con Mi Padre!

This past Tuesday, I had my first visitor since I've been in Spain! It had been about 5 months since I last saw my dad and we had such a wonderful time together here in Madrid! I switched my hours at work so I was able to pick him up at the airport and spend the day with him. On Tuesday we did a little shopping, ate some delicious food at a couple restaurants near my apartment, and just hung out with each other all day. That night, we went to the Irish Pub next door and had a couple of my favorite Paulaner beers on tap.

happy to have my dad here!

On Wednesday, my dad spent the whole day with me at the school. We taught about Thanksgiving together and did the classic Turkey hand activity with the students. We taught 5th, 3rd, 1st, and 2nd grades together. Needless to say, my dad was a celebrity during the two days he was at my school. Before one of the third grade classes had started, my dad was sitting on a chair in the back of the room and within 5 minutes, ALL of the students had surrounded him, full of questions. One of the questions was, "Are you Santa?" I don't know if it was the fact that he was in the back of the room sitting on a chair or if it was the red pants he wore that day. Another question that one of the 5th graders asked my dad when we entered the classroom was, "Is that your brother?" That really boosted my dad's ego. Me... not so much.

so popular

my favorite 5th graders :)

The Turkey Hand activity was a big hit. On the four feathers, the students were supposed to write four things that they are thankful for, so to get some ideas rolling, we had a class discussion about what they're thankful for. In one third grade class, a student said, "I'm thankful for the spa." I asked her to repeat because I didn't think I heard her correctly. I mean, what third grader goes to the spa? She kept repeating herself and the other third grade teacher started flipping out. "The SPA?! You're thankful for the SPA?!" Then the third grade teacher turns to my dad in all seriousness and yells, "SPAIN IS IN A CRISIS! WE ARE IN A CRISIS! I don't know why they are going to the spa!!!" My dad just smiled and nodded... Then of course ALL of the students ended up writing "spa" on their turkeys. 

On Wednesday night, Dad and I did the rest of our shopping and started preparing for our Thanksgiving meal. I found a store somewhat close to my neighborhood called "Taste of America", where we found a ton of imported American foods. That's where we bought cranberry sauce, canned pumpkin, marshmallows, etc. As we were looking around, I saw there were other things that I have been missing in my life lately... JIF peanut butter, Betty Crocker cake mixes, cereals such as Lucky Charms, cookies, mac and cheese, etc. The workers even spoke in English and passed out chocolate chip cookies as we shopped! One lady even threw in some expired pie crust "as a gift". How thoughtful.

Later that night, my dad made two pumpkin pies (which turned out really well!!) and my friend Alex came over and we made Deviled Eggs to bring to school the next day to share with the teachers. A couple of my roommates came into the kitchen as we were making 30-some of these eggs (which neither of us had made before) and they asked what they were. I translated "Deviled Eggs" to Spanish... "huevos de diablo", then Alex and I looked at each other, both thinking the same thing - "why are they called that??" We got some strange looks from my roommates (and the teachers the next day) and all we could say was that we had no idea where that name comes from. So if any of you reading this knows, feel free to tell me!

The next day, Dad and I just taught three classes then we had the afternoon off. In one of the second grade classes on Thursday, there was a magician who came to the school to talk about recycling. The magician was from England and the entire show was in English, which was neat for the students, but also for my dad so he could understand what was going on :) Here's a video of part of the show. 

The pumpkin pie and the deviled eggs were a big hit (hardly any of the teachers had tried either of the foods before). Some of the teachers even made their own turkey hands during break!

After school on Thursday, Dad and I came back to my apartment to finish some last minute cooking and baking. That evening, we went to go pick up the turkey that I had pre-ordered at some American restaurant across town that my friend Grace told me about. When we got back to the apartment, Dad and I were going to warm everything up in the oven... then I discovered that the OVEN WASN'T WORKING. Of all days for the oven to break, it had to be Thanksgiving. So we did the only thing we could do and warmed everything up in the small microwave. I'm so glad that we had almost everything prepared the night before! Grace came over with the mashed potatoes and she, my dad, and I warmed everything up and made the gravy and stuffing on the stove top (which fortunately was still working!) Then finally around 10pm, my roommates- Leo, Maria, and Diego joined us and the 6 of us had a really great time together! We had turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, sweet potatoes, green bean casserole, cranberries, stuffing, and pumpkin pie for dessert. And obviously lots of Spanish wine. Toward the end of the night, we were mostly talking about politics and the differences between Spain and The US, but before we got on that subject, I learned quite a lot about my roommates! I learned that Leo knows a lot more English than I thought because he spent some time in Philadelphia and Miami. Maria wants to open her own bakery one day that sells mostly American pastries such as cupcakes. And Diego doesn't like vegetables or sweets... including ice cream! 

Yesterday, Dad and I slept in a bit then went on a day trip to Segovia. Neither of us had been before and I've heard wonderful things about Segovia and I'm glad that we went! It's a very beautiful and charming city about an hour from Madrid. As we walked around the city, we could see snow on the mountains in the distance, which made the views even better. Speaking of snow, it snowed in Madrid on Thanksgiving morning!!!! Not even a half an inch and it was gone within a few hours, but it was so exciting! Anyway, while we were in Segovia, we stopped for a very nice meal so we could try "Cochinillo" aka suckling pig, which is very famous there. We had a lovely three course meal with some fantastic wine. 

Dad reppin' Northern Iowa everywhere we go...

Pictures of Segovia from my DSLR:

We came back to Madrid in the evening and then went to the city center to see all the Christmas decorations. Seeing the trees, the lights in the streets, all the people, and the decorations everywhere really put me in the Christmas spirit!

Speaking of Christmas... I'll be home in just 3 weeks!!!