Día de Acción de Gracias

Happy Thanksgiving! In the spirit of the season, we had a massive dinner (and by massive, I mean a 7x3 table absolutely covered in food) with some of the Fulbrighters over at Talia’s apartment on Sunday. She has eight roommates, most of whom joined the 12 or so of us, so dinner was a grab bag of Americans + Europeans (Greek, Italian, French, Spanish). For over five hours, we all cooked, gushed over what good cooks we all were, ate copious amounts of food in several stages, gorged on rich desserts (including homemade pumpkin pie from scratch, which was a-mazing), and laughed hysterically over YouTube videos. We all agreed that while we sometimes lament our lack of Spanish friends, we really should be thankful for all of the absolutely phenomenal people we have met over the past three months (even though, desgraciadamente, they are American). Needless to say, we all left with that warm fuzzy holiday feeling that most of you will probably get this afternoon (read: also known as food coma).

Then came Monday, and our warm fuzzy feeling was washed away by a much needed torrential downpour that lasted three days! The cold accompanied the rain and, all in all, the weather was downright shitty. Madrid is generally a brilliantly sunny city, so it seemed to me that the bad weather really affected the mood of the city. Magically, however, my kids were quiet and attentive during these days…I am almost willing to say I would trade in all the sunny days of Spain for this miracle, though I’m not sure yet.

Yesterday, I went to go see Cassandra’s Dream in version original (since most of the movies here in Spain are dubbed in Spanish with cheesy voices). It’s yet another one of Woody Allen’s forays into the gray area of morality, culpability, and choice. Definitely not the most uplifting movie I have ever seen, but I would recommend it, since it is infinitely more thought-provoking than the last movie I saw (Lío Embarazoso, which is “Knocked Up” dubbed in Spanish). Also, Philip Glass is the composer, so at the very least, go for the music!

In other, more (most) important news, today is the day that my dearest cousin Ranak gets married in New Delhi (only to get married again in two days in Baroda). Me da pena (“it pains me”) that I can’t be there celebrating her marriage. While I can’t wait to see the pictures and squeal over the outfits, it’s just not the same, particularly since Ranak is my other sister. Every day I think of what a pity it is that we have not yet invented teleporting, as this simple device would make my life 1,000x easier! Case and point: my roommate Monica E. from Nashville is engaged to the fabulous Nick E.! Seeing the two of them almost every day for the past year made me an invested stakeholder in this engagement, but I couldn’t be there to help celebrate! Pues, por lo menos, Monica y Nick, felicidades!

Today starts my absurdly long weekend. I’m going to celebrate by running never-ending errands and watching a French movie with my language classmates. After all, what better way to celebrate Thanksgiving than watching a French movie in Spain with Colombians and eating Indian food? It’s the American way.

P.S. For a little Thanksgiving cheer, check out the adorable video the CWA-Cayce Learning Center has posted of my former students describing what they are thankful for. I miss them! http://www.cwacayce.blogspot.com/