Over on the Spanish front here, that mentality doesn't really exist. Black Friday, of course, is an American phenomenon...although, my madre told me that they have the day of rebajas (sales) in the spring before the Spanish festivals that sounds an awful lot like it. And, of course, Thanksgiving doesn't exist either, being one of the only truly unique American holidays.
I never really thought about how different it would be for people to not even know what Thanksgiving was. No Turkey-Day jokes, cranberry sauce or children's turkey handprints lining the walls. CIEE attempted to give us Americans a traditional Thanksgiving, though. It was actually slightly amusing to see the Spaniards do Thanksgiving... like most American things Europeans try to do, it never comes out exactly right.... But, I was extremely happy for their gestures all the same, and really loved going to a huge dinner with all of my CIEE family. The next time we're all going to be together like that is in three weeks when we're heading home (!!!).
In honor of Thanksgiving, I took some pictures with my Spanish family. (Although the dinner was just the American students, the families didn't come).
Adrian, Mario, Me and Juani in our living room.
Adrian and I. Why is is SO adorable???
Mario and Adrian acting silly in front of the camera.
Why do I feel like I'm looking at the next generation of the
"Kandace-and-Sarah" phenomenon?
They're cousins, too.
Our Thanksgiving dinner was in a restaurant near the University. A couple of people gave speeches, including miss Lauren (who spoke in front of the entire program in Spanish! woo! I am a proud stage-mom.) and some other people. Me and the other two kids from choir sang as well. It was a nice little ceremony!
Thanksgiving dinner set-up.
Afterwards I came home and skyped with my actual family at Thanksgiving dinner, which was a trip. I was climbing into bed because it was almost 2am, but my family back home was just sitting down to Thanksgiving dinner! It was a little overwhelming and made me miss home a lot -- I told them to save some pumpkin pie for me! -- but I was glad that I got to see everyone on Thanksgiving :) How weird that you can communicate like that from a thousand miles away! I felt like I was sitting right in the middle of my living room.
Oh, and while I'm at it, I meant to make a post earlier in the week about how choir's going. It is going great and I am having a ton of fun. On Wednesday night after rehearsal, we all went over to Burger King (yes, in Spain) and grabbed dinner and made an absolute mess of ourselves with laughter! I said, no matter what country I'm in, it is always a good idea for some burgers, fries and milkshakes after rehearsal with the cast! The Spaniards wasted no time teaching us all sorts of inappropriate things to say and the best ways to use our Spanish. (Don't worry, I won't repeat them here.) Even the choir director came to hang out with us! Once we got kicked out of BK (because it was closing!) we went over to this underwater bar thing in San Vicente, and hung out there for a bit. It was super fun just to chill out and hang out with all of the Spanish kids. I even got to go cruising in a car! (Which doesn't really sound that exciting, but when I haven't been in an actual car for four months, this is a big deal). We just drove down the freeway, blaring Spanish music, dancing, laughing -- very cool. Felt just like heading down the 101 with my friends. It keeps amazing me how, no matter where I'm at, we're all the same in some ways.
Then, of course, I was in Sevilla this weekend, but that deserves a post of its own, too. I'll probably split them up again, and spend the next few days posting pictures! Let's just say -- it was absolutely BEAUTIFUL.
Here's a teaser... (and yes, I took this picture):
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