Thanksgiving Part 1: Vigo
While I was living in the CRD, I made plans to go see my friend Barrie in Madrid for Thanksgiving. She's my American friend that I've known since our freshman year of college, when we both placed into SPN 350 and were paired together to talk about El Norte. I have a weirdly good memory when it comes to how I met people (I also remember she was wearing a blue baseball cap), but I digress. I figured that because I couldn't go home, I should at least try and spend the holiday with some American friends.
But those plans were made before I made friends in Vigo, and once I'd done that, I really wanted to do something for them. So the Thursday before the real Thanksgiving, I had a Fake Thanksgiving dinner party.
Wednesday night, Melissa's dad came to visit. I went to collect him from the bus station because Melissa was predisposed, and it actually wasn't too difficult. I picked the only person with blue eyes in the whole place who also happened to be frantically trying to work his phone, walked up, and asked "Are you John?" We walked to the centro comercial, which has a small little American store in it (which, just as an aside: It's all, like, pringles and spray cheese and marshmallow fluff and other terrible things that are apparently associated with America), and I bought three cans of pumpkin.
I bought a whole chicken (mostly because I couldn't be bothered to find an actual turkey, which are pretty rare here) at the market, and then all the fixin's for pumpkin pie and green bean casserole, none of which I had ever made before. Cooking with me is always an experiment, but I've never blown any kitchens up, so hats off to me.
Anyway, as soon as the lady at the meat section of the grocery store handed me a plastic bag full of a raw chicken I realized, "holy shit I have no idea what to do with this thing." Melissa was at work all day, but thank Jesus her dad was there. I fully credit him with our chicken dinner that ended up coming out really really well. Apart from that, I made the casserole and the pies. I was a bit worried, because I had to improvise on some of the ingredients, but everything turned out really great, and of course all my guests contributed.
Everyone came over at around 9:30 or 10:00. I found the cheesiest prayer I could and read it aloud to everyone when we sat down to eat. I knew no one would want to sit through a prayer (hell, I didn't want to sit through a prayer), so I just went for broke and picked the cheesiest I could find so that they may at least find it funny, because I still wanted to do it. Then I had everyone go around and say what they were thankful for, and everyone somewhat surprisingly obliged. No one made a joke out of it and nearly everyone said something really sweet that elicited an "aww" from everyone. The opportunity to make new friends and have new experiences were the crowd favorites. For many of my guests, it was their first Thanksgiving, and I'm happy to report that I think they really got it. The warm fuzzy feeling you get that you don't know if it comes from being surrounded by friends, or from the belly full of food and wine. The feeling of being so full and happy, and then remembering that there are three different kinds of dessert, and "making room" so that you can try them all.
As we went around the circle, my German friend Benjamin said he was thankful to experience so many different cultures, as we had seven different countries represented there that night. Later on, my Austrian friend Philipp noted that "we always have parties about food. Our parties are never about drinking, only food." And that's when I realized how lucky I am to be a part of this "we." I was so, so unhappy in the CRD in Meixueiro that I thought I'd never find my place here. After all the shit that happened there, I finally have my own place and an actual group of friends and some sense of belonging. Stopping by the corner store, having friends over for dinner, late nights out-that's what I imagined my time in Spain to be like, and now I have that.
We finished the night with my Chilean friend Javi's pisco sour. He has made a bit of a name for himself with his pisco. If Javi is coming to a party, you know you're going to have pisco at some point in the night. We chatted until about 1 am, calling it an early night by Spanish standards. I heard this is called "sobremesa" in Spanish. There isn't a good translation for it in English, but you know when you have dinner with friends or family, and you sit at the table and chat for a while even though you've all finished eating? That's called sobremesa.
The next day was Saturday, and I was thinking of doing laundry and cleaning up the flat, but then Benjamin texted and said he was going to hop in the car and head to a "destinación desconocida" (undecided destination), and I thought, okay, why not? And I threw on some clothes and went to meet him outside. He was with his fellow German friend Milan, who is doing ERASMUS in Santiago. We drove to Las Cangas and through some back roads in a neighborhood we probably weren't allowed to be in. We found a tiny secluded beach and threw a frisbee back and forth. It was such a nice day, we were even able to remove jackets and scarves. We stayed there for hours, and when the sun was about to set, we drove to a viewpoint. There were some treacherous rocks surrounded by brambles and thorns, but once there I witnessed one of the best sunsets I've ever seen. Not a cloud in the sky.
After the sun had gone down, we headed back to Benjamin's to make dinner. My absolute favorite pastime is cooking and drinking, something Benjamin very often gives me the opportunity to do. The usual group came over to eat, and then Mel and her dad and I went for a drink before heading home.
The next day, I decided to join Mel and her dad and Dani for a hiking trip up A Gandariña, which is a nearby mountain. I'm really glad I went, because otherwise I wouldn't have done anything with my day, and it felt good to be active. We walked for about three hours, but we were still a ways from the top. We must have started from the wrong starting point, or perhaps the website reported the wrong amount of time it takes to do the walk, because we weren't able to finish the rest of the way. We stopped to eat, and then headed back to ensure we made it to the car before sunset. my toes hurt and my butt was sore, but I really really enjoyed getting out and doing something different. It felt great, and the whole weekend was spectacular. I got to try new things, and even had the honor of giving my friends their very first Thanksgiving. It made not being able to spend it with my family pretty bearable. I hope yours was just as great as mine!
El mundo es un libro, y ellos que no viajan leen sólo una página.
But those plans were made before I made friends in Vigo, and once I'd done that, I really wanted to do something for them. So the Thursday before the real Thanksgiving, I had a Fake Thanksgiving dinner party.
Wednesday night, Melissa's dad came to visit. I went to collect him from the bus station because Melissa was predisposed, and it actually wasn't too difficult. I picked the only person with blue eyes in the whole place who also happened to be frantically trying to work his phone, walked up, and asked "Are you John?" We walked to the centro comercial, which has a small little American store in it (which, just as an aside: It's all, like, pringles and spray cheese and marshmallow fluff and other terrible things that are apparently associated with America), and I bought three cans of pumpkin.
I bought a whole chicken (mostly because I couldn't be bothered to find an actual turkey, which are pretty rare here) at the market, and then all the fixin's for pumpkin pie and green bean casserole, none of which I had ever made before. Cooking with me is always an experiment, but I've never blown any kitchens up, so hats off to me.
Anyway, as soon as the lady at the meat section of the grocery store handed me a plastic bag full of a raw chicken I realized, "holy shit I have no idea what to do with this thing." Melissa was at work all day, but thank Jesus her dad was there. I fully credit him with our chicken dinner that ended up coming out really really well. Apart from that, I made the casserole and the pies. I was a bit worried, because I had to improvise on some of the ingredients, but everything turned out really great, and of course all my guests contributed.
Everyone came over at around 9:30 or 10:00. I found the cheesiest prayer I could and read it aloud to everyone when we sat down to eat. I knew no one would want to sit through a prayer (hell, I didn't want to sit through a prayer), so I just went for broke and picked the cheesiest I could find so that they may at least find it funny, because I still wanted to do it. Then I had everyone go around and say what they were thankful for, and everyone somewhat surprisingly obliged. No one made a joke out of it and nearly everyone said something really sweet that elicited an "aww" from everyone. The opportunity to make new friends and have new experiences were the crowd favorites. For many of my guests, it was their first Thanksgiving, and I'm happy to report that I think they really got it. The warm fuzzy feeling you get that you don't know if it comes from being surrounded by friends, or from the belly full of food and wine. The feeling of being so full and happy, and then remembering that there are three different kinds of dessert, and "making room" so that you can try them all.
As we went around the circle, my German friend Benjamin said he was thankful to experience so many different cultures, as we had seven different countries represented there that night. Later on, my Austrian friend Philipp noted that "we always have parties about food. Our parties are never about drinking, only food." And that's when I realized how lucky I am to be a part of this "we." I was so, so unhappy in the CRD in Meixueiro that I thought I'd never find my place here. After all the shit that happened there, I finally have my own place and an actual group of friends and some sense of belonging. Stopping by the corner store, having friends over for dinner, late nights out-that's what I imagined my time in Spain to be like, and now I have that.
We finished the night with my Chilean friend Javi's pisco sour. He has made a bit of a name for himself with his pisco. If Javi is coming to a party, you know you're going to have pisco at some point in the night. We chatted until about 1 am, calling it an early night by Spanish standards. I heard this is called "sobremesa" in Spanish. There isn't a good translation for it in English, but you know when you have dinner with friends or family, and you sit at the table and chat for a while even though you've all finished eating? That's called sobremesa.
The next day was Saturday, and I was thinking of doing laundry and cleaning up the flat, but then Benjamin texted and said he was going to hop in the car and head to a "destinación desconocida" (undecided destination), and I thought, okay, why not? And I threw on some clothes and went to meet him outside. He was with his fellow German friend Milan, who is doing ERASMUS in Santiago. We drove to Las Cangas and through some back roads in a neighborhood we probably weren't allowed to be in. We found a tiny secluded beach and threw a frisbee back and forth. It was such a nice day, we were even able to remove jackets and scarves. We stayed there for hours, and when the sun was about to set, we drove to a viewpoint. There were some treacherous rocks surrounded by brambles and thorns, but once there I witnessed one of the best sunsets I've ever seen. Not a cloud in the sky.
After the sun had gone down, we headed back to Benjamin's to make dinner. My absolute favorite pastime is cooking and drinking, something Benjamin very often gives me the opportunity to do. The usual group came over to eat, and then Mel and her dad and I went for a drink before heading home.
The next day, I decided to join Mel and her dad and Dani for a hiking trip up A Gandariña, which is a nearby mountain. I'm really glad I went, because otherwise I wouldn't have done anything with my day, and it felt good to be active. We walked for about three hours, but we were still a ways from the top. We must have started from the wrong starting point, or perhaps the website reported the wrong amount of time it takes to do the walk, because we weren't able to finish the rest of the way. We stopped to eat, and then headed back to ensure we made it to the car before sunset. my toes hurt and my butt was sore, but I really really enjoyed getting out and doing something different. It felt great, and the whole weekend was spectacular. I got to try new things, and even had the honor of giving my friends their very first Thanksgiving. It made not being able to spend it with my family pretty bearable. I hope yours was just as great as mine!
El mundo es un libro, y ellos que no viajan leen sólo una página.
You should be in a sitcom and this would make a great episode.
ReplyDeleteThis is awesome. I'm so glad you like your new place and that the Thanksgiving festivities went well!
ReplyDelete