I have a lot to be thankful for in my life, and that’s one reason why I absolutely love Thanksgiving. It’s a day to deliberately acknowledge our blessings and a day to corporately thank the Lord for those graceful gifts. I also love Thanksgiving because it’s my favorite meal: turkey, dressing, gravy, sweet potatoes (prepared in 2 differently delicious ways), green beans, 
cranberry sauce, and—let’s not forget—the pecan and pumpkin pie! Since they don’t celebrate this tradition in Spain, some of my fellow Americans and I got together (along with a few Spaniards and a French dude) on Thursday night to have our own feast. Yadira and Ida hosted us at their great apartment, and Yadira cooked an entire turkey in her small oven. All the guests brought other items: mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes,
corn salad, tortilla española, bread, wine and cheese.
I was probably most excited about the turkey.
In addition to celebrating Thanksgiving, SK and I also raised our glasses to our own 2-month anniversary. Neither of us can believe how much we’ve done together in such a seemingly short amount of time, and we want to keep up our pace of exploring Spain & Madrid and add some adventures elsewhere in Europe too.
I certainly had a Thanksgiving like no other (I’ve never had to speak Spanish at a Thanksgiving meal). Leaving my Madrid family shortly after midnight, I made a mad dash back to my apartment (with a belly full of turkey, mind you) in order to Skype with almost the entire gang of my real family—parents, brother, grandparents, aunt, uncles, and cousins—who were all celebrating together in Georgia. Although I was a bit saddened that I couldn’t be with them for the occasion, it made me look that much more forward to going home for Christmas vacation.
Speaking of, it’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas here in Madrid! The city has put on a massive display of Christmas cheer by hanging tons of lights across the major paseos and the most beautiful streets. SK and I plan on going for a light-walk one night, and I’ll have to snap some photos for y’all! They are simply beautiful.
One thing I like about Spain is the endless possibilities for exploring the country. On Thanksgiving night, SK, Yadira, Ida, and I made plans to take a day excursion to a small town called Cuenca on Saturday. We missed our train and decided to go to Toledo for the day instead. (Btw, I’ve been trying to go to this town for the past month or so.) The high-speed AVE train took us from
Madrid to Toledo in 30 minutes, not only transporting us to another town but to another time period. Toledo is one of Spain’s most important ancient cities, and the giant stone wall around the old part of the town still stands tall and strong centuries after its original construction. El Greco lived and painted here. After visiting, I can more fully understand his art, because those crazy clouds and the eerie color pallet that are often found in his work is exactly what Toledo looks like. During the 9.5 hours we were there, we experienced everything from blue sky to shadowy soft rain. And El Greco seemed to have understood how to capture the unpredictable weather patterns of Toledo.
We spent most of the day simply wandering through the tiny winding streets. Yadira and I paid a pretty penny to see the Cathedral (but it was worth it), and all of us toured the cloister of San Juan de los Reyes, which as built for Ferdinand and Isabel as their burial site (but they changed their minds and decided to be buried in Granada). There’s a reason for the saying “Holy Toledo!” and it comes from the fact that there is a highly dense concentration of churches, mosques, and synagogues in this tiny villa perched a hill that is surrounded on three sides by a gorge-gouging river. Toledo was the religious capital for the Moors, the Jews, and the Christians over the many centuries.
We got back to Madrid at 8:00, and the four of us spent the evening at SK’s. We made tortilla (SK’s getting pretty good at it), and we all snuggled together on the couch and watched “Love Actually,” the first official act of starting to get into the Christmas mood.
Today at church, Pastora Cathy talked about “The Statistics of Thanksgiving” and the importance of recognizing “the primacy of grace” so that we may truly be thankful. I throw up my prayers of thanksgiving and praise to the Lord for all that He’s given to me throughout my life and especially for the many blessings I've received here in Spain. From new friends, good work, and fun adventures, I will give thanks today and everyday to God for these things and many others.
cranberry sauce, and—let’s not forget—the pecan and pumpkin pie! Since they don’t celebrate this tradition in Spain, some of my fellow Americans and I got together (along with a few Spaniards and a French dude) on Thursday night to have our own feast. Yadira and Ida hosted us at their great apartment, and Yadira cooked an entire turkey in her small oven. All the guests brought other items: mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes,
corn salad, tortilla española, bread, wine and cheese.I was probably most excited about the turkey.
In addition to celebrating Thanksgiving, SK and I also raised our glasses to our own 2-month anniversary. Neither of us can believe how much we’ve done together in such a seemingly short amount of time, and we want to keep up our pace of exploring Spain & Madrid and add some adventures elsewhere in Europe too.
I certainly had a Thanksgiving like no other (I’ve never had to speak Spanish at a Thanksgiving meal). Leaving my Madrid family shortly after midnight, I made a mad dash back to my apartment (with a belly full of turkey, mind you) in order to Skype with almost the entire gang of my real family—parents, brother, grandparents, aunt, uncles, and cousins—who were all celebrating together in Georgia. Although I was a bit saddened that I couldn’t be with them for the occasion, it made me look that much more forward to going home for Christmas vacation.
Speaking of, it’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas here in Madrid! The city has put on a massive display of Christmas cheer by hanging tons of lights across the major paseos and the most beautiful streets. SK and I plan on going for a light-walk one night, and I’ll have to snap some photos for y’all! They are simply beautiful.
One thing I like about Spain is the endless possibilities for exploring the country. On Thanksgiving night, SK, Yadira, Ida, and I made plans to take a day excursion to a small town called Cuenca on Saturday. We missed our train and decided to go to Toledo for the day instead. (Btw, I’ve been trying to go to this town for the past month or so.) The high-speed AVE train took us from
Madrid to Toledo in 30 minutes, not only transporting us to another town but to another time period. Toledo is one of Spain’s most important ancient cities, and the giant stone wall around the old part of the town still stands tall and strong centuries after its original construction. El Greco lived and painted here. After visiting, I can more fully understand his art, because those crazy clouds and the eerie color pallet that are often found in his work is exactly what Toledo looks like. During the 9.5 hours we were there, we experienced everything from blue sky to shadowy soft rain. And El Greco seemed to have understood how to capture the unpredictable weather patterns of Toledo.We spent most of the day simply wandering through the tiny winding streets. Yadira and I paid a pretty penny to see the Cathedral (but it was worth it), and all of us toured the cloister of San Juan de los Reyes, which as built for Ferdinand and Isabel as their burial site (but they changed their minds and decided to be buried in Granada). There’s a reason for the saying “Holy Toledo!” and it comes from the fact that there is a highly dense concentration of churches, mosques, and synagogues in this tiny villa perched a hill that is surrounded on three sides by a gorge-gouging river. Toledo was the religious capital for the Moors, the Jews, and the Christians over the many centuries.
We got back to Madrid at 8:00, and the four of us spent the evening at SK’s. We made tortilla (SK’s getting pretty good at it), and we all snuggled together on the couch and watched “Love Actually,” the first official act of starting to get into the Christmas mood.
Today at church, Pastora Cathy talked about “The Statistics of Thanksgiving” and the importance of recognizing “the primacy of grace” so that we may truly be thankful. I throw up my prayers of thanksgiving and praise to the Lord for all that He’s given to me throughout my life and especially for the many blessings I've received here in Spain. From new friends, good work, and fun adventures, I will give thanks today and everyday to God for these things and many others.
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