El Día de la Acción de Gracias

It’s ironic that the year I feel most grateful in my entire life is the one year I’m in a country that doesn’t celebrate Thanksgiving. I’ve never been so thankful, and yet I’m not sitting around a table full of turkey, green beans, and mashed potatoes, toasting a roomful of people and saying one thing I’m happy for. Instead, I’m waking up early on my day off from school to work on a group project, hiking up the dreaded to campus in close to freezing weather, and wishing I didn’t stay out quite so late celebrating Claire’s birthday the night before. And yet, somehow I still don’t feel pangs for home on Thanksgiving. All I can think about is how I can’t imagine being anywhere but Granada today.

Today, I’m thankful for Alina, the Spanish girl in my Geolinguistics class who offered to help my all-English-speaking group with our assignment. Though in no way obligated to do so, she helped us with our project in addition to our own. She met with us today for four hours, explaining how to use a linguistic atlas, going over the points of the project, and then correcting our summaries. I can’t believe how nice some people are.

I’m thankful for the bocadillos at Cartuja (my campus). They are so giant and delicious and cheap. If I can’t have a massive Thanksgiving feast today, at least I can have a massive sandwich.

I’m thankful that I moved pisos. Trips to her hometown, correcting my essays, teaching me new words, bringing me to afternoon fiestas, sharing her meals, and having endless patience with my foreigness are a few of the reasons that make Neivar a great housemate!

I’m thankful that Spain celebrates so many random holidays, and that the students take school attendance with a grain of salt. This leads to my next point: I’m grateful to be able to travel to Paris and Belgium next week!!

I’m thankful for the Spanish expression “No pasa nada!” which seems to surface so frequently here. Here’s an example. Jenny: “Professor, I just want to let you know that I’m going to be missing the next week and a half of class because I have more pressing priorities, such as traveling instead of learning.” Señor Gonzales: “No pasa nada!” (Don’t worry about it!)

I’m thankful to be studying abroad in the Age of Skype so I can at least tell my family I’m grateful for them on Thanksgiving!

I’m thankful that the bakeries in Granada have started selling traditional Christmas sweets more than a month in advance—how was I living in this city before these came on the shelves??

I’m thankful that I threw in a few pairs of ski socks when I was packing for Spain, and that my mom is going to send me some more (*hint hint*). California weather is a bit more forgiving than Granada’s.

I’m thankful to have celebrated the most nontraditional Thanksgiving of my life: two Americans and two Spaniards sitting around a coffee table eating pasta, bread, and wine. There are few things better than celebrating an American holiday with Italian food in Spanish company. Tonight I also insisted that we uphold my mom’s tradition of going around the table and saying one thing we’re thankful for. Anna and I both said we were grateful to be in Spain, and Neivar and Victor both said they were grateful to know and share their lives with two new Americans.

And now, at last, I’m grateful to end this blog entry so I don’t puke from corniness!!