gracias :: thanks-g in bcn

thanksgiving 07...

so i spent thanksgiving in barcelona. my bulgarian roommate asked me if it was the holiday where we dress up in costume and eat a lot of candy. after explaining to her the difference between halloween and thanksgiving she was still confused because she said: wasn't colombus spanish? thats true, he was..touche

i didnt realize how special thanksgiving was to me until i spent it in another country away from my family. so a bunch of my american friends and i decided to take the day off school and do our own celebrating. the days festivities began at a futbol field playing a version of kickball called: sloshball. if you dont know what it is, lets just say that drinking in public is not really inforced in europe. anyways, after a few hours of running around we all cleaned ourselves up and went to hotel espana where our program organized a thanksgiving dinner for us. it was a very beautiful dining room and everyone looked really nice...then the director of our program gave a toast about giving gracias for amistad, amor, familia....etc. then he switched to english and the last thing he said was "call your families and tell them you miss them." that would be the moment where i lost it, emotionally. and not to my surprise, i had two missed calls on my cell phone from my family.

there was nowhere else i wanted to be but in grandma bette's lakehouse eating real turkey and real potatoes and macaroni salad, while the guys watched a football game and cameron, caleb, megan and i joked about our crazy family and grandma was preoccupied with the bird and pleasing everyone, and dave of course taking sneak attack creeper fotos of everyone. so, i just wanted to say, i had a few tears for my family and friends and everyone at home who i miss more then you'll ever know. and i wanted to say thanks to everyone who has supported me and my move to spain, financially and morally and grandma too for dealing with the fact that im on the other side of the world, and all the letters and packages and candy and tapatio and american sentiments.

i love you guys. and thanksgiving dinner just wasn't the same. especially because the gravy had no flavor and the apple pie was frozen. but, good news, i will be home for my favorite holiday ever: FOURTH OF JULY!!!!! so we can get super american and have a really great reunion.