Thanksgiving in Granada

So Thursday, Thanksgiving, quite possibly the worst ever. As previously mentioned in the previous blog entry, I was in the middle of a terrible week. I´m pretty sure one of the reasons for that was that Thanksgiving was this week and I was not in the United States with my family. Last time I was in Spain, I had a great time because I went to a giant, delicious dinner where I stuffed my self silly with my 40 newest American best friends. Not the same thanksgiving as always but we definitely captured the essence. This year, Michelle told me that some of the other people in Granada with our same job, were organizing a dinner, for not Friday but Thursday night. I signed up, and got the email saying what people were bringing, and under gravy and cranberry sauce was a note that said, (Rachel, Michelle´s friend do you think you could bring a ton of gravy?) Well, I was a little worried because, one I suck at cooking, 2, gravy is hard to make, and 3, I was pretty sure you need fat and juice from the meat to make gravy. Also, I´m pretty sure cranberries don´t exist in Spain. I emailed her back and explaing my concerns. Well the girl Jenny, who was organizing the whole thing had gone to Corte Inglés and bought some packets and sauce to mix it all up for some immitation gravy and I met with her Wednesday night to exchange the goods. When I saw what she had bought I was still a little worried, Wild Mushroom Sauce, and a spicy fajitia like chicken marinade.

So the gravy question was taken care of, but I was still pretty upset to be spending a fake thanksgiving celebration, on Friday, with people I didn´t even know. Victor at first said that I should go by myself that way I could meet more Americans and he could go out with his friends, but I convinced him that as one of the few friends and loved ones I have here with me in Granada, I really wanted him to come.

So, Thanksgiving didn´t really have a chance, even before it got here. Then when Thursday finally did come, it proved itself to be just as terrible as expected. It was, of course, raining a lot. I woke up early and went to work, (something no one should EVER do on Thanksgiving) only to find out that contrary to popular belief, Carmina didn´t come back to work like she said she was going to. The other 2 teachers said, ¨She said she was coming so wait around and see if she does. Then we´ll decide what to do.¨ So, I´m not going into savage land alone and used the internet and talked with Michelle for an hour, because her class with teachers didn´t happen. I did enjoy all the e-cards and e-mails that I got that day and that was fun for both of us. Then we had 30 minute recess and I have a free period for an hour. During recess, I talked with Sacramento who said ¨Well, Carmina´s not here so just go home, its Thanksgiving. (Great news!!) I´ll have to teach her class later. Where are you in the book? (So I show her, and then she says,) ok so you can teach that. Sounds good?¨ It actually sounded confusing to me because she had just said that I could go home and then that I was teaching. Lesson learned: when someone says you can just go home, you pack up immediately and leave before they change their mind. So I waited around during my free period. Michelle was supposed to work too, but there was a suprise assembly so she came up and we went on a search to find some crayons so we could color some Thanksgiving drawings we had printed out. We didn´t find anything, apparently schools in Spain don´t care about coloring. We gave up and just talked for the rest of the period. Then I went to my first hour of class at 12:40, after having arrived at work at 10:00. The kids of course were overjoyed to see me. Any by overjoyed I mean they started cursing their terrible luck that the sub spoke English. So that was a great atmosphere to try and teach a class to the half of the kids that brought their books. It was horrible. Then I went home an hour early because another teacher I work with was gone. So total for Thursday, 1 hour. Weekly total, 2.25. I shouldn´t complain, but I had been at work since 10.... I ended up walking home with MariAngeles, who also made the mistake of asking how it was going teaching at the school and prompting me to tell the truth after hearing my unconvincing ´fine.´ So that´s what we talked about for the whole walk home. Her conclusion was that, the teachers have been stripped of all power and authority, so there is nothing we can do about it. Try to teach the best you can and dont let yourself get frustrated, its not worth it. Good Spanish advice. Pretty much impossible for an American to follow in my opinion.

So yeah, get home, make lunch with mashed potatoes from a bag, and the chicken marinade to try it. the sauce was pretty good on the potatoes, but i still wasnt convinced it could be used in gravy. then i ate the leftovers from rosa´s, zore´s and jose manuel´s (magdalenas brother and rosa´s ex/boyfriend?¿?¿) who was there spending the day with them. Watched some tv, practiced guitar and went to class. I bought a new toothbrush, and then came home. During class, my family and victors mom had called me. I hadn´t seen victor´s parents all week and she wanted to know where the heck I was. So I called my home back and talked with the fam and mostly my sister for 2 hours. That was the best part of the whole day and its only saving grace. i love my sister soooo soooo soooooo very much. and the rest of my family too, but i get to talk to them more than my sister. Then I went and visited victor´s mom for a while. Then I came back and I made a turkey sandwich and ate it for dinner. My feeble attempt at what I would normally eat for dinner on thanksgiving. My other family members called me from my grandmas house and passed the phone around so I could say hi to all of them. It was good to talk to them too, but I was also pretty jealous they were all together and eating deliciousness. Apparently my sister made the pumpkin pie and the whipped cream. need I say more? Then i watched House on tv, and later ate a piece of pizza from the other kids´ meal, not because I was hungry, but because it was thanksgiving and you eat a lot on thanksgiving. Then I went to bed.