El Día de Acción de Gracias (Thanksgiving)

While the American tradition of Halloween has indeed managed to make it all the way to Spain, I cannot say the same for Thanksgiving. Honestly, these people must be crazy; I’d take Thanksgiving over Halloween any day! As it turns out, I actually really missed seeing all my family this year. And Black Friday (my wardrobe is going to be sorely lacking). Carmen did offer to make me turkey for dinner Thanksgiving night, but what that meant was frying a hunk of turkey breast in olive oil and salt, which is not quite the same…I didn’t take her up on the offer. Thankfully, I should be making up for the lack of family time by having dinner with my grandmother and all my cousins over winter break!

Despite a rather sad Thanksgiving day, I managed to salvage the weekend. Josiah, Adriana’s friend who is studying in Granada, came to Sevilla with his program, and we showed him around a bit. After tapas in Barrio Santa Cruz (the old Jewish neighborhood) and an attempt to see *free* flamenco at La Carbonería, we ended up at Long Island Bar (near Calle Betis, a street of bars along the river). Long Island must make literally all of their money off of Americans—and old Spanish guys who want to check them out. They have a different type of shot for each of the 50 states, a map of the US where you can mark where you’re from, and a bunch of US college flags on the ceiling. Plus free sangria for the ladies on Thursday nights. Josiah managed to find his college flag—and he’s from a tiny school in the middle of nowhere! Sadly (or really not so sadly), they don’t have one for Haverford.

Trying to see free flamenco:

College Flags in Long Island Bar:

Josiah, Adriana, and me:

Spanish word of the day: el nuevo testamento = the new testament (because there were several mornings when, upon arriving at the university, I was met with men trying to give me free half-Bibles in Spanish!)

un abrazo,
elizabeth