Our Spanish Thanksgiving

We can't get a turkey. Green bean casserole will not taste the same without French's fried onions and Campbell's cream of mushroom soup. Where in the world are we going to find marshmallows in this country for the sweet potato casserole? Do they even know what mashed potatoes are here? Our oven only fits at most, two casseroles at a time. How will we keep everything warm? Most importantly, how will we survive without having anything containing pumpkin for dessert?

This year, Thanksgiving was a Thanksgiving filled with doubts. My roommates and I were thousands of miles away from our homes where we have been celebrating Thanksgiving and Thanksgiving traditions for years. We were all missing out on mom's pumpkin desserts, delicious homemade gravy, TURKEY, family time, AND we had to cook for ourselves! Not our Moms and our Aunts...US...alone...in the kitchen...preparing Thanksgiving! But we had to celebrate. Although we are living in Spain, we are Americans through and through and the last thing we were going to do was sit around and have grilled cheese for dinner. After determining that this day was going to be a little different, we decided to start the hunt for ingredients.

Rumor had it that a store called VIPS which is about a 15 minute walk from my apartment had marshmallows. When I got there, I found them tucked away on one of the shelves with a slogan on them that said, "America's Favorite Treat." I was never so happy to see them but never in my life did I think I would be paying 4 euros ($5.50) for marshmallows! Next came the hunt for spices like nutmeg and cinnamon as well as other ingredients for our dinner. I was all ready to buy the Spanish version of Cream of Mushroom Soup (Sopa de Crema de Cetas del Bosque) until my roommate yelled out in the middle of El Corte Ingles (the famous Spanish department store that has a super market on the first floor with many American foods)...BRIDGET, THEY HAVE CAMPBELL'S CREAM OF MUSHROOM! I was pumped. After paying 4 euro for two cans of that which would have originally been about $0.80 in any American grocery store, I decided that we could easily turn this Thanksgiving around.

Since my roommates and I have work until Thursday, we decided we would make our Thanksgiving meal on Friday since we have off. We would also have Thanksgiving for lunch since lunch is the big meal here instead of dinner. So the preparations began. We began cooking around 11 am for a 3 pm meal. The menu included:

Chicken
Chicken gravy
Stuffing
Mashed Potatoes
Sweet potato casserole
Green bean casserole
Honey glazed carrots
Garlic broccoli
Deviled eggs (because my roommate Kathleen always has them in her house for an appetizer)
Bread
Wine
Brownies for dessert

There we were in a kitchen as narrow as an upstairs hallway with about 5 feet of counter space total for all of this preparation. We filled the kitchen with all of our ingredients as we put on our Christmas song playlists on iTunes. And we began. We mashed the sweet potatoes with a pestel (yes as in morder and pestel...yes we were living in the stone age on Friday) since we did not have an electric mixer. We used so many ingredient substitutes and held our breath with every casserole that went into the oven hoping it would turn out alright.

Let's just say we were all more than pleased with the way the meal turned out. The first day was our roommate meal and the next day we introduced Thanksgiving dinner to some of our Spanish friends. They were confused by the whole let's put all of the same food on the same plate and go back for second and third servings. But they loved it. They were amazed by the concept of gravy and marshmallows on top of sweet potatoes and all of the preparation that went into one meal. In the end, we had a very successful weekend of Thanksgiving madness.

After reflecting on the weekend, I realized I have a lot to give thanks for. I have my wonderful family and extended family who helped me begin my journey through "Teach in Spain" by providing me with the support I needed to come to Europe and live a healthy and happy life here. I have my friends both in the United States who constantly assure me that I am never alone in this experience. I have a boyfriend in Hawaii who makes me happy from 7,000 miles away and makes a long distance relationship as easy and painless as they come. And as I looked around the Thanksgiving table, I looked at my roommates and my friends both Spanish and American and I realized I am lucky to have them as well as the the people who I work with at my school and my new students. Each one of them has been put in my life for a reason, and I feel so blessed and lucky to have all of them in my life right now.

After rereading the paragraph above, I realize that despite the very high highs and the very low lows of this experience, I have a lot to be thankful for. What more could a girl want?

British English is Cramping My (Teaching) Style

British English vs. American English

If you have ever heard someone from England speak, the first difference you will notice is the accent. Obviously. If you continue to have a conversation with them, you might notice some differences in the words used to describe basic everyday things. Take the word elevator for example. In England they say lift. Or you might notice a difference between the spelling: colour as opposed to color (as the spell check on my computer tells me spelling the word color as colour is incorrect...how ironic). Yes, there are differences, but they rarely keep you from understanding a person from England if you are someone used to American English. It's not like a native English speaker speaking to a native Spanish speaker for example. But what if you were an American teaching in a school where the students have been taught "British English" their whole lives?

This is where many of the difficulties lie in teaching English as a foreign language in Spain as I have discussed in previous blog posts. For me, I do not think one type of English is necessarily better than the other type, but I am fascinated by what is considered right and wrong in both types of English. I have discussed before the usage of the word "rubber" for eraser, which as we know in the United States, this is unacceptable. I have also learned that students often say "I've got" for "I have" whereas in the United States, we would fail a term paper if we tried to write "I've got."

But this is where I draw the line...this is where British English cramps my (teaching) style. The other day, I was writing a sentence on the board. I wrote words such as "color" and "program" and my students started whispering while the teacher looked very confused. I asked what they problem was and everyone asked why I was spelling the words wrong. And I told them this is how you spell them in the United States. The teacher then went on to explain to me that if the students write "color" instead of "colour" or "program" instead of "programme," they are instructed to take points off of their exam. How crazy is that?

For me, the most important part of learning a language is being able to communicate with other people. It does not matter if you write "color" or "colour" because when you say it, it sounds the same. Even if you write it differently, people will still know what you mean! Isn't the main goal of learning a language being able to communicate with others? Just one of the many thoughts that has crossed my mind since I began teaching.

Oh the Beauty of Language

Chip
Cheap
Ship
Sheep

Above are just a few examples of words my students have trouble pronouncing. They are so used to pronouncing the letter "i" as an "e" sound. So when they say words like "chip" it sounds the same as "cheap." The same with when they say "ship" it sounds like "sheep." They thought it was so funny to hear me go through the words and say the correct English pronunciation for all of them. Then I explained to them all of the troubles I have with their language like the double r, for example. One of the girls in my class even asked me if I thought it was funny to hear them (my students) speak. I told her no because I, too, am learning a language and I probably sound a little strange when I speak. So no, to me, they do not sound funny. If anything, I give them credit for having the courage to speak to a native speaker. Because as I know from experience, it is not an easy thing to do.

Every day I become more fascinated with language and pronunciation. It is amazing how someone who is raised saying "ship" and "sheep" does not even think twice about pronunciation when speaking the words. But people who are not native English speakers have to think so hard before pronouncing these words.

Each day in Spain is a new adventure. I never know what is coming next. Take today for example. I did not expect to spend 20 minutes of the class going over the differences between "ship" and "sheep" and "chip" and "cheap" that later turned into the difference between "shit" and "sheet" and "bitch" and "beach" (which was acceptable because this was my adult class...I was not teaching this to young children. And they asked! Don't worry ;) ). Nor did I expect a lesson on the simple present, present continuous, simple past and simple continuous to turn into a conversation about Bridget's favorite music (both Spanish and American) and why the Philadelphia Phillies are far more superior than the New York Yankees.

I also did not expect to receive the best package from the best mom in the world with all of these great teaching materials. Nor did I expect to ever be excited about teaching materials...side note.

On my way home from picking up my package, I did not expect a 3 year old girl to come running out of her pre school, punch me in the thigh and then run back to her mother. Like what did I do to you...I was on the other side of the sidewalk?! I also did not expect to walk into the grocery store and have the guy at the cheese counter wanting to be my best friend. Rando...but I like the Spanish people so yes, let's be friends.

This week, I also experienced for the first time what it felt like to get paid...you know...get money for something I am finding out is something that I love to do.

But most importantly, I did not expect to Skype with my mom and by the end of the conversation realize how much I have grown up. Sounds really cheesy I know. But after talking about paying rent and bills and completing the steps to become a resident in Spain and figuring out life in another language, I finally realized that it is true that you never stop learning. It is certainly exciting. At the same time, it is extremely frustrating and scary. But in the end, it's a good life. And I like the feeling that I get when I know I am living it to the fullest.

Why don't you look scary?

The Spanish people are beginning to understand the concept of Halloween. Yes, they call it Halloween too. The Spaniards who are around my parents' ages do not really celebrate Halloween at all. The young children are getting more and more involved in the holiday and most of them dress up and have even started trick-or-treating in their neighborhoods. And the Spaniards who are my age understand Halloween but they did not grow up trick-or-treating or even wearing costumes. This is a somewhat recent development for them.

There is confusion with the whole costume concept. Here in Spain, Spaniards think all Halloween costumes have to be scary. They don't, as we all know. Most of the "scary" costumes and mask wearing phases of our lives ended in the early pre teenage years. So you can imagine that when the Spaniards saw an energizer bunny, a cowgirl, a pumpkin and a gothic girl walking down the street on the way to the bars, they were a little confused. I am very interested to see what Halloween will be like when the younger children are older. I predict that trick-or-treating and dressing up will be much more common in a few years.

Then there are the concepts of pumpkin picking, pumpkin carving, jack-o'-lanterns, Halloween decorations and candy corn that my students have never heard of so it was pretty fun to teach them about everything. The one thing they all found interesting and somewhat crazy is that there are Halloween stores that are only open for a few months out of the year. Looking back on that, it is a little crazy.

Ironically, my Halloween in Spain was the best Halloween I have had in a very long time. I went from not having a costume until 5 pm to running to the Chino (aka discount Chinese grocery store that has everything including rabbit ears and a puffy tail for 1,80 euros) and throwing together an outfit last minute. After, other American English professors came over along with some Spaniards to celebrate glorious Halloween in our piso. The mini fiesta en our piso turned into a night out as it normally does. We walked to the bars as I was told that my rabbit ears "were not mine" (obviously...thanks rando Spanish guy) to having a conversation with people in the bar completely decked out in rabbit garb. Let's just say a Halloween where half the people were dressed up and half of the people we looking at you like you were an insane idiot was by far one of the best ones yet.  As I fell asleep around 5:30 am (having the next day off...All Saints Day...thanks for being a Catholic Country, Spain!), I felt pretty content about my life. And when I walked into school today and told my coworkers what I was for Halloween, I started out by saying "Yo era la conjeita de..." (I was the little rabbit from...), and they all responded "de Playboy!" and I proceeded to explain that no, I was not the little rabbit from playboy but rather from the Energizer commercial. They understood, laughed, and I loved how they all knew about Playboy. Spain, I love you!