Gobble Gobble.

Well this may be a few weeks late (as usual) but we celebrated Thanksgiving like nobody's business here in Madrid.


The week began with a bang, all the students made hands out of Turkeys. Despite my model and our thorough explanation of Turkeys, many of the students instead drew their bracelets, rings, fingernails,etc..

What attractive Turkeys!

We eventually got it together. This would be after the questioning: What colors to use, pen or pencil? Two hands or one?

Honestly, lets just make some turkeys.

Anyways, so thanks to Nance, I was loaded with fabulous Turkey songs.

I went with this one:( Tune to: Where is Thumbkin?)
Where is Turkey? Where is Turkey? Here I am! Here I am! I will be hiding, I will be hiding. You won't find me, You won't find me.

The kids wave their "turkeys" (quotations are there for a reason!) in the air, and pull one out at a time. The kids who understood the song did this anyways, the other ones just copied me. I am a trend-setter.

The kids then put one hand at time behind their backs and BAM. Song is over.

I did this in several of my classes. I went even farther and did a warm-up activity to "I am thankful for_______" and then the kids wrote it on their hands.

We did the song a few times, and then I collected the hands and made "hand flowers" out of them. They are decorating two of my classrooms. I will have to take pictures for you all. They are Boo-te-full.

The 5th and 6th grade classes were treated to the Norman Rockwell painting "Freedom from Want."
Many of them thought it was a picture of my family. That was amusing, but what a compliment to Norman. Way to go buddy!

The 6th graders were given the task of naming two people in the painting, and writing a dialogue. We talked about how they might be feeling, hungry,happy,etc.. They wrote short dialogues that were hilarious.

Character 1: Do you want a glass of water?
Character 2:Yes, of course.
Character 1: Do you want turkey?
Character 2: No, I don't like turkey.
Character 1: Lets go eat a turkey?
Character 2: Yes, that enjoy.

Character 1:Oh I'm very hungry
Character 2:Yes, I'm hungry too
Character 1:Who is that boy? Is very handsome!!
Character 2:Yes, I'm going to ask his name.
Character 1: Oh look!! The turkey is here.
Character 2: Yes, hooray!

Character 1: How are you?
Character 2:I'm fine
Character 1:Do you like the turkey?
Character 2:Yes I like.
Character 1: Where is the bathroom?
Character 2: The bathroom is in the bedroom.

Character 1:I'm happy.
Character 2:Wat's do you like the chiken?
Character 1:My favorite animal is a cat
Character 2:Wat's the weather like today?
Character 1:Yes I like and of course!
Character 2:Do you like play football?

Character 1: I want eat turkey.
Character 2:Yes, turkey.
Character 1:Enjoy!
Character 2:Ommmmm very good!
Character 1: Yes very good.
Character 2: I don't like.

Character 1:How are you?
Character 2:I'm very very good because it is Thanksgiving.
Character 1: Oh yes, I"m going to have dinner.
Character 2:What is for dinner?
Character 1:For dinner there is turkey.
Character 2: I am excellent because there is turkey for dinner.

Character 1: Yum, turkey is here.
Character 2:Where is my drink?
Character 1: Your drink is in front of my.
Character 2: Ohhh! Thank you.
Character 1: I'm very hungry, I want turkey!
Character 2: I'm not! I'm very very thirsty!


Anyways in terms of Turkey and food, I was well accommodated by the school lunch ladies. For the first time in the schools history, they whipped up a Thanksgiving "lunch". It was actually decent, but I wasn't so keen on the "Is this better than in America" comparisions.

I'm sorry, but as much as you think your food is the @#*&, nothing compares to an American cooked turkey. Well maybe not any American (my turkey would not be edible) but just in general.

They also had stuffing, which was baked in some sort of a pan, but it was a great effort!

We took a picture with our lunch lady. She is awesome.




Part II of Thanksgiving involves Americans recreating an American Thanksgiving dinner in Spain.


Due to unforeseen circumstances, we ended up hosting our Thanksgiving at an apartment with no oven or microwave. This involved some scrambling, and cooking the turkey the day beforehand. Where you ask? At my apartment. Two girls in my group went and bought a turkey (emptied of internal organs but complete with a few random feathers)

We fixed up the turkey at my house, and cooked up vegetables. Spent the afternoon watching YouTube videos of friends, and coloring our "Turkey Team" shirts. Thats right make it happen!

I also introduced this video to my friends, and for those of you who HAVEN'T seen it, watch it now.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngRq82c8Baw


Anyways back to our "Thanksgiving Sunday" we all brought our different food dishes over, I brought a microwave as well. That was fun. We all sat and enjoyed our combination of Spanish version of American dishes. They came out great!

My broccoli didn't come out because our oven wasn't working that morning. However, I made it a few days later and it was delicious!

To sum this long entry up, Thanksgiving was great and all, but I did miss all of you back home. The one thing that made me the most homesick was not the long drawn out phone call home, but knowing that I missed the Thanksgiving parade.

The Marching Royal Dukes made an appearance.

JM... U wish you had a Duke Dog!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSVi7OWHoqA


Well since this is so late, Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays to all!