The best Thanksgiving ever not in America

Queridos amigos,

I hope you all had a great day full of turkey, full tummies and good cheer this past Thursday. Although there was no turkey to be had here in Sevilla, there was plenty of cheer. We decided to have our fiestas de Gracias on Friday so some of our freinds could make it up here from Cadiz. So Thursday night Jennifer and I went to our friend Mati's to use her oven to make apple pie! I don't even really like apple pie but it was still exciting. We also created a batata (sweet potato more or less) pie/bake. While waiting for our creations to cool we ordered pizza and drank cruzcampo beer, a true celebreation of american culture. We explained to Mati that if you really want to be cheesy on thanksgiving, you can go around and everyone says what they are thankful for. Mati insisted that we do this tradition and some of mine included: being in Spain this year, of course my family and freinds at home, finding such a great apartment complete with great roommates and being able to come home for a christmas visit. :)

Friday afternoon our freinds Hayley and Jennifer arrived and we started to make ( in a true Grammy tradition) un MONTON de comida. Jennifer tried to send Maggie and I out to get more at the last minute because she was still somehow worried that there wouldnt be enough but we put our foot down and, behold, it is now Tuesday and we still have a few leftovers. The party went very well. We had basically every other tradtional thanksgiving food other than turkey because jennifer received a huge package of goodies from her aunt in the states. we also had a tradtional thanksgiving flan, made by Lydia, the german. 9 ladies total, lots of food,wine, laughs and estrogen. what could be better, haha. On Monday both Noelia and Lydia said that they had a great time and they love American thanksgiving! It was Noelia's first experience of the holiday and I think we definatly did it justice.

Saturday we continued our revelry and we 5 American ladies headed to Cordoba. We went to visit the Mezquita ( a large Cathedral was that originally constructed by the Moors, then took over by the Christians, then by the Moors....etc. For example, on one wall, completely carved in sancrit, they simply stuck a statue of St. Peter in front to make the Catholic presence known.) We also went to the Banos Arabes, which is basically a bath house. There are 3 pools of warm, hot and cold. Beleive it or not you are supposed to go from warm to hot to cold, because the cold water gives your body such a shock that when return to the warn water it is very relaxing for your muscles. Included in our visit was a short massage and tea in the tea house upstairs. It was lovely.

There is another Bano Arabe in Sevilla and I think I am going to buy a trip for Noelia and Lydia and I for a Christmas present to relax ourselves after a semester with our little gypsies. Yesterday for example, Noelia got completely fed up with them and had them copying for 2 hours. I got to play grocery item memory with a few of the good ones that had escaped punishment, but even that was difficult to maintain for 2 hours.

This week we intend to lay low and relax in Sevilla. I may buy myself a space heater though, it is SO COLD! It is always colder in our apartment than outside because we have cold floors and our building is blocked from the sun so it is liek an ice box. I may go and buy myself a little space heater, or at the very least another blankie.

Bueno pues, nada.
I hope all is well at home!
Beso,
MC