by Daniela, Tufts 1+4 Participant
So long ago the pilgrims celebrated a successful harvest after their first year in a foreign country. Today, a similar celebration took place on Calle de Carmen Montoya. We celebrated an exchange of cultures after our first, nearly, three months in a foreign country. We had Thanksgiving!
When it comes to preparing Thanksgiving in Madrid, the first thing you do it head to Taste of America. This is a store that sells “American” goodies. We stocked up on canned pumpkin, cranberry sauce and marshmallows. My co-chef Madeline and I were confident in our cooking abilities, but taking on a whole turkey is a lot to ask of two eighteen year olds. We approached a whole chicken instead. With the help of Jaime Oliver, Food Network and our moms back home we made a pumpkin pie, an apple pie (gluten free), sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, green beans, stuffing, cranberry sauce, biscuits (gluten free), a whole chicken, turkey breast, gravy and whipped cream! The best part was the biscuits tasted like biscuits, the stuffing tasted like stuffing and the pumpkin pie tasted like pumpkin pie! We sat down to a table full of food and all six of the girls hated it!
They didn’t hate all of it, mostly the cranberry sauce and the sweet potatoes. I am still not a huge fan of Thanksgiving food, and watching the young girls try cranberry sauce for the first time brought back so many memories. The girls were very vocal about their disdain for our “sabores fuertes.” Coincidentally, I just learned the word for picky last night: tiquismiquis. I casually slipped the word into the conversation, and it ended up offering an insight into the different aspects of cultural exchange. One of the girls remarked how we probably felt the same way about Spanish food, the educator of the home then pointed out that he couldn’t tell because we never expressed it. The conversation was light hearted and insightful, with plenty of detours for laughter.
Although 6/10 of the table were not enjoying their special dinner, the atmosphere of Thanksgiving was all around. There was love, laughter, conversation and of course gratitude. The most successful part of the night was sharing what we were each grateful for. Leyre was thankful to see her mom, Ana was thankful for lack of homework and abundance of good grades, Lucia was thankful for being on Earth, Eva was thankful for her sister, and both Carmen and Yaiza were thankful for their friends. Juan Carlos, the educator was thankful for his first Thanksgiving. As I said before I am not a Thanksgiving food fanatic, but today for the first time in my life I was thankful for Thanksgiving. I am thankful that when I return home I will remember how hard we all laughed at the table. I will remember the hours Madeline and I spent in the kitchen, and the joy we felt when our food was better than just edible. I will remember the six tiquismiquis who only wanted to try the pies. I will remember the joy in Juan Carlos’ face when he saw the table filled with foreign food. I will forever remember the first Thanksgiving in Montoya.