Thanksgiving- a new International Holiday

So I have been absent from the blog world for quite awhile, I blame the real world for that one. But upon request I am about to present to you the most Traditional Thanksgiving in the most UNtraditional Thanksgiving location- SPAIN. For some of you who are not aware, Spain and the rest of the world does NOT celebrate Thanksgiving. As a matter of fact only the United States and Canada celebrate this wonderful bizarre mystical holiday- but after the display we put on for our friends here in Europe- It may very well be on its way to becoming a new INTERNATIONALLY celebrated Un-official OFFICIAL holiday! That’s right. They liked it so much, they want seconds. Thanksgiving 2012 is already in the preliminary planning process!

I love you Mr. Turkey- you're going to be soooo Yummy!

A now for no further a due- the lineup:

Nationalities represented:

American- Nebraska, Missouri, Kansas, Michigan & Massachusetts

Cuban

Franco-Portuguese
Spanish (well he's not quite here yet but will be!)

French

Taiwanese (not to be confused with Chinese)

Look at all that foooooood!

Delicious- Pure Delicious-nous!

I think the baby liked the food too!!!

For everyone not North-American this was their first Thanksgiving EVER.

Which meant only one thing- We needed to put on a good show and present them with a “REAL” Thanksgiving. Little did we know, we were about to create the most Traditional Untraditional Thanksgiving of all time.

Food Prepared and Devoured:

Turkey 

10 kilos baby- that's a 22 lb bird right there!

Look at that meat... So moist and juicy!!!

Homemade Turkey gravy

Mmm that looks sooo good!

Homemade Turkey stuffing

Yup I stuffed that inside Mr. Turkey

Corn on the cob 

Cranberry Sauce - whole and jellied

Deviled eggs

Homemade Rolls 

Cuban Tortilla - (a tasty touch to our thanksgiving meal!)

This was just the beginning!

Greenbeans with Mushrooms

Broccoli Pasta Salad

An American style Salad

Mashed Potatoes

Our friends had never seen so much food in one place- for one group of people!

A small touch of Europe:

WINE- lots of wine

My only excuse is that people just kept bringing more and more wine........

Desserts:

Pumpkin cheesecake pie- all the rage Thanksgiving 2011

Zucchini Bread

Pumpkin Bread

Banana Muffins

I couldn't wait to finish that Turkey and get my paws on these!

Sugar cookies that looked like Turkeys

No bake cookies

Macadamia nut cookies

Vegetarian Friendly Turkeys!!!

THE FINAL PRODUCT

That was one delicious plate of food!

Activities:

A long walk around a cute little park in northern Madrid, where we played ping pong, Frisbee, soccer with a basketball and wondered around aimlessly

The Detroit Lions vs. Greenbay Packers American football game - Detroit lost as usual

Charades

And a whole lot of laughs!

We get to host again Next Year!!! haha

Overall, this is by far the most traditional Thanksgiving I have ever been a part of. We stuffed ourselves full, let it settle with some physical activity, stuffed ourselves some more and had the time of our lives. The only thing missing was our families - and for that - we created a little family of our own - right here in Madrid!

Special Thanks to Guillaume! This wouldn't have happened without him!

Until next time-

Raely Marie

The demon inside my knee...

About three weeks ago my knee swelled up like a bowling ball and took on a mind of its own. One of pain, anger, needles, yellowy liquid, swelling, and refusal to bend or stretch (yeah I know that’s awkward- I mean if you can’t bend it or stretch it what can you do with it? EXACTLY!!). Welcome to my world.

The wizard demon makes his entrance.

SO what did I do? Well, first, I did what every American would do. I walked on it for a week, trying to ignore the pain, and continued on with my daily life. Thinking “Eh, It’s twice the size it’s supposed to be, but I mean, that doesn’t mean it’s serious!”

I mean this guy looks harmless!

And this little demon just wants to use my leg to go skiing...

So it took not being able to bend it and swelling up so big that my thigh looked puny for me to go to the doctor. The first doctor said, go here it’ll be 3 weeks before a Traumotologo can see you. 3 weeks!?!?! Yeah that’s what I thought. So I went to a different doctor (thanks to Henry and Concha who went with me every time to this hospital). These doctors saw me immediately, assigned two metal European style crutches to my name and said don’t get off the couch for 8-10 days, ice it three to four times daily, take these two drugs, and elevate it. Or else. 

Or else this little guy won't be nice little old man Duckington anymore...

So, as you can imagine, this has been quite terrible for the little American girl in Spain. It’s hard enough to get an American to sit still, let alone an ambitions little girl who wants to experience Spain, learn about Huidobro and Nicanor Parra, and of course teach 800 Spanish kids how to rap in English (or speak at least. Lol). 

As the week went by the demon inside my knee began to take over. The drugs helped the swelling go down and the doctor performed an exorcism to extract the little beast’s yellowy gooey soul from my knee.

UGH- wth do you think you're doing!?!? what is that- OH NO there goes part of my soul! ARGHHHH!

This made him angry and he put more pressure on my knee, screaming and yelling to be let out. Started stabbing through the core of my knee and when he got really mad he started pushing at the sides to get out. Mainly punching and stabbing the outside of my knee. 

That's it!! You gone done and PISSED ME OFF NOW!!!

Luckily, with a lot of drugs, ice packs, help from Cari and Guillaume, encouragement from all my friends and family here and back home (seriously, everyone, you helped pull me through this one), the little guy stopped punching and stabbing me and I used my meditative powers to calm him down. So for now he’s subsided to being a not so aggressive genuinely nice fellow. 

                           Must pretend to be happy... Do not want them to take more of my soul....                                                                            hey guys, you don't think they can tell this is a fake smile do you?

So, I am still on crutches, while I slowly squeeze the little bastard out of my knee, slowly and secretively as to not aggravate him and so that he doesn’t know what is happening and won’t cause too much havack inside my poor little left knee.  I mean we wouldn’t want him to turn into this demon again!

Angry SCREAM demon... what's your favorite scary movie? anyone... anyone...

Until next time,

Raely Marie

PS. These are all photos of MY actual KNEE from the MRI they took last week. Yeah- talk about creepy. I prefer to keep my skin on too!

Spit- a new Welcoming Ritual

 Normally, when you arrive to a new country, you get your lovely passport stamped, everyone looks at you a little funny but is relatively nice, you find your way to where you are supposed to be, and VOILA you slowly slip into the background and no one really notices. At least that is what happens in Madrid, because it is a huge city made up of random people from all over the place and overran by tourists. So really, you can easily slip in and begin your life as a Madrileña and no one will really say anything about it.

I mean look at all these people, you could easily fit right in.

 UNLESS you are ME, then you receive the warm welcome of a glob of spit in your hair by a drunken dirty beggar dressed in a homemade jean cape and ratty jeans. 

Google failed me and I refuse to get near this guy to take a photo- so this is BASICALLY exactly what he looks like. Now just imagine him SPITTING on you.

 Yes, that is right; my warm welcome was quite literally warm yet not as welcoming as I had hoped. What is even worse is getting it in your mouth! Poor Maureen, she was looking at me when I got spit on and she too enjoyed the warm salivate welcome - pow! right in the kisser. It’s one thing when you exchange saliva with a sexy European man, but it’s another when a dirty old man decides you should be bathed in his saliva. 

Ahhhhh, that's refreshing!!!

 I mean I’ve heard of spit as a welcoming ritual back in the days of Pangaea, but seriously I never read anything about this exciting new Spanish welcoming ritual! Oh man, sign me up!! Every time I see this guy, I just want to walk up to him and say, thank you, thank you sooo much for welcoming me to Spain, I can’t believe that you would be so kind as to spit on me! NOT. 

Yeah... I wasn't happy either.

 Who does this guy think he is? I mean I barley take a shower daily, let alone twice a day, and I definitely didn’t want a Spit Shower from a guy who doesn’t even remember what a shower looks like. Honestly I have never seen him asking for limosna, so perhaps he dresses up like this and is selectively a drunken dirty old man that enjoys spitting on young girls. Sounds like a dream job to me; maybe I should quit my studies and become a Welcoming Spit Girl for Spain.

The Grand Adventurers Ruby and Krista visit Madrid

How did I become a stop on the infamous Year of Ruby and Krista adventure!?!?

It all began when I received an email from my friend Madison’s best friend Ruby stating: 

     “I’m in Europe, you’re in Spain. Let’s randomly meet each other, because well, Madison thinks I’m awesome and said you’re awesome too.”

Well, más o menos.

Me, being me, replied:

                “I loooove strangers sleeping in my bed! Come right on over.”

Well, más o menos.

And thus our story begins.

Day 1: Let the adventure begin

Two strange exciting and outgoing adventurers arrived to a place they had never been, to find a person they had never met, with whom they were going to stay with for the weekend.

This is where the magic happens ;)

Strangers soon became acquaintances as we ate Spanish-y food at Plaza Mayor. We were going to eat where this hot guy invited us, but he was too expensive. So instead, we ate at the friendly round Spanish man’s terrace, where Krista still had a nice view of the hot boy. 

See, these strange girls look like "bring home to your mother" types ;)

Day 2: Tourists for the day

I woke up on the floor with two strange women sleeping in my bed. Then remembered that we’d met the day before, and them looking harmless, I invited them to stay over. Wait no, that isn’t right either… The girls slept in and went to Prado while I went to class.

Google Images FAIL

I met the girls after class at the Prado museum and we all wondered around until we found the MOST DELICIOUS EMPANADILLAS in Madrid. They were quite tasty.

Wish I had Krista's awesome photo... but this will do

We then illegally took an awesome picture of Guernica from Reina Sofía. 

Oh yeah, that's an awesome secret photo of Ruby and Guernica!!

Then we had Churros con Chocolate, because for some reason Spaniards and thus foreigners have a weird desire to eat disgusting fried sticks of dough and ruin perfectly good chocolate by dipping them in it!

Gross. Well the chocolate was good.

After this, we all wanted to throw up. So we went to my apartment where I made delicious decent pasta for the three of us and Henry. Krista was tired and stayed in for the night. :( Meanwhile, Ruby, Henry and I met up with some other students in my program! YAY fun. We went to a few bars, talked loudly and animatedly and had a good time. During this outing Ruby and I realized why we were both Madison’s friends and attempted to teleport her to Madrid because we missed her.

Good thing we tried with a cat first

Day 3: Adventure at the train station

Everything up until this point in the trip went fantastically well, but unfortunately the train station ticket machine ruined all the fun by not allowing Ruby and Krista to purchase their much desired Segovia tickets. (Machines may not have feelings, but they do inflict them upon us)

Now see, this nice gentleman wouldn't usually be so crude

So, what did we do? We went to Calle Montera (prostitute street) and sat in McDonald’s to use their WiFi. Sitting there for almost two hours discussing how sad and unfortunate the sex slave industry was, we decided to go the History of Ham museum in order to cheer ourselves up.

SHOW ME THE HAAAAAM!!!!

After this we were hungry but didn’t want any ham, so we took a short adventure back to our favorite Empanadilla shop and ate lunch. We sat there for over an hour chatting and then wondered into a weird shop that sold early 1990’s famous actors postcards. 

We were quite proud of ourselves for Re-Finding this place.

Unfortunately, this concluded our adventure. The girls are off exploring Europe and I am here, writing this blog for you, and reading Ruben Dario for class tomorrow.

Until next time,

Besos,

Raelynne

The Law that closes stores on SUNDAYS?!

As you all know, I recently moved to Spain. I am extremely excited for this adventure but there are going to be quite a few things to get used to. To follow the theme “how does this country get anything done” from my previous post, I have to talk about how NOTHING is open on Sundays, ALL year, not just in Vacation Month!

So I’m sitting here eating the most disgusting cereal (Special K with dried raspberries),

(no wonder Dia had it on sale -70% never a good sign)

instead of my favorite cereal of all time (Muesli dried apple cinnamon),

YUMMY!!

because yesterday my lovely roommate invited me to the store with her, which is a good thing, because I would have starved today. All grocery stores and malls are prohibited by Spanish Law to open on Sundays- UNLESS of course you live in a touristy area (downtown Madrid, any coast near the beach and all those great vacation but shitty areas to live places). 

No wonder everyone here is a size 000 - you aren't allowed to buy food!

I swear, everything is always closed in this place- or maybe I’m just going out at the wrong times. So of course, me being the complete nerd I am, or perhaps just a bored foreigner, I looked up that law. And sure enough- it exists! Except of course during Christmas time and other holidays when they want all your money.

You now have an extra day to spend all your money!

So here we are, another boring Sunday. Thank god there is a Real Madrid game tonight, so that at 7pm I can wonder around and find a bar to sit in a watch it. 

Until next time,

Besos!!

Raely Marie

Vacation Month

So I’m in Spain, super awesome right- WRONG. In one week it will be, but until then I came at the wrong time. Apparently on top of taking a siesta everyday, everyone in Spain goes on vacation the ENTIRE month of august. Who does that? These people. I love Spanish and I love Spain, but damn I’m bored. Everyone I know has vacated the city; all but one vacated the country. It’s like that wife swap show on TV except European’s swap Countries.

Watch out airports! Here they come!

We can’t even get our stores in the U.S. to shut down for a few hours each night, let alone an entire MONTH. The world would be in chaos. The weirdoes that go to Wal-Mart at 2am to buy baking supplies for cupcakes (Kate and I) would be completely screwed. 

3am: I... I just woke up and needed a few things from the grocery.

How does this country get anything done? Honestly, I wanted to print off some more photos for my collage wall (because yes, even though I hate to admit it I miss all you ridiculous people back home already) and to buy sticky tack from any store and what did I find. NOTHING. You guessed it. All the stores were closed because it’s Saturday in August, they have signs saying we will reopen September first. This is what I get for living in a tranquil Spanish neighborhood and not the touristy area.

As you can see these are hand written signs on the doors as if people randomly decided to all pitch in and go on a vacation together last minute, even though this is a yearly occurrence. So what am I doing on a Saturday night in Madrid? I spent the entire day watching Jenna Marbles videos, doing Pilates, and trying not to take a second siesta. I never thought I would say this but - I’m bored. I want this weird summer vacation to end so my friends can come back and entertain me, because let’s face it- I’m not funny and the "chino" stores don't actually "have it all."

But they do have these strange cat things...