Let’s Carve The Ham

Turkey Day is approaching and all I can think of is pumpkin pie. Although the mashed potatoes with gravy, the stuffing and of course the golden brown turkey make up the holiday; for me it’s the pumpkin pie I will be missing the most since not one of those things exists here in Spain. So when the school told us that they would cook us a Thanksgiving dinner on November 27th, I’ve been wondering what exactly this dinner is going to entail. I’m assuming they will serve us ham because turkey’s don’t exist in Spain and ham is so abundant here that they have legs hanging from restaurant ceilings. They’ve also served us mashed potatoes in the cafeteria before, but they definitely do not taste like the buttery, soft mashed potatoes that melt in your mouth. And the closest thing to stuffing is probably their tortilla española, which I won’t complain about because I have grown to love it, but is nowhere near anything stuffing oriented. As for dessert, they’ve tried to make flan, which tastes a lot more eggy than it should and we’ve have ice cream, where the chocolate tastes grainy, and fruit salad which I can’t complain about. I know most of this seems like a lot of complaining and pessimism towards Spain food, but I love Spain food. What I’m worried about is Spain trying to do American food. The burgers they make are basically rare and as I’ve previously mentioned about the mashed potatoes I just don’t want them to ruin Thanksgiving. In the end, I may have to pull an A Little Princess and have to use my imagination and pretend like what I am eating is my favorite turkey day food (if you don’t know what I’m talking about go watch the movie). But, aside from all the doubt on their ability to whip up an old-fashioned Thanksgiving meal, it’ll be interesting not to sit at a table with family for the first time and instead sit with other students and friends. Regardless of all the changes this year though, I will still be thankful for a lot of things. One in particular is the fact that I’ll be home for Christmas and will get my pumpkin pie then.