PRESHCO Thanksgiving

So this year was my first Thanksgiving without any of my family members. PRESHCO organized a big dinner at this restaurant called Casa Rubio, which is this nicer restaurant right near the Facultad. I was definitely looking forward to the dinner because even though it wouldn't be the same without my family, at least it would be a big dinner with all my Preshquitos. As I expected, I had a lovely time. When we arrived, on each of our plates was a flower wrapped in a piece of paper, which turned out to be the menu for the evening.

The first thing they brought out was fried shrimp, or as my friend Will kept saying, popcorn shrimp. He kept joking that they got them from a bucket from some fast food place. The second dish that arrived was fried eggplant with honey. Now THAT was tasty. Oh, and I forgot to mention that there was a basket of bread that I believe they refilled twice. And this bread was like hard rolls where you break it open and it's soft inside. My friends Pedro and Will seemed to make it there responsibility to keep passing me the bread when it would arrive to the table. It's important to have good friends with you at big meals :) After the eggplant they brought out a plate of vegetables, which was fine, but at that point we were all ready for the turkey.

The turkey dish then came out, served with sweet potatoes, nuts, and some sort of dried fruit all covered in gravy. It was very good. Not the same of course, but I'm grateful that we even got a Thanksgiving meal, considering we're in Spain.

This is my plate after I've eaten everything. Naturally I was so excited for the food that I forgot to take a photo BEFORE eating it. I've never been known for my patience when it comes to food. My host parents joke about it because at every single meal I burn my tongue because I never wait for it to cool.

After the turkey they brought in this pumpkin tort thing. It looked pretty cool. Unfortunately it didn't taste like pumpkin pie at all. I don't think it was sweet enough, but I appreciated the effort. If nothing else, it was very pretty to look at.

After the dessert, they surprised us with a singing group I believe from the Universidad de Cordoba's agronomy school, or something like that. Anyways they were dressed in the typical Spanish attire, and played various famous Spanish songs. I REALLY wish I knew the words to the songs so that I could look them up later. Especially since now I can recognize the songs, I just can't usually catch too many of the words. They also do this hilarious toast that I only caught a few of the words. I would really love to know the whole things. One guy would lead the toast and all the rest of the group would chime in at different parts. I think one line went something like this: "We drink so that-" "WE SLEEP" "And we sleep so that-" "WE DON'T SIN" "And we don't sin-" "SO WE GO TO HEAVEN" "And so to go to heaven-" "WE DRINK MORE" I personally got a kick out of that. I wish I knew all of it.

After we sat and listened to them a bit, everyone started getting up and dancing. Now I must say, at this point in the evening, the waiters had been filling up everyone's wine glasses for about 3 hours now. I myself don't like wine unless it's tinto de verano (which means it's about half filled up with soda), so I just got to enjoy everyone else clearly being intoxicated out of their minds. My 21st birthday is going to be boring to say the least. Not to say that I didn't get up and dance with everyone else. It was a lot of fun, definitely. This is something I will miss about Spain. Among many other things, but I'm saving that for one of my last blog posts.

After the Thanksgiving dinner was over I went out with a group of friends to a bar called Templarios. It was this medieval themed bar, which is SO up my alley. Medieval Studies major + Medieval themed bar = Unimaginable happiness. Of course, I still didn't drink anything there, but I just absorbed the awesome decorations that surrounded me. I hope I can find that place again. I'll just go sit there and allow myself to be amazed.

Pretty sweet right?!! I mean, this bar did not skimp on the decorations. When my friend first told me about it I thought it was going to be some lame effortless attempt at medieval decor, but no, this was legit!

 Now, I had the flash on for all of these photos, so you don't get to really experience the mood of the place. It was dark with green overhead lights. So it was eery too!! There was a downstairs area that was lit with green and red overhead lights, and the downstairs was decorated in a sort of forest theme, with a little fake creek, and all the columns were decorated as trees, with leaves covering the walls. It was SO COOL.

Well, now that Thanksgiving is over, it means that I can officially break out the Christmas music!!! Guess who has been listening to Josh Groban's Christmas songs all morning?! That's right, me. I love his Christmas album. His voice makes me want to cry sometimes. And now I only have 3 weeks and 3 days until I leave Spain. I am definitely ready to be home, but I will miss it here too.