A Real Thanksgiving!!

It's somewhat in the past, but Thanksgiving last week in Granada exceeded any expectations I had of what it could be like here. I expected the food to be nothing like at home. I was thinking dried out turkey, bad mashed potatoes, no cranberries, no sweet potatoes but I was completely wrong. The food was just as good as any Thanksgiving I have ever had and all of the necessities were there including homemade cranberry sauce that was amazing and real turkey! I give a lot of credit to Miguel (my advisor) for finding a great restaurant to host our excuse to eat in excess. The hot dog salad turned out decent. It was not the best but it was edible. Probably the most unique thing about this Thanksgiving was staying out until 6 am after eating enough to feed the world. We went out with our teachers and it was a blast. Below it a picture of me with my literature teacher, Fran, and let's just say a Fran does not like to give bad grades. He is everyone's favorite teacher and most of the girls in my school have a crush on him or are in love with him. To bad for the ladies at CEGRI that he is married to a Japanese woman and has the cutest baby I have ever seen.

School is coming to an end on December 13. I only have two days of class next week, we don't have school on Thursday for a holiday and I am taking Wednesday off to go to Morocco. Some of my friends went last weekend, so I kind of know what to expect. It is going to be really interesting and I am sure I will have some stories to tell after.

I finally have all of my travels set for my break in December and January! First I am going to Italy to try to find my family. I am flying into Milan, I'll spend a day or two there and then head to the homeland and see what I can find. Then I go down to Rome, spend a day or two there and head back to Granada. Matt will be here on Christmas Eve and we are going to eat dinner with my family in Granada! HaHa! It is going to be really interesting because when everyone is talking a million miles a minute I have no idea what is going on so Matt is going to be totally baffled, but Paqui will throw down some good food so he can entertain himself with eating while I attempt to be "the translator". Matt and I are going to spend a few days in Granada and then head to Barcelona, Paris and back to Madrid. I was a little stressed this past week trying to find a hotel in Paris. We are going to be there for the new year and I was finding hotels for 100 plus euros a night so I was kind of freaking out. Patience paid off because I finally found something more than affordable and in a good location so our trip is now completely set. Matt will return home from Madrid and then I am going to EGYPT!!! I still can't believe it, but I really am going. Since I am going alone I decided to do an organized trip, so I will be on a trip with a bunch of Spaniards in Egypt. It's going to be amazing and I can't wait to do it. I have wanted to do this for a long time and I am here and the moment seemed right so it's on. I am know I am going to have a lot to say after.

I rode a moto last night!! I now have two rides under my belt. They are really popular here so I knew it would happen sooner or later and now I have two friends that own motos so it will probably happen more often.

I don't think I have mentioned this, but the prostitute pick-up/drop-off point is near my house. It's about 5 plus minutes away running. I just thought of this because I am about to go running and sometimes in the afternoons I am lucky enough to see these fine ladies. I have seen them hard at work at approx. 1:30 pm. on a few occasions. I think someone might have mistaken me for a prostitute as well. I was walking past the point of solicitation (this is also on my way to the church help kids with English) and some guy honked his horn and no one else was in sight and then he pulled into the point of solicitation. Perhaps I am flattering my self with this, but it was sketchy. Well I am off to run, hopefully I get lucky with a sighting of fishnet tights, boots and the shortest skirt man has made.

Adios