Every few years, my birthday falls on the fourth Thursday in November for Thanksgiving. As a kid, that meant that school was always closed in the days around my birthday, which was cool for getting to sleep in, but a bit of a bummer in terms of trying to ever celebrate my birthday with my classmates. My family always made sure my birthday never got subsumed by the bigger holiday, and I didn't have to blow out a candle on a slice of pumpkin pie, but I do strongly associate foods in casserole dishes and meats that take hours in the oven to prepare with getting older. Since I've been living in the Netherlands, that has meant an undeniable urge to buy cranberries, search through my email for recipes from my mother and, yes, eat something containing pumpkin as the year winds down.
Because 2015 was one of those years that my birthday and Thanksgiving would overlap, I recognized that as a recipe for homesickness, so I decided to act on my thankfulness that one of my good friends from UNC and one of the most hilarious humans ever, Catherine, is living in Madrid with her husband, Ben. They're both working there as teachers, and living in the capital city of Spain has made them a popular destination for friends and family all summer, so Elger and I held off until this past week to pay them a visit in their sunny home. We didn't have any Thanksgiving-associated dishes - in fact, we ate a whole mess of curries on Thursday, followed by Venezuelan food the next night - but being with my favorite person in the presence of one of my all time favorite people who is married to one of my new favorite people was wonderful, beautiful, delicious, cathartic and just really great. Thank you, Ben and Catherine, for your hospitality and the very welcome distraction!
We ate a lot and ate it much later than the holy Dutch dinner time of 6 p.m., and it was amazing - I had olives so fresh and so green (green) that I actually genuinely loved them. I am not an olive person. Obviously, now that I've turned 31, I am finally worldly enough to appreciate olives. Reina Sofia's collection of 20th century art, Guernica most overwhelmingly of all, helped me to better understand what the country has been through and how it coped. My Spanish came back in fits and spurts, but there were spikes after getting some mighty powerful coffee into me. It was great, and we will be back as soon as possible - it's nice to have found the place in Europe where the sun lives.
Because 2015 was one of those years that my birthday and Thanksgiving would overlap, I recognized that as a recipe for homesickness, so I decided to act on my thankfulness that one of my good friends from UNC and one of the most hilarious humans ever, Catherine, is living in Madrid with her husband, Ben. They're both working there as teachers, and living in the capital city of Spain has made them a popular destination for friends and family all summer, so Elger and I held off until this past week to pay them a visit in their sunny home. We didn't have any Thanksgiving-associated dishes - in fact, we ate a whole mess of curries on Thursday, followed by Venezuelan food the next night - but being with my favorite person in the presence of one of my all time favorite people who is married to one of my new favorite people was wonderful, beautiful, delicious, cathartic and just really great. Thank you, Ben and Catherine, for your hospitality and the very welcome distraction!
We ate a lot and ate it much later than the holy Dutch dinner time of 6 p.m., and it was amazing - I had olives so fresh and so green (green) that I actually genuinely loved them. I am not an olive person. Obviously, now that I've turned 31, I am finally worldly enough to appreciate olives. Reina Sofia's collection of 20th century art, Guernica most overwhelmingly of all, helped me to better understand what the country has been through and how it coped. My Spanish came back in fits and spurts, but there were spikes after getting some mighty powerful coffee into me. It was great, and we will be back as soon as possible - it's nice to have found the place in Europe where the sun lives.