Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving everybody! I have been teaching my second level students about the first Thanksgiving and how we celebrate it now, but every once in awhile as I'm explaining all the different types of food we eat, I remember that I won't get any today. It's a little sad!

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As always, my students don't ever completely understand me, even when I speak to them in Spanish. One example: I have a PowerPoint about Thanksgiving, and the first slide says "Thanksgiving" with a picture of a family with the mom putting the turkey on the table. I asked my first class, "Does anybody know what Thanksgiving is?" Some answers I got were close: "It's a family," but others were strange: "The lady that cleans the house!" (the mom in the picture was wearing an apron). Anyway, even when it seems like people are paying attention and learning something, when it's time for them to use the information I've given them the truth comes out. We had a dictation where I read some sentences and they filled in the blanks, and then those words were the answers for a crossword puzzle. They had easy things like "Thanksgiving is always on a Thursday," or "Thanksgiving is in November," or "Most Americans eat turkey on Thanksgiving." However, despite the fact that they'd seen "Turkey" about a million times in the PowerPoint, they still couldn't remember the word. Chicken? Luckily when I did the same lesson for two of my private students, they learned something and appreciated it. We even learned about Turducken and deep fried turkey :)

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This will be the fifth Thanksgiving away from home for me. Strangely enough, it won't be the first one out of the country. It will, however, probably be the most difficult one for me. If it was an ordinary Thursday, today would be fine. Just the fact that it is a holiday makes it harder. Risha was encouraging me and saying that this season will be the hardest for me, and that after the holidays and winter things will get better. I hope she's right! The past couple of years I have been fortunate enough to be invited into other people's homes for Thanksgiving, and in Spain our school organized a big dinner for everybody. This year nobody celebrates Thanksgiving and as of now I have no plans aside from a skype date with family. How lame am I?

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Well, as an exercise of thanksgiving, I think I will now list the things I'm thankful for right now. It won't be a complete list because I have to run off to school soon, but I think it might cheer me up.

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I'm thankful for my parents, who e-mail me consistently and take time to send me cards or packages (which may or may not arrive...). I'm thankful for Cassie who is in Switzerland and understands what life is like over here. I'm thankful for friends at home who e-mail. I'm thankful for aunts, uncles, and grandparents who write (and send pictures, thanks Taran!). I'm thankful that I have enough money. I'm thankful that I have a job. I'm thankful for Risha. Without her I would probably go crazy. Hopefully I'll be able to stay sane once she leaves! I'm thankful for the choir and for all of the wonderful, warm, helpful, and encouraging people I have met there. I'm thankful for the church here. I'm thankful that I get to see beautiful mountains every day. I'm thankful for Nutella :) I'm thankful that I have found a new apartment and am moving soon! I'm soooo thankful for the internet and how easy it is to communicate with people from home! I'm thankful for the opportunity to travel. I'm thankful for the opportunity to learn a new language. I'm thankful I have my own room. I'm thankful for my bus pass. I am thankful I have somewhere to go for Christmas. I'm thankful for megavideo and the ability to watch The Office and Glee on my computer. I'm thankful that my job seems to improve sometimes. I'm thankful for the students that are mature enough to have a conversation with. I'm thankful I only have one more session with my fourth level students. I'm thankful for the movie theater here. I'm thankful for tea and cafe amb llet. I'm thankful that God is bigger than Andorra (but then again, most things are :) I'm thankful for you!

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What are you thankful for?

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UPDATE: So I wasn't completely lame, Risha and I went out for dinner and since I couldn't have turkey, I had some confit de canard and a glass of cava. Not too shabby. It was an end to a difficult day, because my morning classes were horrible (one student broke the doorknob and we were locked into our room), but then after feeling like bursting into tears all morning, my afternoon class were surprisingly acceptable. Thanksgiving has never been my favorite holiday or that important to me, but now that I don't have it, I am appreciating and missing it so much more! The rest of the world is definitely missing out!

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It was funny, though, that I couldn't figure out how to translate "thankful" in a way my students would understand. Here were some of their interesting answers to the question "What are you thankful for?"

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"That people give me the playstation 3 because I want it very much."

"Health > Go to the hospital"

"Ski > All the materials"

"I don't think I want to be thankful to anybody just family and friends."

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On the other hand, some students seemed to catch on. I got lots of answers like family, friends, health, and money. These were some of my favorites:

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"Family, because is a help for the problems, and for this also friends"

"The first thing I am most thankful is my parents because I love my parents."

"That my parents love me."

"Health, because we could not life without"

and last but not least: "Thanks for the health because if I haven't got I will died."

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Happy Thanksgiving!