Mmmmm ok. Work. Meh. It feels like I haven't been in ages... Between holidays and days I've asked off, I've hardly been there/ will hardly be there this month. And that is a-ok with me.
Oh! Thanksgiving! I went to coworker Andy's house and made/had dinner with his roommates and friends. Highlights included (1) my making world's most impressive green casserole, including homemade fried onions because I couldn't find any at the store. I learned that, even if you are cooking oil and it is not popping and looks super normal, it may very well be a million degrees. And, hypothetically, if you were to put, say, onions in it, your entire kitchen could fill up with smoke so much that it is hard to breathe or see, and if you were to hypothetically freak out and put the pan on the floor, it would hypothetically burn a hole in the rug from, I don't know, Ikea, that your hypothetical roommate bought. Anyways, the casserole turned out awesome, regardless.
Another Thanksgiving highlight was how excited the Spaniards were to be included in this sacred tradition. Someone said "We've seen this in the movies all our lives, now we're at a real Thanksgiving dinner!"
OK enough talk. Picture time!!
That weekend I went to Madrid. Jorge was driving up, so he took me. We had a lovely car ride, and then he dropped me off at Chani's. Highlights included my touristy day when she was at work where I saw the Royal Palace, going shopping a bunch with her (at the fancy mall and Madrid markets, called El Rastro), and a party that a friend of a friend was having. Her friend Luis (known as Gambrinus or Gambri, cause he looks like the Cruzcampo guy [beer brand mascot]) is a paella chef, so he was hired to make the dinner for this party. It was on the top floor/terrace of this super swanky apartment a block from the plaza Puerta del Sol (km 0 where the highways start and where they do the New Year's countdown).
Thennnn I met up with Julie in Marseille!! It was the first time I'd seen her in three years, so it was kind of a big deal. We couchsurfed with this really cool guy named Luc who showed us around the city and cooked AMAZING food. Our activities can be divided up into 2 categories: walking around the city, especially marveling at the Magrheb (North African) parts of town, and laying around the house cause it was raining a lot, doing cute stuff like making Christmas cards and cooking fabulous vegan meals.
Tunisian salon de the-- mint tea plus I don't remember what delicious food this was but yeah
Luc/fun with dumpster finds
Oh and we went hiking/picnicking in the calanques outside Marseille. It even flurried!
The basilica...look at the boat mobiles!
Thenn I went to England! I stayed with Suzanne the ex-roommate, who was a fabulous London tour guide, and on the weekend we went to stay with Hazel the other ex-roommate, who goes to school in the adorable town of Canterbury.
Canterbury parks
Cathedral
British tea room. I'm sensing a theme. Also I must have been asked 102 times that week if I wanted tea. Sweeping generalizations say English people are ALWAYS drinking tea.
Me being super excited about (the back of) the Rosetta stone at the British Museum. We saw SO much Egyptian and Greek and Roman stuff-- millions of mummies and stuff from the Parthenon!
Suzanne being super touristy with me!
Now I'm back in Sevilla for the week, getting stuff together, even working a little bit (!!!), and getting ready to embark on the next journey. Thursday I leave for France to do Christmas with Julie and her friends, then from there I'll go to Germany/The Netherlands to do New Year's with other ex-roommate Eva and go see another friend I met in Mexico, Annick, in her town and Amsterdam. Then my flight's to Madrid, so I'm gonna stay with Chani again. I'll be back in Sevilla January 9th, in case you were wondering.
Tuesday is the students vs. teachers soccer game at school and Wednesday I have Christmas lunch with coworkers at what is presumably a swanky restaurant (having seen the menus options/prices) in Sevilla.
Yay!!! The end.
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