Happy Thanksgiving!

It's the most wonderful day of the year! Seriously. T-day is my favorite holiday...partly because it hasn't been commercialized, and partly because it is a day specifically devoted to FOOD! Other holidays also have delicious treats, but there's just nothing like T-day.

Of course, a European T-day isn't quite the same. For one thing, I actually had class today. Boooooo. At the same time, a European T-day makes me ever more grateful for the wonderful tradition of giving thanks for all the blessings in my life. For instance:

• I'm thankful that I get to go to LONDON (!) this weekend to visit my brother sister-in-law and friends. T-day isn't T-day without family.
• I'm thankful that I have awesome parents who let me come all the way to Spain for a year.
• I'm thankful for the awesome Master's program that accepted me.
• Even if I currently feel like all the work will give me a heart attack.
• I'm thankful for a whole lot more than that, but I have to get to the airport.

Hope someone somewhere eats lots of stuffing for me! and mashed potatoes! and sweet potatoes! 

Classes

So I kind of love all of my classes this semester, and I will give you the run-down here:

Monday, 9:30 AM: Cultural History of Spain:

• Precisely the type of history that they don't let you study in school, since everyone is so obsessed with military/political history. I don't care about who won such and such battle or why. Just show me the pretty things they did to commemorate it. 

Monday, 4-7PM: Research Skillz Workshop:

• This one is actually every other Monday, which is nice, and it's helping us adjust to a whole new library system (which is not nearly as warm and cozy as the library system in the States--Thank you Dewey Decimal and all library science majors everywhere!). 
• No, they don't spell it with a 'z' in the syllabus, but I don't care.  I see that it is gangster, and I am very gangster myself.

Tuesday, 9:30 AM: Cultural History of Latin America:

• Like a Cultural History of Spain, except in Latin America. Also, Syncretism!
• Syncretism is the combination of opposing beliefs. It generally refers to combining opposing religious beliefs, such as happened in the Spanish colonies with Christianity and the various indigenous religions--which led to awesome paintings of the baby Jesus dressed up like an Incan. 

Tuesday, 11 AM: Cervantes:

• This class is potentially my favorite. Actually, I can already tell that it is my favorite. Why? Because we are reading Don Quijote (Parts I and II) in one semester and discussing. Also because Don Quijote is awesome. And because Cervantes was a genius. (He may have died bitter and alone, but that doesn't mean he wasn't a genius.) Also because Don Quijote is awesome. 
• One aspect of the Quijote which is kind of important to understand is that, when DQ sets off into the world, he is only doing so to prove that the real world is the same as the world about which he had read in all of his fairy-tale novels. Does this sound familiar to you? Because it kind of sounds familiar to me...

Tuesday, 12:30 AM: Teaching Spanish as a Second Language:

• It was either this or textual criticism, and although all of the technical pedagogical language kind of terrifies me (I think I just used pedagogical and I'm not even sure I know what it means...), it's kind of a nice break from all of the literature. Also, I think it will be helpful.

Wednesday and Thursday just repeat Monday and Tuesday (minus the Research Skillz Workshop), and then Thursday evening, I come home and go to sleep.

NYU in Madrid

The NYU in Madrid campus is two tiny houses (back-to-back) joined by a patio. Of course, the houses have been remodeled so that they serve quite well as offices and classrooms, but that doesn't mean that the space isn't pretty tight for the 100 or so people who are a part of this little expat community.

The patio is potentially my favorite place. I think that it is pretty much everyone's favorite place, since I can walk onto the patio and feel like I am back on a college campus (which is basically what it is). It's really quite a wonderful place to hang out, and I'm just sad that I won't be able to enjoy sitting out here all year 'round, since it actually gets cold in the winter in Madrid.

The graduate student welcome reception was potentially the most crowded that I have seen the patio. There were lots of hors d'oeuvres, tapas, and other delicious treats, and I think that at the moment I snapped this picture, one of the professors accidentally got her high heels wedged in the space between the teak slats. Whoopsies!

 But perhaps my favorite thing about the patio is this little demi-roof, quite low to the ground, where this little puppy dog was resting one day. I think that captures what a patio is all about.