It was quite a confusing Thanksgiving dinner, I can tell you that much. There were potatoes, turkey, and apples, though not in the typical fashion served mashed, sliced, and in a pie. Spain's Rotary program served a giant dinner for all the kids in the Madrid area. It was hosted in the same location that my last meeting was held, except there were so many people in attendance at this meeting we took up the entire upper floor of the building, I'd say there had to be at least 120 people there. All the exchange students were invited in the Madrid area and most brought their host families; my host mom Ana came with me, and we looked ridiculously similar in black cocktail dresses, black high heels, and black leather jackets. There were a lot of formalities, announcing how so-and-so had contributed such-and-such amount to a Polio fund in another so-and-so's name... The uninteresting, but important announcements that every organization like Rotary is bound to include. We were then served a dinner fashioned after the typical American thanksgiving meal... but didn't quite hit the mark. My plate was filled with an enormous turkey leg (think Caveman), with a delicate slice of apple covered in whipped potatoes topped with parsley... All of which was drenched in a sauce resembling gravy. None of this is said in a "complaining" manner, the food was delicious and the company was fantastic, and skyping with the family when I got home made for an all-around lovely evening. Somehow, I got nominated and pushed to the front of the crowd of exchange kids to give a speech (in Spanish) in front of the entire group, which ended up being surprisingly a lot easier than I would have thought. The Spanish is really moving right along :)

Friday night there was a surprise birthday party for Bea at one of the local restaurants in town (Vips) which she was utterly.. uh... surprised by and was a nice break for her in the monotony of the weekend. She's really cracking down on her studies now, she holed up in the house Friday, Saturday, and Sunday to prepare for two tests next week and get done a massive amount of "trabajos" or projects involving mathematics and physics as she's studying to be an Architect. Walking into her room one encounters a maze of origami sculptures and giant floor plans laid out in the tiniest of detail. She's a fantastic student, the dinner was well deserved and I'm glad we could put on that big of a surprise for her.

Saturday night I went to a concert in Madrid that I've been looking forward to for a long time. The band is called Muse, they're English but really popular in the United States. My friend Joe (who is an exchange kid from the same district in the United States but is living in Southern Spain along the Meditteranean coast in the region of Alicante) flew up to Madrid to attend the show with me. It was held in the "Palacio de Deportes", one of the many stadiums in Madrid devoted to soccer. We were pretty close to the stage and the music and performance was unreal... For the encore the entire crowd was jumping and chanting "ole ole ole" and when the show was completley over, smoke shot up from the stage and the lead singer of the band raised the Spanish flag high. It was absolutely one of the highlights of my trip thus far.

The lights have been put up for Christmas in Madrid, they hang along practically every street and adorn lampposts and giant buildings and pretty much anything else that will hold a christmas decoration. The streets are gorgeous and lit up, it makes me appreciate how fast the holiday season is approaching and how quickly it will fly by... Which is turning out to be pretty representative of my trip abroad at this point. I love Spain and everything that it has given me, I can only imagine how much more there is to see, smell, hear, and taste. There is a soccer game tonight... this is a big one, folks, Real Madrid vs. Barcelona. The biggest rivalry in Spain. I'm beyond excited. Hasta Luego Amigos Mios, Besos a Todos, Sami