Madrid, Spain Part 1: Thanksgiving with Josh Rouse

My final trip in November was to Madrid to visit Kara, my friend formerly of Geneva and Athens (and who I visited there earlier this summer). Being from Texas, she’s fluent in Spanish and is currently spending a year teaching English at a school there.

It was my first time outside of America during Thanksgiving, a fact that was amplified by the fact that my Grandma Maurer had passed away earlier in the week. While it could have been a miserable trip, the fact was, since I couldn’t make it home for the funeral it was better to be away from work and spending time with an American friend than anything else I could have done. I tried to make the most of it, remembering Grandma’s words that I should do all this (traveling, etc.) while I can.

My flight arrived the afternoon of Thanksgiving and Kara successfully found out that the city’s TGI Friday’s had a special Thanksgiving menu (Hard Rock Café apparently also did, but they were completely booked). We made our way there and I fought the urge to not order the Thanksgiving food in lieu of a burger. We got a quesadilla as an appetizer which helped. The food was decent, though not exactly what you might expect (i.e. Shrimp Chowder to start, sliced turkey wrapped around stuffing and liberally covered in gravy). However, the novelty of the experience made up for any lack of quality.

The menu, which also featured an explanation of the meaning of Thanksgiving on its reverse


Me enjoying my dinner and cherry-spiked champagne

After dinner, we proceeded to a venue called Joy Eslava to see singer/songwriter Josh Rouse, an American expat who now lives mostly in Valencia, Spain. I never had the chance to see him when he was based stateside so it was cool to have the chance now. While his music can sometimes veer towards the really mellow side, in concert the full band brought it much more to live. Perhaps because the place doubles as a dance club the bass was really notable and really made the whole performance groove. He played a set heavy on tunes from his two latest albums, Subtitulo and Country Mouse, City House, and (my favorite) Nashville.





This cow was atop a bar inside the venue. Seemed about right.

All told, it was a good, if moderately unconventional Thanksgiving made much better by virtue of sharing it with an American friend who also appreciates its meaning. We even found ourselves quite full and tired by the end of the night, which I suppose means we celebrated appropriately.

Happy Thanksgiving, Only A Month Late!

As previously mentioned, I am playing catch-up with all the weekend traveling I did in November. I was fortunate enough to get to spend the 17th and 18th back in London visiting Adam and Julie who recently moved there. They hosted an early “expat Thanksgiving” that weekend for me and our hometown friend Val Hayden (who spent this semester doing a study-abroad in Italy) — unfortunately Maggie, Dana and Erik were unable to make it.

It was great to be back in London, especially since I didn’t have to be in tourist mode this time having seen most of the major sights in June. And staying with friends is always better than worrying about hostels. I definitely think I could live in there for a few years.

It was even better to spend time with the Porrs who I hadn’t really seen since last winter. Despite some unruly students for Julie, they appear to be adjusting to European life just fine and it was cool to get to hear their perspectives on the culture and meet their friends.

Of course, the food was great as well. They went all-out with turkey, stuffing, cheesy potatoes (by far the favorite), mashed potatoes, and of course, pumpkin pie. Julie fashioned pilgrim hats and native american headresses and she and Val created candy turkey things using Oreos. I was quite impressed.


The guests: Me, Val, 2 of Julie’s co-workers, the Porrs’ roommate (turns out I’m awful with names!), Adam, and Julie




My favorite: Pumpkin Pie. Not worthy of a photo, you say? I beg to differ


The Americans


Adam and Julie prepare to break the wishbone. I’m pretty sure she won.

The rest of the weekend involved stopping by the pub and spending Sunday afternoon back in Camden browsing through clothes and used CDs which yielded some treasures for all parties. We caught a movie and grabbed dinner at Pizza Hut (seemed like the thing to do), and before I knew it, it was Monday morning and time to return to Geneva.

Even though it was a short trip, I’m glad I had the opportunity to make it. Here’s hoping I get to have some more European adventures with Adam and Julie before my time here is up!