Square Pie Tins

As the semester winds down, we are attempting to fit in everything we have wanted to do since we got here, which in turn leaves little time for writing about said activities, unfortunately.


But, we press on. Last weekend, Amsterdam was incredible. It was great to catch up with Stanford friends from all around the continent. We got stuck many a time in the rain, snow and even hail that poured down all weekend, but we made the best of it and toughed it out.

Despite what some may say about Amsterdam, we found it to be a very culturally enlightening city. Weekend highlights included a trip to the Van Gogh museum (alas, after searching all exhibits, the infamous ear was nowhere to be found), as well as a boat tour through the canals, which was the perfect way to tour the city. The food was also exquisite, and provided welcome respites from the freezing temperatures outside. The lowlights, of course, were the Saturday night regular updates of Big Game from family back home. Our condolences to the fellow students who had to witness the drubbing in person. There's always next year.

Upon our arrival back in Barcelona, preparations immediately began for what was to be an unbelievable Thanksgiving dinner. Initial attempts at finding traditional Thanksgiving foods were thwarted, but we persevered. On wednesday we cooked our first of two turkeys, surprisingly available at the huge market on Las Ramblas. The cranberry jelly and pie crust came from an English food store called, appropriately, "A taste of home".

And what we couldn't buy, we cooked. Bobby, not to be defeated by a lack of pumpkin filling, went out and bought several pumpkins, mashed them up, and served up 2 delicious pumpkin pies from scratch. Will's stuffing was also made from scratch, and he also contributed a superb pecan pie. Gabe, not to be outdone, spearheaded the apple pie project. I made a lame attempt at a Lindsay family traditional dish, creamed onions. They were not very well received, (admittedly, for good reason), but cut me some slack, I'm still learning.

Other friends from our program brought over their own delicacies, and all in all, it was an incredible feast, especially for most of our first attempts at a legitimate Thanksgiving dinner. It was definitely a learning experience for all of us, and being with other American friends was the perfect way to celebrate it, despite being many miles away from our native soil. We even managed to stream a little football from the internet.

Friday was mainly lost to cleaning both our apartment and the dishes from the festivities, but we made up for it by going on some neat excursions both Saturday and Sunday. Saturday we ventured to a different University in Barcelona to see a cool exhibit on the best press photos of the year 2008 from all around the world. Sunday a few of us journeyed north to the town of Figueres, the home of the Salvador Dali museum. I think all of us are still trying to comprehend the paintings and exhibits that we saw, but they were certainly very interesting and entertaining.

We only have a few weekends left, and we're still not sure if we're going to venture out of the city before our departures. Either way, we're trying to make the most of the rest of our time in Spain. Ciao for now.