So, I just thought I´d throw in a short piece about the Thanksgiving Holiday. We did in fact get to celebrate here with our “ACLAS family” as Eugenia calls it. We ate turkey, mashed potatoes, salads, gravy, and cranberry sauce. All nicely made by a catering company. Although it was nowhere near as fabulous as the Thanksgiving dinners I have ever partook in in the U.S., it was still very appreciated. The students were in charge of desserts and thanks to Aimee´s visiting parents who brought a can of pumpkin from the U.S. with them (it is extremely difficult to find here) we were able to have pumpkin pie. Hilary and I made individual pies for each person in muffin tins that turned out very cute and were a big hit. Along with far too many other desserts, apple cider, and wine, we all left ACLAS that evening feeling pretty stuffed. Even so, I honestly believe that is the least I have ever eaten for this holiday in my life. 
Even more exciting, everyone has been telling me I look like I´ve been losing weight (which is possible but only means I am getting back to the weight I was before I arrived here. My host dad just bought a scale and I weigh exactly what I did when I left in July…) but in any case, I felt pretty darn good about myself and the fact that I wore my “tight pants” for Thanksgiving dinner AND went for a lovely run the next morning without feeling gross and blobish. 
Overall, it was a nice break from Ecuador-overload where we got to have a little bit of taste of home again. We jammed out to the Beatles all night as well. 
Like I did a few years back, I sat down and made another list of all that I am thankful for due to the whirlwind and craziness that has been my life for the past year. That is what is written right below this.
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I am thankful for the experience of living in a different (third-world, developing) country.
I am thankful for the new perspective on life it has given me.
I am thankful to live in America and have the rights and opportunities that I do.
I am thankful for the Americans who recognize these and fight for them.
I am thankful for the faith in America that was restored in me on November 4.
I am thankful for the faith that has given me a crutch to lean on when my body and mind needed to rest.
I am thankful for the friends who lent their shoulders to cry on when even that crutch began to feel weak.
I am thankful for a team that made me feel appreciated, loved, and needed.
I am thankful for the best friends (and roommates) I found in it.
I am thankful for the people who I learned to love enough that I cried when I said goodbye to…
And cried again just because I missed them.
I am thankful for the family of brothers I know would help me without a moment’s hesitation.
I am thankful for the brother I met and became family with within three days.
I am thankful for his family.
I am thankful for promises of friendship, no matter what threatens it.
I am thankful for them being kept.
I am thankful for falling in love…
And all the beauty and pain I’ve learned from it.
I am thankful for new people to love.
I am thankful for the people who were new to me this summer but made it everything beautiful that it was…
Who helped me more than they could ever know.
I am thankful that I now have them to miss.
I am thankful for the people I already loved…
Quiet, but caring and consistent- always loving me.
I am thankful for the new friends I lived five months with and now couldn’t forget in a lifetime.
I am thankful for the old friends I’ve missed those five months and can’t wait to see.
I am thankful for friends I’ve yet to meet…
But already love for what they’ve given that I could never give to my other half.
I am thankful for kind families who loved/and took me as their own.
I am thankful for how different they are…
That made me realize how perfectly I fit with mine.
I am thankful for how perfectly I fit with mine.
I am thankful for losing “things” to learn to appreciate ideas.
I am thankful for surviving a 12k race at 7500ft (no, really…)
I am thankful for the Spanish language…
And that I can actually speak it.
I am thankful for patience- mine and of those around me.
I am thankful for four seasons.
I am thankful for the healing power of chocolate and coffee.
I am thankful for all the beauty that is in my homes…
That might not be there tomorrow.
