Thanksgiving. Or as they say in Spain...Thanksgiving

As most of you can probably figure out, the Spanish don’t celebrate Thanksgiving. There were a couple of small things going on on-base but I didn’t feel too much like participating in them. The two other times I have been overseas for Thanksgiving, my close friends on that base and I got together and did our own dinner. It was more fun and had more of a home feeling than eating together at the chow hall. Something about doing it ourselves made the holiday ours.

Well, the were no opportunities here to make our own food. While our dorms aren’t bad enough to complain about, they also don’t allow us to make our own food.

So 4 of us decided to go off base. This was the night I was planning to pull an all-nighter. But the other 3 had been out all night the night before and weren’t feeling good enough to do it again the 2nd night in a row. Apparently, mass quantities of alcohol were consumed.

Before I go any further, the roster. First up is Pat. I work with Pat. We’re on different shifts but on my first two days of work, we worked together. He’s about 22, from the Guard unit in Louisville (pronounced Loo-uh-vil, not Loo-eee-vil) and a good guy.

Next is Eric. Yes. Another Eric. I’ve never liked other people around me having the same name. Eric is a common enough name but not so common that I have to deal w/ someone else having it. He came in Wed and is my roommate, too. He’s 28 and from a Guard unit in Minnesota. He says the word “bag” properly, too, (for those of you in on this joke), further evidence that one of my friends does indeed have a speech impediment.

Last, and to make things even more complex is a gal named Erica. No, I’m not kidding. She’s 23 and active duty. She’s here TDY from Tinker AFB in Oklahoma. She’s a guy’s gal. The kind that can hang out with the guys just fine and doesn’t whine about stupid stuff. Obviously, any gal is invited out with us. But one who doesn’t complain, doesn’t demand the attention be on her all the time and is able to carry on a conversation ranks even further up on the scale for me.

So Eric, Eric, Erica and Pat all left last night to go to Sevilla for our Thanksgiving. If we ever wanted to get together and start our own business and wanted to use our first initials to come up with the company name we’d be left with…that’s right…PEEE. Obviously, I don’t feel or act 30 yet.

We were going to take the base shuttle. While we were waiting at the bus stop on base, a Spanish guy, Manuel, who worked with Erica, pulled over and asked Erica if she needed a ride. She said that the 3 of us were going, too. So we all piled in the car and got a free, and faster, ride into Sevilla. Another advantage to having a woman out with us is displayed.

He dropped us off in front of the beer factory I talked about in my last post. We walked towards the Cathedral area. On the way, Pat had us stop at the Bar Europe for a beer. He’d been here before and we all ordered a German beer that I forget the name of. We sat out in front and discussed the fun of people watching and the negative repercussions of introducing a foreign species into an otherwise stable ecosystem.

We’d been there about 30 minutes when this girl comes up, stops next to Eric (the other one). She takes out her lighter and says something in Spanish. Other Eric, as he will be referred to from now on, looked confused so I told him she wanted one of his cigarettes. He politely took one out and gave it to her. She then asked if we spoke English. Knowing our ruse as native Spaniards was up (3 really white guys with short haircuts and a really white girl with blonde hair), we said yes. She then proceeded to ask us for money to help her baby.

Now this was a very pretty girl. After she asked us for money, the first thing I noticed was the new sweat pants and nice shirt she was wearing. I then noticed the nice shirt and her blonde hair. Not to assume the people who read this are stupid but 99.9% of the Spanish are dark-haired and it was obvious, anyway, that her hair was dyed. We could see the dark roots. So, she’s got nice clothing (also nice shoes) and had money to dye her hair recently. We politely told her no and she walked off with a horrified look on her face. She eventually walked into the bar and hit up every guy in the bar. I’m not sure how successful she was.

My basic position on this was, even if she did need the money and needed it for her baby, there was about a 1 in 1000 chance that baby would see it. I pointed it out to the others and they mentioned they hadn’t paid much attention to how she looked and that they were surprised I picked up on that. I thought it was obvious but I have friends who marvel at my ability to notice the small, usually inane and useless, things.

We walked some more. We came to a part of the town that still had the old Roman aqueducts, in about 25 foot sections, in the middle of the road, dividing the lanes. It looked a bit like this but imagine it in a city and two levels high.

We eventually caught a cab and went to the area of town near the Cathedral. There we went into a small restaurant for a small snack/meal. I ended up getting a dish with small shrimp, crab meat and onions and peppers mixed in. I don’t know what it was called but I enjoyed it a lot more than I expected to, given the large number of onions and peppers mixed in. But those onions and peppers reminded me of the mild sauce at Chipotle. Mmmmmm…Chipotle…Aaaaaggghhh. But I digress. Those of you that chuckle at how I almost always eat the same things when I go out would be proud of me. Erica and I finished by splitting some chocolate. We both love chocolate but are trying to cut back on it. So it made sense to order one and split.

Then we went to a bar aimed at Americans, called TexMex, and watched the Lions get beat up by the Colts and played some pool. We met some folks from Indiana University there (they were the ones boisterously rooting for the Colts, so they stood out). It was about 2000 (8 PM) at this time so we went to eat our regular meal. We stopped at a place called Robles. It was a very nice restaurant that served mostly seafood. We ordered a couple of bottles of wine (I only know it was red), most of it drank by Other Eric and Pat while Erica and I talked about life at the other end of the table. For dinner, I got what was basically a sampler platter of hake, cod and swordfish, all fried. Erica and Pat each got salmon and Other Eric got some veal. We created our own little “community plate” where would each put parts of our own dish for others to try, so we all got a good taste. The food was just great. The cod and hake were beyond great. Erica and I finished by ordering more chocolate. Other Eric and Pat finished by finishing off the 2nd bottle of wine.

It was getting close to 2300 (11PM), which is when the last shuttle heads back to base, so we caught a cab outside the Starbucks. Before that, Erica and I went in for some coffee and hot chocolate. She ordered first and they asked her her name, so they could call it out when it was ready. I ordered next and they asked me my name. I said “Eric” and he looked up at me, then her and said “Eric y Erica! HA!” I was secretly happy Other Eric wasn’t jonesing for some coffee right then, too.

We got our cab and made it over to the bus stop in front of the beer factory. Pat, maybe feeling the effects of the 12 gallons of wine and beer he’d had, had to go to the bathroom really bad. In this part of town, everything was closed. So he walked down one of the empty side streets and took a leak. So I picked up some rocks and threw them at him while he was going. Obviously, I don’t feel or act 30 yet.

We all napped on the ride back to base. Once on base, we went over to the club, which was open until 0100 (1AM). We played some darts and drank a beer before it closed.

Erica, who works for base Services (formerly MWR. They are in charge of the club, theater, fitness center etc), offered to open up the theater for us so we could watch some movies. That’s a heck of an offer but we decided not that night when we found out the movie being shown at the time was Catwoman. Though I know we’ll take her up on it later.

It was late and she called it a night. The 3 of us guys each took a turn calling home for Thanksgiving. Then we went to Pat’s room and played Playstation (we had a strong urge to blow crap up) and watched my DVD of Chapelle’s Show until the chow hall opened at 5 AM.

That was our Thanksgiving. While we were eating our dinner at Robles, I asked everyone to come up with one thing we were thankful for and share it. Erica, who’s been to Kazakhstan, Afghanistan, Qatar and a few other places ending in “stan” was thankful for the men and women deployed to places where they weren’t as lucky as we were to be able to go out for a good dinner. This girl has a good head on her shoulders. Other Eric and Pat were each thankful that we’d all found 3 others that we enjoyed and were spending Thanksgiving with. I was thankful for the wonderful family and friends who God has blessed me with…who I don’t deserve.

But as I close, remember what Erica was thankful for. Some of you have mentioned how you imagined it was going to be difficult to be away from family and friends for Thanksgiving and Christmas. And it is. But it’s nothing. There are others being shot at by bad guys and shooting the bad guys so I can celebrate Thanksgiving, even if I’m not physically with my family. On Thanksgiving and this Christmas holiday season, remember and pray for them and their families. They are the ones truly sacrificing.

So if you are sending me something for the holidays, don’t make it anything more than a letter, please. Take that energy and love you are showing on my behalf give it to others serving downline. Here is a good foundation that my sis found and has donated to: http://www.armedforcesfoundation.org

They help service-members and their families and 91% of what you donate goes directly to those they serve. If you’re familiar with charities, that’s an extremely high percentage.

God Bless