Twenty-Five through Seventeen

I know it seems like I haven't been very thankful in the last 8 days, but the truth is that I've been so overwhelmed with fun events that it's been hard to sit down at the computer! In honor of Thanksgiving, I'm just going to list a few things that I am thankful for during the course of the last week.

#25-17: Seeing results from my data, being reunited with Fulbrighters, and eating Thanksgiving dinner!
During the first part of last week I was working hard to analyze the data from my student surveys and classroom observations. It was incredibly exciting to see some of the results from the last 10 months and I think I'll actually have a chance to publish my work when I get home. :)

The whole reason I was flying through my data analysis was to start working on my final presentation for Thursday and Friday. Even though I was kind of upset that I was going to have to present on Thanksgiving, it actually worked out for the best. All 16 of us were reunited in Santiago and spent two days sharing the research we've completed during the last 10 months. We only had 15 minutes each to present, so it was hard to put all of the details of our work into a few slides. I was so impressed and inspired by what each person was working on and I wish we could have had 30 or 45 minutes to present.

As soon as the presentations were over, it was time to start planning for our Thanksgiving dinner on Saturday. Megan, Anna, Zack, and I were the organizers of the dinner and at the beginning we really had no idea what we were getting ourselves in to! By Friday the guest list had reached 40 people and the majority of the cooking was supposed to be taken care of by the 4 of us. I was in charge of the turkey, stuffing, cornbread, and apple pie. After baking for 6 hours on Friday, I arrived at Megan's place on Saturday at 10am to start everything else. Seven hours of cooking and baking later, we had a lovely Thanksgiving meal in the park. Our Chilean friends were astounded by the quantity of food, but after watching us load up our plates they quickly followed suit. It was sad to be away from family for Thanksgiving, but I also feel like I experienced a really unique and beautiful moment of being able to teach others about my favorite holiday.

Here is a picture of the apple pie I made and the turkey before it went in the oven. I was running around like a mad woman and didn't take many photos, so I'm hoping that other Fulbrighters will share them with me soon.

I made this apple pie in a casserole dish so it has 14 apples!

Proving to Papa Foltz that I stuffed the turkey.