My friends and I have brought traditions from the United States, like Thanksgiving, to our new friends here.
We had a huge, international Thanksgiving feast with people and foods from the United States, Mexico, France and Canada last semester. It was a lot of fun to share my culture with people from all over the world. In return, I have been invited to celebrate traditional Mexican holidays. Last week was El Día de Reyes, which is the Day of the Kings, or Epiphany, so my coworkers and I took a break during the day to cut up a Rosca de reyes. This special bread, called Ring of the Kings in English, comes in the form of a big doughnut, and each person has to cut their own piece. Whoever ends up cutting the piece with the muñeco (doll) has to buy tamales for another celebration, Día de la Candelaria (Candlemas), on February 2. Tamales are a traditional Mexican food usually made with corn dough and filled with seasoned meat like chicken, pork or beef and wrapped in corn husk or banana leaf. If you look at my picture on the right, guess who has to buy tamales? Celebrating these special days together bridges the gap between cultures and brings people together.
There are still lots of differences between my life in the United States and my life here. For example, here I am surrounded by volcanoes, whereas in the U.S. I was surrounded by cornfields. All the restaurants here serve salsa with everything instead of ketchup like you would find at almost any restaurant in the U.S. Everyone here speaks Spanish, but that just forces me to practice each time I want to have a conversation with a native speaker.
