my first spanish birthday party
Yesterday (Saturday) I went to my first Spanish birthday party. Pilar's cousin invited me to come along with her, so of course I took the opportunity! Pilar's cousins, Yolanda and August (Yolanda's son), were celebrating their birthdays with a barbecue.
I had no idea what to expect, but the party was so similar to birthday parties that my family has. When we arrived, there were grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins everywhere. They ate and visited together. We had basically a 4-5 course meal of different kinds of meats and bread. I tried a kind of pork which was very "normal," but I also had chorizo and another type of blended sausage (and probably a loaf of bread). To top it all off, I also tried morcilla. Morcilla is "blood sausage," and it's made from what you might expect: a pig's arteries are cut and drained, the blood is mixed with pork fat, and then it's stuffed into an intestine (like typical sausage). I tried it before I could let it get in my head, and it actually did taste good. One piece was enough for me, though!
After we ate, everyone was visiting for a long time (and drinking of wine and beer, because I think they think those are basically water here). They lit candles, a 3 and a 1 to equal 4 for August and 31 for Yolanda, and had a birthday cake/brownie. The men were arguing why the women called it a brownie when it was just chocolate cake, and I helped clarify the difference :) Then August and Yolanda opened their presents. I loved seeing things they got- August got Legos, a book, lots of clothes (which he had the same attitude towards as would any American 4 year old). August's dad, Augustine (lol) was a professional basketball player in Europe! He speaks English pretty well and was a good one for me to talk to at a pace and level that actually worked for me and affirmed that
yes, I do know this language! Pilar has a cousin, Miguel, who is the comedian of the family- I had the hardest time understanding him because everything out of his mouth is a joke! I loved trying to compare the family to mine, in terms of personality. Pilar's mom really reminds me of Grandma Linda, and the way that the adult cousins and siblings banter and joke is so similar to what we have in our culture.
I had a pretty hard time keeping up with all of the Spanish. If I focused on one conversation at a time, I understood most of it. There was a lot of vocabulary and humor that I didn't understand, but I didn't feel too shy to ask if someone was talking directly to me! We stayed for about 4 hours, and by the time we left I was so tired! Think about all of the conversations that were going on that I was trying just to comprehend, let alone engage in!
We had 2 stops to make on the way home- I should have known better than to think it would only take a minute! We went to Pilar's mom and dad's house to pick up something and then stayed there for awhile. It's much easier for me to understand them, partly because I'm used to Pilar's way of speaking and also because it's a smaller conversation with only 4-5 people instead of 20-30.
Next we went to Pilar's friend Nicole's house. Nicole's family is a missionary family (Americans), and Pilar helps them with Spanish. I met Nicole earlier in the week but hadn't met her kids yet. Last night, the oldest son was at ECA for their banquet, but the three younger kids were at home with two friends! The friends are Spaniards, Ana and Pablo, and they were precious. We had a great mix of English and Spanish and "wanna be Spanish," but somehow everyone understood one another. Pilar just had to drop off a hat that her mom had made for one of the boys, but we ended up staying for about 2 hours! I really enjoyed spending time there- it was a good environment to practice and learn in since the majority of us was non-native speakers.
The kids watched Diary of a Wimpy Kid in English but with Spanish subtitles. Pilar, Nicole, and I stayed in the kitchen and talked about travel plans and what we'd done that day, and we tried to explain how and why so many Americans have 40-50+ thousand in college debt (because college is free in Spain). Right now, many Spaniards want to privatize the economy, and many other Spaniards are very opposed- kind of the opposite of the US. From the outside looking in, Pilar doesn't understand why they would do such a thing, and our discussion about school debt definitely lit that conversation too. Spaniards love to talk about politics, but it's really hard to understand because I don't know how all of their policy and economy works.
When we finally left, I went straight to bed. I've absolutely loved all of the connections I'm making in Spain, definitely thanks to Pilar and also to my school community. I feel much more invested in the culture this time, which will make it harder to leave but makes everything more meaningful and "real" right now. I think I have somewhat of an understanding of what it's actually like to live in Spain rather than being a foreign student who happens to be here.
Today (Sunday) we are going to Madrid! Pilar is going to show me how to get to the bus/train station for when I travel, and we are going to see everything. It will be another full day!
I had no idea what to expect, but the party was so similar to birthday parties that my family has. When we arrived, there were grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins everywhere. They ate and visited together. We had basically a 4-5 course meal of different kinds of meats and bread. I tried a kind of pork which was very "normal," but I also had chorizo and another type of blended sausage (and probably a loaf of bread). To top it all off, I also tried morcilla. Morcilla is "blood sausage," and it's made from what you might expect: a pig's arteries are cut and drained, the blood is mixed with pork fat, and then it's stuffed into an intestine (like typical sausage). I tried it before I could let it get in my head, and it actually did taste good. One piece was enough for me, though!
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| This is the morcilla... The bread definitely softened the taste and made it easier to eat! |
yes, I do know this language! Pilar has a cousin, Miguel, who is the comedian of the family- I had the hardest time understanding him because everything out of his mouth is a joke! I loved trying to compare the family to mine, in terms of personality. Pilar's mom really reminds me of Grandma Linda, and the way that the adult cousins and siblings banter and joke is so similar to what we have in our culture.
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| Lighting the birthday cake and singing "Feliz Cumpleaños!" |
I had a pretty hard time keeping up with all of the Spanish. If I focused on one conversation at a time, I understood most of it. There was a lot of vocabulary and humor that I didn't understand, but I didn't feel too shy to ask if someone was talking directly to me! We stayed for about 4 hours, and by the time we left I was so tired! Think about all of the conversations that were going on that I was trying just to comprehend, let alone engage in!
We had 2 stops to make on the way home- I should have known better than to think it would only take a minute! We went to Pilar's mom and dad's house to pick up something and then stayed there for awhile. It's much easier for me to understand them, partly because I'm used to Pilar's way of speaking and also because it's a smaller conversation with only 4-5 people instead of 20-30.
Next we went to Pilar's friend Nicole's house. Nicole's family is a missionary family (Americans), and Pilar helps them with Spanish. I met Nicole earlier in the week but hadn't met her kids yet. Last night, the oldest son was at ECA for their banquet, but the three younger kids were at home with two friends! The friends are Spaniards, Ana and Pablo, and they were precious. We had a great mix of English and Spanish and "wanna be Spanish," but somehow everyone understood one another. Pilar just had to drop off a hat that her mom had made for one of the boys, but we ended up staying for about 2 hours! I really enjoyed spending time there- it was a good environment to practice and learn in since the majority of us was non-native speakers.
The kids watched Diary of a Wimpy Kid in English but with Spanish subtitles. Pilar, Nicole, and I stayed in the kitchen and talked about travel plans and what we'd done that day, and we tried to explain how and why so many Americans have 40-50+ thousand in college debt (because college is free in Spain). Right now, many Spaniards want to privatize the economy, and many other Spaniards are very opposed- kind of the opposite of the US. From the outside looking in, Pilar doesn't understand why they would do such a thing, and our discussion about school debt definitely lit that conversation too. Spaniards love to talk about politics, but it's really hard to understand because I don't know how all of their policy and economy works.
When we finally left, I went straight to bed. I've absolutely loved all of the connections I'm making in Spain, definitely thanks to Pilar and also to my school community. I feel much more invested in the culture this time, which will make it harder to leave but makes everything more meaningful and "real" right now. I think I have somewhat of an understanding of what it's actually like to live in Spain rather than being a foreign student who happens to be here.
Today (Sunday) we are going to Madrid! Pilar is going to show me how to get to the bus/train station for when I travel, and we are going to see everything. It will be another full day!
A little blood sausage goes a long way! I don't think it would be a hit at Christmas at Grandma's though!
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