Cumpleaños

Day 41: 10/11/08

So I woke up today at 12. I love having no responsibility on the weekends and waking up whenever I please and not having the feeling like I’m missing out on anything. You all should try it sometime; there is nothing more relaxing in the world than waking up on a Saturday and knowing you have absolutely nothing to do.

I didn’t do much for most of the afternoon because my family was off places and I didn’t have the motivation or energy to walk around Vigo. We ate lunch around 3, and it was fried potatoes and meat, which of course is my favorite meal in the whole world. I hope you caught the sarcasm in that last statement. After lunch, I had planned to go with some friends to Celia’s birthday party, which was cancelled last week because she was sick. But then Elena told me that we were going to Marta’s (my host sister) birthday party. I didn’t realize that this was coming, so I never told Elena that I had plans, thinking that this weekend would be similar to all other weekends in which I never have anything to do with the family. But thinking that it would be rude to not go to Marta’s party, I called up Maria and explained the situation to her, and she was very understanding.

So Elena, Juan Antonio, Marta and two of her friends piled into Juan Antonio’s car and we were off. My first clue should have been that Juan didn’t join us (undoubtedly he had another level of Star Wars: Clone Wars to complete on the PS3) and the second clue should have been that Juan Antonio was lugging his laptop along with him.

After a twenty minute car ride, we arrived at the destination of choice, which was a park, but it also had an indoor area with chairs, tables, and food. There were about 15 of Marta’s friends, and they all started have a jolly old time, and then Juan Antonio set up his laptop, while I looked on rather confused, wondering why I had to attend this. I slumped into one of the chairs, and Elena asked me if I had had plans for the afternoon. I figured I might as well be honest, and I said that I did, but I didn’t want to insult or offend her or Marta, so I cancelled them. She then explained that she only told me to come along because she thought I had nothing else to do, and I think she felt bad because she bought me a lot of food after that. Overall, it was about 4 hours of my life that I can’t get back, but it could have been worse, I guess. It was just boring. And I will kill the next thing I see if I hear anymore songs from Camp fucking Rock. I have all of the songs completely memorized because Marta blasts the soundtrack at full volume. Son of a bitch! But we got to eat birthday cake, which was almost exactly like the Éclair cake that my mom makes, so that made me happy and reminded me of home.

It was funny because in the car ride back from the park with Marta and her two friends, they wanted to practice English, so they asked me basic questions like “How are you” and “What do you like to do”. And then I answered in very basic, slow and simple English. They actually understood me, which was pretty cool. Keep in mind that they are in the equivalent of 7^th grade, so this is definitely better than Spanish recognition in the US. Also, it was hard for me to talk in English as my mind kept on wanting to talk in Spanish with these native speakers—a very weird feeling. They asked me about how famous Hannah Montana was, and when I pronounced Hannah Montana, they all laughed at me. Here, because of the accents, “Hannah Montana” sounds more like “Anha Ontaaana”. Then Marta tried to mimic my accent, and it sounded like she was trying to mimic a really terrible Southern accent. It was hilarious.

When we got back to the house, I just watched some TV, as Spain was playing Estonia, so Juan Antonio wanted to watch that, and I was more than fine with that as well. Then I just played a bit on the computer and went to bed. Tomorrow is Columbus Day, which is known here as “Día de la Hispanidad” and it’s the equivalent of July 4^th here, but I don’t know if anything big is going down because no one mentioned anything. I’ll see shortly.

Peace.

Now Playing: Weezer- Pinkerton