A Real Spanish Experience

Sure, I've had a lot of Spanish experiences over the last two months. I been blessed to have many adventures and experiences, but for the most part I've always had the buffer of an American friend to experience it with me. However, this past weekend, I got to experience something unforgettable without any buffer at all: I got to go out with my host brother Miguel, and his Spanish friends!

On Saturday, after I came home from Jerez, Miguel walked into my room and asked me if I wanted to go out tonight. Even though I was feeling pretty tired, I jumped on that opportunity and said "yes." He wanted me to bring my friends, but I knew they were either out of town or not feeling up to it.

After my 10pm dinner, I saw Miguel and he told me to get ready quickly, so I ran to my room and threw something cute on. We left the apartment around 10:30 and walked to a nearby plaza to wait for a couple of his friends. We made small talk (remember that no one in my family speaks English), and joked about the kids who were playing tag around us. I had noticed that he was sneaking alcohol out of the house, even though he is of age to drink by a few years, and asked him why. Apparently, my host parents are against alcohol. Basically, from what I got of the conversation, it's a mixture of being from "the time of Franco," and religion. Now, I cannot speak of "the time of Franco," but you know, Jesus drank wine. Anyway, I just get to keep learning more and more about the culture of different generations in Spain!

After about 20 minutes, two of his friends showed up, and one immediately began speaking English to me. I would answer him in Spanish, so it was a solid Spanglish conversation, but both of the friends were very nice. To the best of my knowledge at that point in time, I thought that that was the whole group, and that we would walk around and botellón (walk around the streets and drink with friends), but instead we got up and started heading towards another destination. We soon met up with 3 other friends, who I was introduced to, and the group continued to grow. We added one more (now a total of 7 people), then once again, started heading towards another destination.

At this point in time, it was about midnight. No one was really vocalizing where we were headed, I just was following the group. Miguel was being very sweet and walked next to me, trying to make me feel more comfortable in the group. It was a funny situation: I felt awkward because I was clearly the black sheep of the group since I wasn't fluent in Spanish, and didn't know anyone other than Miguel, but I was content because I was having fun observing, and listening. One of Miguel's friends asked me how old I was, and for the life of me, I couldn't understand what he was saying. I had to ask him to repeat what he said probably 4 times before he grabbed the friend that could speak English to translate. I felt silly, but this was my first full blown experience with the Andalusian accent. In my classes, or with people associated with the program, people have been sure to speak slowly and to enunciate, but in this situation, I was not granted that courtesy. So, they spoke fast, lisped some of their s's, and dropped the s from the ends of words. It was a true test to my Spanish conversational level.

We ended up at the train station, where the girls went inside to buy bottles for Tinto de Verano. At one point it was just Miguel, Alejandro (the friend I couldn't understand), and myself. I tried to start up a conversation, but I couldn't get the conversation to stick. At this point, I mostly just felt awkward because I just didn't know anyone well enough to have any kind of a conversation (except with Juanma the guy who spoke English and loved to talk in general). Once we left once again, headed for an unknown destination, two of the girls struck up a conversation with me, probably finally noticing that I really didn't know anyone in the group. They were very sweet. One was originally from the Ukraine, and the other has family from Morocco. Again, very multicultural. We talked about the basics to begin with: where I'm from, why I'm here, how old I am, how do I know Miguel, etc. During the conversation, we ended our walk near the train station in a small park of sorts. Here, about five more friends joined in as well. The boys broke out the drinks, and started passing them around. I originally wasn't going to drink, but then I figured "why not," plus my Spanish gets better when I'm not thinking as much...

As time went on, the guys were drinking and having their laughs, and I was finally fully immersed in conversations with the girls. I learned that almost all of them had some knowledge of English, so they would sporadically throw out an English word in conversation. One of them, is also studying at the business school, so we talked about the classes and some of the professors. When they asked me what classes I am taking, I went through the list, and once I got to Flamenco they all got very excited, thinking that I was learning how to dance Flamenco, when in reality I am not. I didn't correct them, but they proceeded to ask me if I knew how to dance Sevillanas (Andalusian "national" dance- specifically Sevilla). When I said "no," the immediately said "here, we'll show you." Just like that, two of the girls hopped up, and faced each other, ready to show me their moves. One of them shouted for Juanma to sing, and he began to sing flamenco for them to dance to, and another girl because to clap just like in Flamenco. I was in awe! These kids were my age and younger, and here they were dancing, singing, and clapping Flamenco (more or less), like it's no big deal and it happens every weekend. Other than thinking "this is the coolest thing I've seen yet," I thought, "where else in the world does this ever happen?!" It was so amazing!

Once they finished and sat back down to finish their drinks, we kept talking about this and that. The amiga who's from Morocco, asked me if I was going to go there at all, and I said that I would be going in a few weeks with my program. She gave me some advice on safety and food and places to see. She complemented my beauty also (who wouldn't), and I tried to complement her back saying that she had a wonderful "Mediterranean beauty."She reminded me of my sister-in-law Emilie in that way. However, I don't think she completely got what I was saying because she said "you too." I'll try again another time! It was a fun and friendly one-on-one.

We began walking to the discoteca around 1:30am, and it seemed like all of the kids were out in the streets with their friends. The walk was fun, and at that point Miguel was a bit tipsy, so it was interesting to see him quite as uptight as he can be in the house (apparently because of his parents).

Instead of going into the discoteca with Miguel and his friends, I decided to leave the night on a high note and head home, since I was still worn-out from Jerez, and I know that when Miguel goes out, he doesn't come home until 7:30am. As I said goodbye to too many Spaniards to count (my cheeks were chapped from all of the Spanish kisses!) and headed home.

It was such an amazing night. It was slow to start, but all it took was a little outreach from some friends, and I was in. The experience is one that I will never forget, and I can't wait to have another similar experience soon! Which, by the sounds of my conversations with Miguel, should me next weekend! YAY! Next time, the discoteca will be involved!