Bar-ba-qwa

Yesterday I attended my first Spanish BBQ, pronounced bar-ba-qwa. It sounds sort of French to me with the "qwa" and all. It was pretty much just like at home but the food was different, and like most things in Spain, it was an all day event. I love that about Spain. The party never has a start and an end, you just get there when you can and stay as long as you like.

I was actually having a bit of a shy reflective day, so hanging out with a bunch of people I didn´t really know didn´t sound too appealing. But, Iñaki gave me a petite pep talk and I went. It was a post-season barbaqwa for Irene´s team and half of them were already there when I arrived. I sort of drifted right back to the corner of people I knew and some guy I didn´t know started talking to me and all I could do was give him a confused look. It did not make me feel very social, I can tell you that much.

Everyone just sort of sat around outside, drank beers and chatted. It was nice, like home. Luis was there and totally rocked my world by speaking english to me. At the same time, I was disappointed in myself for not making him speak Spanish. The big groups are when I have the most trouble because there are so many conversations going on at once and a lot of noise. I guess I have dad´s ears.

The food was really good. Irene brought out a bunch of chips and salads and stuff and the meat was a typical sausage from here, I can´t remember the name, and basically bacon steaks. We just ripped off pieces of a baguette, split them in half, stuffed some meat in and chowed down. Really yummy. At one point, we were passing around a 40 and drinking from it. This is a passtime I´d have loved to participate in at home, but haven´t until coming here. I plan on having a couch on my front porch when I get a house, just for special 40 occassions.

It got sort of cold in the shade, so the English group and Spanish group meshed at one big table in the sun and became the Spanish group. In doing so, I found out that one of the girls on Irene´s team is an English teacher! I think she was just being shy, but she didn´t really want to speak English much. But, if I get a visa, she will be a great contact in the future.

So, everyone just chatted the evening away. I understood some of what was going on, but I had to focus and wrinkle my brow to do so. Everyone must have thought I was having a terrible time or that I was mad or something, but it was just concentration. At one point, one of the player´s baby was sort of the center of attention. She was standing in the middle of a circle of chairs and the adults sitting around her were shouting out words for her to say and yelling, "muy bien," each time she succeeded. I´m guessing she couldn´t have been more than 1 and a half. Super cute too. But, like all tiny moments, it made me think. I was sort of envious of her. I wished I had a bunch of people sitting around me in a circle telling me words and shouting muy bien at me every day. Not bad for the old confianza.

Really, I guess that´s sort of what my team does anyway. They tell me some bad word, or slang term and then I say it and they all laugh. Yep, yesterday, I realized I´m 1 and a half. Just kidding. Actually, I don´t feel terrible about my Spanish, there are just bad moments. I know I need to improve though and I can be doing more.

This is shaping up to be a nice week so far. Getting back into the swing of work and hopefully the nice weather we´re having will hold out so I can run. I went today and almost got bogged down in the mud on top of the hill. I´m sure people could hear my shrieks from kilometers around.

That´s all I got, time to go take a stroll and then recoger mis niños. Kisses and llaves.