MY AWESOMELY SPANISH BIRTHDAY

Woke up to my alarm around noon with a slight hangover, haha. Gotta blame it on the "Diego Specials," I may say. Drank some water and ate some toast which made me feel ten times better. It was my birthday! Way too happy to worry. Ran into Maruja and she got on my case about how although we had told her on Tuesday that we wouldn´t eat dinner at home on Wednesday, we didn´t write a note and she forgot. And, of course, it was our fault. It seems like lately we don´t do anything right. I do appreciate Maruja, but she doesn´t really talk to us unless it´s to correct something that we´ve done wrong. This was a good example. But she´s strange, because just when I think that she´s upset with me, she comes into my room 5 minutes later asking me enthusiastically if today was the day of my birthday ("mi cumple"). I said yes and she got all excited and embraced me and kissed me on both cheeks. Ohhhh Maruja. I then got ready for class and headed out, on the way out Maruja said, "Cuando regreses, bacalao." ("And when you return, cod). I mentioned this, but she asked me what I wanted to eat for my bday dinner and I had said the bacalao dish that she had prepared way back in January. Exciting! On the way to class my parents called, but I could barely hear them since my phone has been acting up and the voice volume is really low...and you can´t adjust the voice volume on my phone! Trust me. It was so frustrating because I could barely hear them as I walked down the loud streets of Sevilla. I told them to call me back in 5 min, which they did, but I was still outside and I couldn´t hear them. I told them to wait five more minutes. I was getting pretty frustrated...technology just never works in my favor here. Finally I got to the U. and found the quietest, smallest hall possible and ducked down in a corner. They finally called, I hunched over and covered my other ear so tightly. I could hear them! It was so great to talk to them! I definitely miss them. I was so happy to get through to them and hear their voices. I told them about what I did the night before (oh man) and what my plans were and such. Yay for family birthday greetings! My first class was Teatro de Lope de Vega which went slowly. The weather was also weighing me down a bit, it was cloudy and one of the coldest days since we had arrived. Supposedly, the previous night it had snowed a bit near the airport...it has only snowed once in Sevilla in the past 100 years. Crazy. I find it quite appropriate for my bday, it makes me feel more at home since I´m used to having my birthday on cloudy, cold days. It´s like the weather knew, haha. After class I decided to get a drink since, ya know, it´s my 21st birthday. We went to Café de Indias and I ordered some sort of hot chocolate that had Malibu and some liquer in it, a slice of yema (egg) cake, and later a glass of red wine. Stacey got a piece of cheesecake and a pint of Guinness. Yeah, I was kind of drunk by the time we left and arrived at our next class: Teatro Hispanoamericano. Funny. Class was fine, kind of entertaining, hehe. After class Stacey and I walked back to the center. I hung out, ate a bocadillo, went online, called the grandparents to thank them for their gift :). I definitely wasn´t drunk anymore, and I thought that then it´d be appropriate to go get another, but I just wasn´t motivated and it was getting a bit excessive, haha. So I just hung out at the center and then headed over to the U. for my next class, Iconografía. Class was fine, I actually got picked out in class. The prof. was discussing religious art and what it represents for the development of Catholocism. He was talking about Popes and Cardinals or something. I hadn´t really been paying attention until he began talking about that. Then he said something about asking an American. He pointed to me and said, "Usted" ("you"), and I was a bit thrown off, saying "Yo?" ("me") a bunch of times until I realized that he was addressing me. He asked me where I was from, I said Chicago, and then he asked me something that I couldn´t quite understand. I think that he may have asked if I knew who my Cardinal was? Well, needless to say, I said no. And then he made some comment about how not many americans know such things (it wasn´t insulting, just a factual statement) and then he asked the Spanish students if they knew. One of them did. Then he continued lecture. One of the americanas in my class turned around and said, "I wouldn´t have known that, either." Well, at least my "no" was an appropriate answer, haha. I felt lucky, however, that I had been paying attention when he called on me. Oh man, that would have been bad. But that´s the first time that I had participated in a Spanish University class! Wooo happy birthday to me! Hehe. After class I walked home ready for my big Maruja birthday dinner. When I arrived Stacey told me to wait outside of the room for a second. After 5 minutes she let me back in and she presented me with a card and 2 wrapped gifts! I couldn´t believe that after all that she had done she actually bought me gifts. I mean, not only did she throw me a party, but she also paid for my dinner and drinks. What a gal. I opened the card which was hilarious: a chimp wishing me happy bday in Spanish. Gotta love it. Then my first gift: a Lindt chocolate bar that I´ve been dying to try and talked about a couple times...it´s stuffed with a tiramisu filling. Wow. Then I opened the big gift, and lo and behold, a HOOKAH! The whole time that we had been in Spain I had talked about how much I had to buy a hookah here. It turns out that she ditched class and walked a half an hour to that headshop that we found when we were lost weeks before. I mean, she took so much time out of her life to find out where it was, walk there, and then make the purchase. And, although hookahs are cheaper here, the hookah she bought me was probably between 20 or 30 euro. I couldn´t believe it. She had really gone all out for my birthday, and when you think about it we´ve only known each other for a little over a month. Seriously, she is amazing. I am so lucky to have her as a roommate and friend. She truly made my birthday unforgettable. Wow. After stashing the hookah, María del Mar came into my room and wished me a very happy birthday, we embraced and did the standard double cheek kiss. At 9:30 dinner was served: homemade cole slaw with pomegranate (mmmm) and the bacalao dorado (YESSSS!!!). Oh man, was I excited!!!!! And, damn, was it good. I wish that she made more! Haha. Dinner was great, it was very lively, lots of chatting (which is rare, many times our dinners are kind of quiet). Marta came home right before dinner and also hugged/kissed me and wished me a happy birthday. After an unbelievably satisfying dinner, Maruja unveiled the dessert. Now, Maruja never makes dessert, so this was a real treat. It was a tarta de chocolate like she had promised. It was a layered white and milk chocolate pudding thing with shortbread galletas (cookies) layered within. It´s called "Tarta de galletas." It was AMAZING. She said that it´s her granddaughters´favorite. I can see why! Oh man, and I ate so much of it. Unbelievable, truly. What a great birthday dinner, honestly! After dinner Stacey and I did some internetting and planning for the night. People had previously discussed going out, but people started to bail on us because they were all so tired. I was disappointed, but I don´t blame them, the previous night was insane, definitely took a lot out on me, and the weather was kind of a downer (sooooo cold). I mean, if it wasn´t my birthday I definitely would have stayed in. I was honestly tired as hell. But I was determined to make it out! Then Stacey revealed another surprise: a birthday cake! She, Katie, and Melissa had bought me a huge chocolate cake that said "Feliz Cumpleaños" with plastic plates and silverware! Wow. So we made plans to meet up with just Katie and Melissa at Cadillac (yes, again) and have cake and a drink. On the way we called Alyssa to see what she was up to, and she was going out to Alfalfa with her friends who were visiting from Madrid, and Stacey and I decided that perhaps we would meet up. The cake was so good, we had huuuuuge pieces. We also had a drink each...me with my vodka tonic, of course. Then since we had a whole half a cake leftover we decided to cut a piece for Diego. He was so excited! Gotta love the Diego. I mean, he let us have that huge party and only charged us 30euro the night before, AND put up with my drunken shenanigans. Soon he came to our table and gave us each a free shot. Lord knows what it was, it was sweet and not too strong. The four of us had a good time just chilling out and whatnot. Katie and Melissa got me a bday present, also, and gave it to me! Yayyy birthdays! It was in an OpenCor bag, which is always a good sign. It was a milk chocolate bar (oh man, that´s dangerous), a box of Kellogg´s Fruit n Fiber (my favorite snackfood/savior in Sevilla), and 2 apples (I always am eating apples here and talk about how much I want apples, hehe). So happy! Gotta say, they were the perfect gifts. At around 12:30 Katie and Melissa called it a night. I called Alyssa who decided to stay at Alfalfa and invited us to come meet up with her. We definitely were not motivated with our tiredness and the cold weather to walk a half an hour to Alfalfa, so Stacey and I decided to have our own mini celebration at Cadillac. Cadillac is now my official birthday spot! We had so much fun just chatting the two of us. We ordered a couple more drinks and played a game of pool. Around 2ish the bar started to clear out. Stacey then decided that it´d be a good idea to take a chupito since we were just slightly buzzed. Gotta love that girl. So we sat at the bar, and it was just us two and Diego at Cadillac. We asked for a chupito, and he said "fuerte," (strong) "o débil?" (weak). Stacey and I looked at each other, and she said fuerte. He wouldn´t let us look at what he was mixing for us. Silly Diego. I have no clue what it was. We got the shots, and they smelled pretty strong, and they were in double-sized shot glasses! Oh man. In my broken Spanish I asked for a chaser. He gave me a glass of water. We then toasted with Diego, who drank strictly Red Bull (he doesn´t drink, how ironic) and took the shots. They actually weren´t that bad and the chaser was unnecessary. After that Stacey and I chatted with Diego. We talked about where we were from, how we were doing with the Spanish language. He even gave us some pointers on our Spanish and taught us some new words. He told us that "borracho," the word that we learned in high school/college for "drunk" actually has a negative connatation here. It implies that you´re a messy alcoholic like the bums here if you´re borracho. He told us that when you are drunk you call it "alegre" which we learned in hs/college to mean "joyful". I like that word! Definitely good vocab to know. Then we discussed the Spanish eating schedule compared to the American one. He was shocked by the hours of meals in the U.S. Haha, well, they make sense to us. Then he told us about how he snacks throughout the day to hold him over, and pulled out a huge box of Frosted Flakes. I got so excited, he´s just like me! Cereal snackers unite! I grabbed my Fruit n Fiber and showed him my snack obsession, and he laughed after I told him that it was a bday gift. Hehe. Then I showed him my pictures from the night before. He especially enjoyed the pictures of Alyssa and me on the bull. Oh man. After a bit Stacey decided that since we still weren´t too drunk it was time for another shot. He asked if we wanted it "fuerte" or "fuertísimo" (really strong). Stacey immediately answered fuertísimo. Oy vey. Diego had a conniving look in his eye, took out two more double shot glasses, and grabbed some liquor while covering their labels. He put the shots in front of us, and man, they did not smell too great. We begged Diego to tell us what he had mixed. Finally he showed us: Captain Morgan´s and Gin. Ohhhhhhh no. I asked for a Coca-Cola Light to chase. After much hesitation we took the shots. Not that fun. But it did the trick. We were both good and drunk hanging out with Diego in Cadillac. Soon a group of Spanish kids about our age stumbled in around 3ish. Diego knew them, so they all chatted for a bit. Stacey and I then decided to call it a night. We got the bill...only 9 euro! 9 euro for 4 vodka tonics and 2 shots! We couldn´t believe it. That meant that the shots he gave us were free. Gotta love the Diego, as I´ve said many a time. He´s my favoritest bartender in the whole world! Then we walked the one block to our apartment. Stacey went straight to bed and I stayed up until 5:45am chatting online. I found out that morning on the phone with my parents that I was born at 10:30pm, which was 5:30am on Feb. 24th Spain time (haha, my birthday is 2/24 in Spain), so I was awake for my official birthday. At 5:30am I turned 21 for real, for that´s when I was born. Exciting! At that point my birthday had officially come to a close. It had been an amazing 24+ hours...some of the best that I´ve had. My 21st turned out to be one of my most unforgettable birthdays. Definitely surpassed all expectations, I couldn´t ask for any better. So much thanks to all!!! It´s good to be 21.