FELIZ CUMPLEANOS A DOS CHICAS ESTUPENDAS!

TODAY IS STACEY AND JESSICA'S BIRTHDAY!!! YAYYYY!!!!!! They both turned 20 today, craaaazy! 2 of the only sophomores on the program who just so happen to be my good friends have the exact same 20th...talk about your coincidences!

Stacey and I woke up really early. Stacey had work at the center at 9 and we made plans to get up early and go to the little cafe down the street for our first experience of churros con chocolate for breakfast. Churros con chocolate is a Spanish staple as a breakfast and snack. There's a chocolateria (chocolate shop)/cafe that we literally pass everyday that always has people in the windown eating churros con chocolate. Since coming to Spain I've intended to give the authentic Spanish gluttonous tradition a try, and this chocolateria looked like it probably specialized in them. However, we have never gone! So we made concrete plans and went. Oh man, I was one tired kid this morning. We got there and ordered 2 raciones de churros con chocolate. First came the two little tazas (mugs) of authentic Spanish chocolate caliente (hot chocolate) which is basically the thickest hot chocolate you will ever encounter (tastes/looks like chocolate fondue...or a melted chocolate bar). Then came the silver platter of churros...there were so many! Churros con chocolate, let me preamble, is probably one of the most unhealthiest things that I've ever eaten in my life. That being said, I shall explain. It's rolled sweet dough deep fried. That's it. And then you dip it in your thick, hot chocolate. Oh man, it was very good, but so overwhelming. It was like eating the thickest, most fired, greasiest, chocolatiest doughnut(s) ever. We couldn't finish our platter it was so rich and overwhelming. Well, it's Stacey's birthday, I'll let the sweets and fried food slide for one day. Then Stacey left for work and I walked home where I proceeded to sleep for another hour and a half. There was banging from construction, but it was much more muffled and quiet now. They must have switched walls or something because I was able to sleep through it fine. I then woke up again at 10:15 and got ready for the day. It was a beautiful day out! about 72 degrees, sunny, and clear. A perfect day for a double birthday! I got to the center in a great mood where I hung out and went on the computer. I got to do one thing that I've been meaning to do forever: edit Stacey's facebook profile! She has not touched her facebook profile since 2004...I mean, it still has her senior picture up and says that she lives in the dorms. Not cool in my book, me, the facebook fiend. So she let me make her profile a bit more thorough and change her picture. FINALLY. Not gonna lie, it was starting to get to me. Due to the editing I was a bit late to historia del cine, but so was my prof. so I ended up being early although late. The prof. finally started lecturing about movies with sound and American cinema. We talked about the bigtime directors and production companies fromt he 20's and 30's. What I found most interesting was the Hays scale which is what caused so much censorship in American media and popular culture. Interesting. Everyone was restless in class and by 1 everyone was chatty, so around 1:20 she asked us if we were growing sick of lecture, everyone said yes, and so she let us out. So then I walked home in the even warmer weather, randomly ran into Diego on the street (he's a silly bartender, I tell ya) then got home starving and ready for Stacey's birthday lunch!! I was so excited because Stacey asked for her favorite dish which I think is Maruja's specialty: bacalao empanada. She also asked for the chocolate tarta de galletas that we had for both Maria del Mar's and my birthday. Lunch was served, and luckily everyone was home! This was the first time that we had all had a meal together as a unit(family?) since I can't even remember. And Maruja made sooooo much food! She even made extra empanada in a small glass casserole dish. We let Stacey have that one...it was like her own bacalao pot pie! There was even some leftover empanada so I got some seconds. We also had vegetable puree soup which was deeeeelish. The empanada, backtracking, was amazing today becasue there was less sugar on top and more fish and onion in the center. That's what makes the empanada so good: the perfect balance between sweet and salty. For dessert the tarta was served...and there was so much...there are still leftovers even after Stacey took seconds!! Oh man, amaaaaaaazing meal. I'm still stuffed from it. After dinner I finished editing my Granada story for that contest, submitted it, and blogged while Stacey napped. Jessica called her which woke her up and they wished each other enthused happy birthdays. We got ready for the night (we'd be gone until late) and left around 5pm...not before giving Stacey her birthday presents! She loved them, she even teared up when she got the soaps! She was so touched and happy, she LOVES her gifts! I love giving presents, yay! We stopped by the Ochoa confiteria (confectionary) where Stacey bought this pastrey that's in the window that she's been waiting to try for her bday. I had some, it was DELCIOUS...probably best Spanish pastrey that I've had. It's gluten-free, actually, so it's thin and not very bready, it's got yema (egg yolk), nata (cream), and nuts in it, covered in creamy milk chocolate and toffee chips. Mmmmm. I then walked to class which was pretty boring. More about Ancient Rome...this time we learned about foros (forums). We got out of class at about 7:10 (NOW he lets us out early) so I walked to one of the copisterias across the street and bought some cute birthday cards for Jessica and Stacey. I then went to Starbucks to meet up with Jessica and Stacey to go out for bday dinner. Jessica showed up around 7:45 while I was mid card-signing so I made her look the other way. It was so good to see her, finally, and wish her a happy birthday! She was having a really good day: the weather was gorgeous, she bought herself shoes, she wore her favorite dress, life was good for Miss Jessica Sapick on her 20th birthday. She then went to use the bathroom and Stacey showed up. While I was in class Stacey bought Jessica some small birthday gifts: some palmeras, a Sevilla shot glass, and a vintage poster advertising the Spring Fairs. Perfect. We then all walked towards Nervion, the barrio in which Jessica lives that is quite a hike. We took the scenic route since it was so gorgeous out. We walked through a park and passed the Plaza de Espana, the famous grandiose plaza in Sevilla which I ironically had not yet visited. It's HUUUUGE and beautiful! Yay for living in Sevilla for 2.5 months and not seeing its major landmark. I'm terrible. We then got into Nervion and found an outdoor tapas de marisco (shellfish tapas) bar with a good view and a good, large menu. We all ordered 3 tapas each; I got tuna sirloin and red pepper salads, one montadito (small tapas sandwich) with smoked salmon (mmmm lox) and burgos cheese, and then I got pulpo a la gallego which is a grilled octopus dish with oil and cayenne. Very good, that was really quality octopus. It's a specialty in Spain, and it was quite obvious why. We gave Jessica her gifts which she loved. Yay! I then gave both of them their cards which they both loved because they were cards with funny animals in costumes and on the inside of the cards I drew funny cartoons of them. Hehe. After dinner we booked it over to SuperSol to buy beer because since Jessica's senora was out of town we wanted to have a pre-game piso party involving a rousing game of Kings. SuperSol closes at 10 and it was about 9:45 when we left. We got there at 5 to ten to find it closed...turns out closes at 9:30. Uuuugh. So we went to the gas station next store. We were in line behind this group of Spanish kids who bought some forties. We got to the front of the line at two minutes to ten...and he wouldn't sell us beer because he said that it was past 10! There's a law in Spain that you can't sell liquor at stores after 10pm. He said that his watch says 10:02. He just served some Sevillanos and it definitely didn't take 2 minutes! Fucking Spanish workers discriminating against the americanas. Hate that sometimes. Luckily we all had our own pre-game liquor with us so we weren't lacking in the liquor dept...we just couldn't play Kings. Boo. We then walked back and quietly snuck up to Jessica and Courtney's piso. Their place is SO NICE! They have always thought that their senora had money, and it was pretty obvious. All appliances and such were new. They have a dishwasher, a dryer, 2 tv's (one is a big screen), marble finishings, and a nice room. They also have 2 cats that nibble each other in a manner that makes it look like they're having sex. It's kind of funny. Jessica's mom had sent Jessica a cake with candles and frosting in the mail, and Jessica had frosted it. So now we had 2 cakes. Jessica has a webcam and her mom wanted Jessica and all of her friends to record ourselves with the cake lit and singing happy bday and then send it to her. Hehe, awkward. Finally Katie and Melissa showed up and we could officially begin the piso party. We lit the candles which turned out to be a whole ordeal because I had brought candles, too, which turned out to be sparkler candles. We sang happy bday in Spanish and it was awkward, of course. Then the two of them blew out the candles which took forever since they also turned out to be trick candles. It made the whole piso fill up with smoke and we got all nervous about the alarm going off. Luckily we aired the place out in time. Then we dug in! SOOOO much cake. The cake from Campana that I brought was, well, FREAKING AMAZING. It is seriously one of the best cakes that I have ever eaten because they use ingredients differently. It was a white cake that obviously had a lot of egg in it, with a creamy light chocolate frosting and white chocolate candies on top. The cake wasn't overwhelmingly sweet like most American cakes (think Deerfield Bakery) and it tasted like there may have a been cinnamon or some sort of liquer in the frosting. Ugh, so good. Jessica's cake was so good and tasted very American. It was an exceedingly dense double chocolate cake which was basically a brownie with frosting. Yum. We all felt sick after eating so much cake! Hehe. Stacey, however, really felt sick. After eating so much sugar all day she had developed a bad stomach ache! Oh no! Stacey is such a trooper, though, and refuses to let that ruin her big night, so she took every ant-acid in the piso and chilled out. Then we retreated to Jessica and Courtney's bedroom where we played music and drank. It was so fun--just like being back in Ann Arbor! I love piso parties. I'm excited for my piso next year (hint hint Nicole and Amanda)! Jessica even wore a wig. It was great. Stacey was feeling pretty crappy, but she knew that it was just really bad acid and that it would pass soon, she just needed to wait it out. She is such a trooper, really! I love that girl. At around midnight we hailed down some cabs and headed to Isbiliyya for the birthday party. We got to the club which was pretty empty at the time. Some of us ordered drinks and some sat outside in the warm night air waiting for the place to really start getting crowded and for guests. The club is really cool--it's large, but not too large, and it has a big stage with great lighting. I ordered a vodka tonic which turned out to be mostly vodka and a bit of tonic...so it was worth the 6euros. Hehe. Also, my drank glowed in the blacklight, so cool! Stacey sat outside with Katie drinking the vodka she had packed herself...her stomach had died down so she decided that it was a good time to drink and hope that it would get her mind off of her pains (and it did). People started showing up, a lot of people from our program, actually. It was so nice and great! I went out to the floor to do some dancing, they were playing awesome music--they were playing Jock Jams! It was awesome. Meanwhile, on the big screen TV they played Madonna videos. It felt good to go to a club where I didn't have to worry about being groped or pestered by creepy Spanish men...mmmm gay clubs. Soon I felt a tug on my arm...it was Stacey urging me to take a shot with her. Somehow she got a large group together to take a shot...I hadn't even finished my drink! I guzzled it down and took a shot with everyone. That's when things got fuzzy. From that point forward my memory is in bits and pieces...I'll do my best for you. At one point Melissa and Courtney were pushing Katie out the door...I guess that she got really wasted and they had to send her home. The drag show started around 1:30 which involved a lot of talking and joking on stage (I can't understand Spanish that well when I'm drunk, however), and then lip-synching to 80's music. Awesome! At some point Jessica and Stacey ended up on stage and everyone sang happy birthday to them! I don't really know what else happened, I know that I drank more, though. I know that I took a shot with Alissa in remembrance of the memory of our joint birthday. I just remember things getting fuzzy and wobbley and watching drag queens and being outside and who knows. I have a ton of pictures from the night and I probably remember taking 3 of them. Oh man. At some point we all decided to go home. Melissa, Stacey, and I shared a cab. I remember looking out the window and thinking that everything looked like a cartoon. We got off at the Plaza de Cuba and then walked Melissa home, and then walked ourselves home. I remember the walk: I was so drunk that I couldn't form sentences and it frustrated me. Haha. We got home and I literally threw on my pajamas and passed out. I have no conception of what time it was. It was the drunkest that I've been here...it was insanity. Never again. But it was worth it--it was Stacey and Jessica's birthdays!!! I had sooooo much fun and was so happy that their birthday party was a complete success. Yayyy!!!