Cinco de Mayo

Before I even start, do me a favor. Stop whatever you're doing and look at the title of my blog.

SPAIN

Thank you. Now, I will continue to tell you that the famous "Cinco de Mayo" holiday is NOT Mexico's Independence Day. It it the day when Mexico won a battle against France.

Mexico - France

Just to... let you know. You can read my blog title again if you get confused, because here in Europe (Yes, Spain is in Europe) el "Cinco de Mayo" holiday is not celebrated. MEXICO won it's battle against FRANCE. Spain frankly doesn't really... care.

But they do have another party.

Santa Faz is the festival that... well I'm not really sure. It's only in Alicante. We didn't do anything for it today. I was told it's always two weeks after Easter or something like that. So we don't have school this Thursday or Friday... it's been pretty nice, as our Easter holiday was the 20th-2nd. All I really know was that a group of people walked from point A to point B and later went to party at the beach. And it's a long way inbetween. Here at home we've just been getting ready for my older host sister's wedding tomorrow.

Anddddd I'm the photographer. Yikes. I can say I've never been held responsible for capturing one of the most important days of someone's life. Hopefully all goes well.

So that was my first point of the blog. My second was about today's dinner conversation. (And btw- all speaking is in Spanish...somehow that question comes up(?)

My host grandparents are spending the night at our house with the wedding tomorrow. You see, lately I've been trying to figure out how to describe my life.

I have a harder time understanding my host grandparents for, well... different reasons. One being similar to the following conversation.

Abuelo: "Tens fam?" (I somehow heard something on the lines of- ping pong?)

Me:"heh?"

Abuelo: "Oh, so you don't speak Valenciano?"

Me: "Ehhhmmm...no."

(It means- Are you hungary?/Tienes hambre?)

So that gives you a start. Second, as we were sitting at the dinner table- my host grandmother turns to me and asks-

"Do you know what "patos" are?"

"Yes" I replied. Patos = ducks.

"Do you know what "monjas" are?"

"Yes" I replied. Monjas = nuns. 

Conversation = Ended.

Somewhere, somehow, I think I missed something. It was a classic moment- as I had a lot of these when I first arrived. You understand a few words, but not those inbetween. I hadn't had this moment for a while. This type of thing leaves me clueless, puzzled, and lost as to how to respond. You sit there and think..... I really am in exchange. I am sitting in this room, and am the only person who is confused as to why ducks and nuns would come up at the same time. And no one goes on to explain any further, or something, because I guess I really don't know anymore.

Later in the conversation 'el abuelo' started talking about when they went to New York City over ten years ago. Between my host grandparents and mother we had a conversation that went a little bit like this:

Abuelo: "We went to New York and later to Canada (names a lists of cities), and later New York again. We even went to Niagra Falls. Have you been there?"

Me-"No."

Abuelo: "No? Oh...well, I didn't like New York. All the people there were fat and were 'eating in the streets'. It was my least favorite city. I didn't like it there are all... all the fat people with their food."

Me- Speechless. Thinking- He just insulted my country! He just insulted people in New York! He just GENERALIZED New York! New York IS HUGE! How can you say something is the same, for so many people?!

The conversation continued.

Abuelo:"How big is your town?"

"About 15,000. A small town."

Abuelo:"Oh ok, I was just curious if it was a small town or a big one. What the name of it? It's possible we passed through it on our trip."

Host mother:"She lives in Minnesota. It's in the center by Canada. Right? How far are you from Canada?"

Me:"Eight hours? Ten? In car." --->(I don't actually know...)

Abuelo:"Well what's the name of it? It's very possible we passed through there."

Host mother:"But she's far away from New York!"

Abuelo:"We we went all through the area!"

Me:--->humored by the fact someone thinks they could have 'just run' through my town on a New York trip.. "It's impossible, sorry."

Abuelo:"Well, you never know."

Host mother:"You know the United States is like all of Europe?"

That was one conversation. It leaves me wondering if the world really knows how big the United States is. I think not. Because I for one haven't traveled the whole United States. I am so thankful that the AFS Gateway Orientation was in New York, because if it wasn't- I would have no answer "No" everytime someone has asked me if I've been to NYC. And if I had a euro for everytime someone asked me that- I'd be going on exchange again next year.

So the next conversation was about our houses. We the people of the United States, in order to build houses quickly and efficiently, build our houses out of wood. My host mother was going on about how we're not ready if a tornado comes- which was another story we were talking about. I continued to explain that if your house gets hit directly by a tornado- it's going down. And if it doesn't come down all the way, it's come down enough where it's not liveable and insurance will take care of it anyways.

She went on about how she couldn't believe how we could do that. Like why on earth? And then made the comment:

"So that's why you guys don't smoke!"

I want to hope with everything I have that was a joke. So let's say it was. Why would you joke about the education of one country in comparison to another? I found nothing of that funny. But I've also learned not to take it offensively either. Those type of things, you just have to ignore. People will think what they think. You can't change them. You can only attempt to educate them, in hopes that they will change themselves.

But let's make a side note here. An exchange year has these moments. These moments when you just want to sit there and be like, "Are you serious?" and find some way to not be overly opinionated, keep yourself together, and somehow, somehow... find the words to respond.

In Spanish, of course.

-mb