I had a very fun 23rd birthday (I can’t believe I’m 23 years old) and the celebration was extremely amusing. I have befriended other teachers in my program that live near my town. For the weekend about 7 other girls and myself went to a beach town, La Antilla, and stayed with one of the girls who lives there. The town was almost completely deserted because not a lot of people live there during the year but it is buzzing with activity during the summer months. We spent Saturday on the beach and met Spain’s National Rowing team. They had been checking us out and eventually approached us. They were guys (very attractive) between the ages of 19 and 26 staying with their coach and his wife for a ‘holiday’ before training starts up again. Apparently they have a good chance of going to the next Olympics!
Anyways, they invited us over that evening for a party. My new friends knew it was my birthday and they surprised me with a pasta dinner (perfect for me!) and a birthday cake with candles. It was very nice and thoughtful. The drink of choice around here is tinto de verano. It is red wine mixed with lemon fanta. Sounds strange but is actually quite good. It can be too sweet at times though.
Anyways, we had dinner and drank lots of tinto de verano and then went over the boy’s house. Let me just say it was one of the funniest parties I have ever been to. The boys heard it was my birthday so they sang happy birthday to me and then the party started. I was wearing a yellow dress so the whole night the boys called me “amarillo” which means yellow. It was kind of like being at my first boy/girl party back in middle school. The coaches wife played hostess and made us play games... I think she was trying to lighten the mood since the drinks hadn’t really started flowing yet! I felt like I was a teenager all over again. She made us stand boy/girl and we played telephone. Then we played 2 truths and a lie and also spin the bottle... Yes thats right I played spin the bottle for my 23rd birthday. It was one of the most comical things I have ever been a part of.
Eventually we switched to drinking rum and coke and things lightened up and the wife went to bed. The rest of the evening went on like a regular party and we ended up at a bar on the beach.
At around 5am all of us girls stumbled home and went to bed. I didn’t even realize until after but we had spent the whole night talking only in Spanish because the boys spoke little to no English. It ended up being very good practice and an interesting night to say the least.
The next day they met us on the beach again and I played a game similar to badminton with them. Then we parted ways. I will be interested in seeing if any of them make it to the Olympics!
On Monday, all my classes sang happy birthday to me and by recess, once the word had spread that it was my birthday, I had some birthday cards.
I am happy to say that I will always remember my 23rd birthday in Spain!
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