Day 2 :)

The Spanish parents tell the jet-lagged American who isn't completely confident what time it is, ever, to sleep as late as she wants.  Little do they know that I am skilled at sleeping in, so at 1pm when Pilar woke me up finally it was no suprise that I was still tired!  I think that is normal, with sitting in airports/planes for 18 hours in the past day and then staying up during the entire period of sleep for America.  I am so glad they woke me up though because I woudn't have wanted to miss the birthday party for their five year old cousin at Juan's brother's house.  It was just like my family birthday parties, except everyone kept talking really fast in spanish to me and I had no idea what they were saying (theme of my weekend!)  They were very fun, and they included me in the whole fiesta!  First we stood around and visited and ate shrimp that you literally had to de-capitate lol.  I wasn't sure how exactly you did that so thankfully Antonio's mother in-law was helping me.  Then all of the adults sat down to one big table and we feasted on lots of spanish delicacies.  We also used a Raclette which is, "A modern way of serving raclette involves an electric table-top grill with small pans, known as coupelles, to heat slices of raclette cheese in. Generally the grill is surmounted by a hot plate or griddle. The cheese is brought to the table sliced, accompanied by platters of boiled or steamed potatoes, other vegetables and charcuterie. These are then mixed with potatoes and topped with cheese in the small, wedge-shaped coupelles that are placed under the grill to melt and brown the cheese. Alternatively, slices of cheese may be melted and simply poured over food on the plate. The accent in raclette dining is on relaxed and sociable eating and drinking, the meal often running to several hours."(Wikipedia)  Basically, we got a boiled potatoe, sliced it up, and then made "sandwich-type" things using the raclette cheese that you would heat on the grill in the middle of the table, sort of like fondue.  You would add pieces of meat to the potatoes and cheese, or you could fry up an egg (very tiny, not chicken egg) on the top of the grill and eat that with your potatoe and cheese. I also had my very first expresso, which was quite strong, but with sugar good.  Altogether I had like 6 different glasses (el vaso) by the end of the party.  We sang happy birthday in spanish, but instead of "Feliz cumpleanos" that they teach us in school, they sang "Cumpleanos feliz".  Then they all sang a famous song from Spain that clowns sing?  I don't know, I was lost! lol  We ate a cake (tarte) that was orange flavored and it had chocolate icing.  It was a good time, I really enjoyed being part of the occasion and I really felt included as part of the family.