At about 4:30 Lita's daughter, Vanessa, "son-in-law" (I put quotations because nobody gets married here...reason number 928347 why I should move here) Miguel, and grandson Gael (pronounced Guy-el) picked us up at Lita's apartment. Miguel and Vanessa are fun and clearly very much in love. Gael is six years old and loves everything that has to do with Toy Story and Spiderman. Lita brought Gael a present because she knew he'd be jealous when his cousin was opening all her presents. They were trading cards of Spain's world cup team. He was so excited to open them they went flying around the car because the windows were down. One flew out the window, tears ensued, and I immediately thought What have I gotten myself into?
The party was at a park a little outside of Barcelona.
I would imagine this would be what any Americ
an parent would do if they lived in a city. I always grew up in the countryside
so all our outdoor parties wer
e in someone's back yard. I suppose I never gave thought to what if you don't have a backyard?
They had balloons strung up on trees, a picnic bench covered in a pink table cloth, a piñata and massive amounts of food. Still looks like an American party to me. In fact, the sign said "Happy Birthday" in English. The children came with their parents and got along very well. Lita's grandchildren were, by far, the cutest. The birthday girl, Aisha, was absolutely adorable. Aisha's little brother, Liam, was my favourite. He was glued to me all day. Not yet two, he grabbed my hand to go everywhere. I, stupidly, took him to go down the slide. I guess he's never been down a slide before...
and he wasn't about to stop now that he'd started. I would lift him on top of the slide, he'd go down, I would catch him on the other side, and he'd scream "más más!" (more more). The first few times I was laughing with him...
after the 4th or 5th round I'd counter his "más, más" with "¿Qué hacen los otros niños? ¡Vamos a ver!" What are the other kids doing? Let's go see! That's when Liam would look at me, his bottom lip would start to protrude and quiver and I'd think shit. So, down the slide we went until the clown came.
The clown was a woman and the kids loved her. Liam wanted me to sit with him so I did and I had to play all the stupid clown games. The clown actually taught me a lot. If you ever need to know "treasure map", "sword fight", "balloon animal" or "face paint" in Spanish, I'm your girl. She took the kids on a treasure hunt, painted their faces, made balloon animals...etc. Of course the kids squeezed their balloon animals too hard and they all popped within minutes. Immediately, the adults were inundated with little monsters with wet faces, snot coming from their noses and mouths agape,
reaching out for whoever will pick them up first.
Liam chose me. My white dress was covered in snot. That stupid clown must've known what was going to happen because as soon as she handed out her balloon animals she was gone. All that was left was a party full of sobbing children.
The party continued on. There was cake, a piñata, presents galore, and crying children. It was like any
other party thrown for a 5 year old. I guess no matter where you live, cars, princesses and balloon animals will always be cool.
The children ran off to the playground and the women started cleaning and fussing over little things, and the dads walked over to the tree in the park and stood in a circle. And started passing around a blunt. Ohhhh I thought to myself here's the difference between Spain and America. I laughed to myself because of how normal it all was. It's like the first few days you go to the beach here you're taken aback by all the topless women. Then a few weeks go by and you don't even notice. Then, one day, you catch yourself thinking, You know, it would be really nice to have no tan lines at all. And you have to stop yourself from taking off your top. That's what it's like here with mar
ijuana. It's legal in Spain. You can walk down the street and smoke it if you'd like; you just can't sell it. So the first few days when you smell it you're very surprised because you'll be some place where you would never expect it; like sitting down to dinner and the table next to you is smoking it. Then a few days pass and you smell it but you're not as alarmed. Then a few weeks pass and you smell it and no one even says anything. Then you're at a 5 year olds birthday party and it's being passed around among the parents and you think is hm. interesting.
All in all, it was a great experience. I was glad Lita invited me. It was a beautiful day and the kids were adorable. Many years from now, Lita will take out the pictures from today and show her grandkids and they will say "Who is that girl in the white dress?" And Lita will take the picture from them, hold it closer to her face and say,
"Ohh yea, that was one of the girls from America...what was her name." And she'll purse her lips and look up at the ceiling and try to remember my name but by then her grandchildren, even Liam, will be onto the next picture and completely disinterested in the girl who took him down the slide all day.
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