A special birthday!

I have had another birthday – and this one in Spain! It is the first time in my life that I have not been in my own home country for my birthday, but not the first time I have been away from my family for my birthday. If you have been reading my blog for the last year, you may remember that I wrote about what I did for my birthday last year. And as this one was so different from any other birthday I’ve had, I thought I’d share about this one too!

I invited all the students, their families, our lecturer and the director of the course to my home to celebrate my birthday for lunch on Saturday. Unfortunately, the director was unable to come, as he was travelling to Barcelona for the weekend. Everyone else could (and did) come, so I planned to feed 7 adults and 1 child. The key to the celebration, as far as I was concerned, was making sure I had lamingtons for everyone to try. No one had heard of them before, and when I described them I could almost see them beginning to salivate at the mention of the chocolate sauce. Which left me with the hurdle of trying to find appropriate ingredients for a foreign recipe in a different language! I managed to find out that Spain, like Australia, has flour with rising agent in it, though I couldn’t be certain they were the same proportions. No matter – it was simpler than trying to work out how to convert from self-raising flour to plain flour! The other thing which surprised me in my shopping was how difficult it was to find vanilla essence and the onions I have been used to calling ‘Spanish onions’ in Spain! Only one out of three supermarkets had red onions!

So, I started preparing on Saturday morning by going to the apartment of our lecturer to use her oven, as I don’t have one in my apartment. I baked the cake, and when it had cooled a bit I walked back to my apartment carrying it. I received some odd looks from people passing by! On my way up to my apartment, I stopped by the apartment of the other woman in the course, as she had offered to help in any way I needed or wanted before everyone arrived. I set her the task of interpreting the instructions for the packet cheesecake I had bought, as they were all in Spanish! I set to work preparing the main course of pasta salad and vegetable frittata. Next to arrive (I assume he was early, but I didn’t check the time) was one of the guys in the course, who is quite a keen (and skilled) cook, ready to help in any way I would let him. I set them the task of dipping the cut cake into the chocolate sauce and then into the coconut to finish the lamingtons. I’ve only done this myself once before, and it is a fairly time consuming activity! I put the ingredients in a bowl for the sauce, and left the rest to them. They did very well! Creditable looking, delicious lamingtons were enjoyed by everyone!

By the time the party started, it really was my birthday – in Australia! We are about ten hours behind here in Spain, which also means that it was still my birthday when the sun was rising in Australia for the day after my birthday!

I had some of my music on quietly in the background until we started eating. I also had some postcards and a book by Steve Parish, all about Australia, in the lounge room for people to look at. Most of them know at least a little English, and could interpret a lot of the captions of the photos at least. They were fascinated, and rightly so! Australia is a wonderful, colourful, and sometimes bizarre place, with strange animals and unusual flowers. We had a good chat about some of the things they saw in the book, and I had the difficult task of trying to describe a wombat in Spanish to people who had never heard of one! Thankfully someone realised they could look for a picture on the internet with their phone, which saved quite a bit of confusion, I think!

Some of the entertainment I provided!

For my birthday I had already bought for myself from my sister some children’s stories in Spanish – short Disney stories – for me to practise reading. I had a few of these out as well, for the family with a two year old son. I thought he might enjoy having them read to him – and he did! The other thing he really enjoyed was the card my three year old nephew chose for me before I left home, which plays ‘The Hamster Song’. He was quite upset anytime one of us took it off of him, and especially when it was put out of his reach after most of the adults were tired of the strange song – which none of them had heard before. But we kept him mostly happy with other, less noisy activities for most of the afternoon. The most interesting noise, for me, was the silence that fell while everyone was eating the lamingtons! Hospitality plus cross-cultural win! 

 

The Hamster Song - cross cultural, cross linguistic entertainment!

I forgot to have my camera handy to take photos during the afternoon, but I took a few afterwards. This should give you a glimpse into my apartment as well, which I have not told you much about yet!

Probably the most generous gift any of them gave me, though, was all their help in cleaning up. A few loads of dishes were done for me – after we finished preparing the food, after people had eaten main course of lunch, and after everyone had finished eating cheesecake. Plus the final load of dishes once leftovers were packed away!

Leftovers! Pasta salad is hiding behind the crackers. Lamingtons in the blue bowl. Mmmm...

I had a pleasant, quiet evening, and then went to another town for church in the morning. A pleasant drive through, this time with the chance to appreciate the beauty of the scenery. Quite a different landscape from back in Australia! A quiet and fairly relaxing afternoon and evening.

All in all, an excellent birthday! Thank you to everyone who sent birthday messages in whatever form!