Last Wed. night we were invited to an anniversary party on Friday for a couple in our hall...at their house, given by their niece who lives with them....sure, why not? Chad never turns down an invitation for food, right?
Thursday morning, we get a call from another sister in the hall...um, Can we have the party at your place? After warning her that our place is a lot smaller than when we lived upstairs, we, of course, said ¨Sure¨ Great, so she says she will be there at 7 with the food and the rest will be there at 7:30. Now we know better than that, we thought...that means she will be there at 7:30 and the rest at 8!
Tranquilo! This is the word that they use when you ask them questions like, How many are coming? Do you have chairs? Is someone bringing music? What food will there be?...etc.
They intend that word to mean: It's all taken care of...No worries..
What we have learned that it means is: No, nothing is taken care of, we haven't arranged anything, but don't bother me with so many questions!
So, we bought some snacks, just in case, because we have already been asked to host a party that didn't have food! No kidding!
Anyway, Friday night comes....here is how it went....
7:00pm
7:30pm
8:00pm
8:30pm
(The 2 sisters with the food finally arrive to start preparing the food!)
(The 2 sisters with the food finally arrive to start preparing the food!)
9:00pm
(the guests finally arrive, pretty much all at the same time, like it was the scheduled time for the party that everyone knew about except the ¨gringos¨!)
(the guests finally arrive, pretty much all at the same time, like it was the scheduled time for the party that everyone knew about except the ¨gringos¨!)
9:20pm
(The guests of honor arrive!)
So, we finally start serving food around 9:30pm...now you see why Chad always eats dinner before the gatherings! But, I have to say, once everyone got there, it was a really nice time, and they had really good food!Around 10:30pm, I mention to the sister that maybe we should start to serve the cake! (Being old like I am, I was thinking, I have to go to bed! I need to get up for service!) But she just looks at me like I had 2 heads...¨No, we have to start the dancing first!¨ Hmm, interesting...So I asked her, ¨Do you have music?¨ Of course not! Chad and I usually have music, but since his computer is in the shop, we don't have any of the music...so, there goes that idea... but, TRANQUILO!!!
Finally at around 11:30pm, they decide to serve the cake and all of sudden everyone seemed to notice what time it was...so they shoveled in the cake and headed out at around 11:50pm!
WHEW! What a night! We did enjoy ourselves, and we really are getting more accustomed to their ways...but just thought you would get a kick out of the night!
I'm sure they all think that we are just uptight gringos...and hey, when in Rome, do as the Romans, right? Just remember.....TRANQUILO!
2 comments:
It's good to know that at least some things are truly universal in Spanish culture. Besides, everyone knows that gringos throw the best parties anyways.
Wow...We just got a flashback from being back home at parties. Tranquilo...that's just the norm with us hispanics...don't understand why...But we haven't laughed this hard in a while. Thanks!!!
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