A Birthday Celebration in Spain

          As I sit in the house like most of you probably are too, I want to reflect more on my experiences I gained while living in Spain for three months. One of those experiences I got the pleasure of experiencing was my twenty-six birthday with my host family, the other English assistants, and the members of the school I was working at. In this article, I will be sharing the details of my birthday celebrations.

          I turned twenty-six years old on March 10th this year and when I got accepted into my internship in October of last year, I couldn't imagine how I would be able to celebrate my birthday while overseas. All I knew was the fact that all the people I would have celebrated with was going to be in the United States (U.S.) while I was in Spain. I also knew that there was going to be a language barrier between me and the locals since my Spanish was terrible before I started my internship. With these factors, my expectations were very low, but I remained hopeful.

          Around sometime in February me and the Harrys ( the other English assistants) were out getting my tea and their sodas during our lunch break when I decided to mention the date of my birthday and the age I was turning when the topic of our ages came up in a conversation we were having. That is when one of them suggested that we should going out for lunch on my actual birthday. I didn't even expect him to even suggest that or even would want to celebrate with me, but I was overall excited about our future plans. When it became a week before my birthday and we had just finished majority of the activities for English day, I asked the Harrys if my birthday plans with them were still happening and they of course said "Yes. It's still happening."

"Getting some sun"-  A common quote from The Harrys
 One of our adventures to the cafe

          In this same time period, I decided to include getting a fill in and a pedicure as part of my birthday plans. If you all would have saw my nails by the time March came, you would have agreed that a fill in was definitely needed. When I mentioned to one of the Harrys about my added plans, he was able to find a local nail salon for me so I wouldn't have to explore the city alone without a working phone. And it was a good thing too because I would have had to get on a train and walk a few blocks to get to one of the nail salons.  I didn't end up going to that exact salon he showed me, but it lead me to finding one on my own and creating an appointment with them.

         On Thursday, days leading up to my birthday, I found a four flavor caramel ice cream pack set while on my walk back to the house from the school that evening at a nearby grocery store and I thought my night was set. I was wrong. After eating dinner, I mentioned to my host parents that the kids grandmother's and mine birthdays were coming up which lead to them asking me when my birthday was. Once I told them that it was on the following Tuesday, the host dad then asked if I wanted to celebrate that weekend or the following weekend. When I told him that I wanted to celebrate that weekend leading up to my birthday, he mentioned the belief that if you celebrate your birthday early then bad luck would happen. I gave it a quick thought then said I still wanted to celebrate my birthday during the coming weekend before my birthday. That is when he said, "Okay, I'll order a cake tomorrow for Sunday." If you think I was excited for my birthday before, I was feeling off the top now.

          Saturday, March 7th, was the beginning of my birthday celebration. I got dressed, took pictures, and headed out the door feeling myself. I then walked to my nail appointment. Two hours later, I decided to do some shopping and ended up purchasing a pair of fitted jeans with studs on the lower parts of the jeans. They are literally a perfect fit on me. Once I returned back to the house, I enjoyed some barbecue ribs with wine and some ice cream. The next day after eating lunch, the family came to the table with a vanilla flavor cake with whip cream and chocolate drops and sung the "Happy Birthday" song to me in English. They even gave me a gift; which I didn't even expect to get but it was a perfect gift for me.

The Outfit I wore on Saturday

The Birthday Celebration on Sunday

My Birthday Gift from my host family

My host Family singing the "Happy Birthday" song

to me

          On Tuesday, my actual birthday, I got dressed up in a nice dress that I've been trying to wear forever since I purchased it months ago and went on my usual walk in the morning to the school. When I arrived at the school, everything was normal until it became breakfast time. The infantile English teacher entered the classroom from the door that separated the classrooms and mentioned to the teacher I was in the classroom with and all the students from both classrooms that it was my birthday. The students then decorated a hat with gold and silver colored stickers with the shapes of stars and circles then the two teachers later placed it on my head when they finished. They kids then gather around me and everyone in the room sung the English version of "Happy Birthday" to me before taking pictures.

Me with the students from both three year old classrooms

My Birthday Hat the teachers made and the kids decorated

In the Infantile classrooms, the teachers makes similar hats

for the students when it's their birthday as well 

          One o'clock soon arrived and it was time for lunch. As promised, the Harrys took me to a local restaurant for lunch then we walked to the café we usually visit and had a drink of soda for them and a tea for me before returning back to the classroom. Who knew that was going to be the last time we would hangout again?

          My family and friends in the United States, called, texted, and video chatted with me to wish me a "Happy Birthday" as well. The very next day, the principal, vice principals, and teachers through out the whole school was randomly wishing me a "Happy Birthday" all day. I was wondering how they found out  until I entered the conference room during the lunch break. Someone had wrote me a shout out on the whiteboard mentioning to everyone who saw it that it was my birthday. Still to this day, I don't even know who created that birthday shout out because it was never revealed. It was a nice gesture nevertheless.

          As you can see, I had a lot of very eventful birthday celebrations and events this year. While writing this article, I am grateful that I decided to celebrate my birthday during the weekend leading up to it instead of waiting for the following weekend. I say this because, on Saturday, March 14th, the president of Spain announced the State of Emergency that day and the majority of businesses were closed starting that very day. The only places that were allowed to remain open were medical centers, grocery stores, and hotels holding patients that couldn't stay in the hospitals. I also think about what the host dad said about celebrating one's birthday early and wonder if this was a part of my bad luck. Who knew that the day after my birthday would literally be the last day I would ever see the students, teachers, and my English assistant colleagues? But, I am glad that I enjoyed every moment leading to the shutting down of schools. At the end, I really enjoyed all the celebrations and I will cherish those moments forever. And I can now cross out celebrating my birthday in another country off my bucket list.