Dinnertime chats

One of the best parts of my day here in the 'Bao is dinnertime, or "a cenar" as they like to yell at me from the kitchen. During this time, I usually eat with the kiddos (mostly because I still can't seem to wait to eat dinner as a Spaniard at 9 or 10pm like the rest of the country), and this can lead to some very interesting convos.

For instance, just today we had a 10-minute conversation about Elvis Presley and Michael Jackson, how famous they are/were in the US and ALL of the details surround their death. Adrian even has a theory that Jackson's doctor poisoned him because he wanted to be famous but Esti kindly told him the truth, that he was going to die soon anyways because his body was wacked out. This OF COURSE led to a full blown discussion on transgenders and how they change THEIR bodies, including some demonstrations on adding/subtracting key body parts. Now mind you, I hardly ever add to these convos because as much Spanish as I know, the last thing I want to do is conjugate something wrong and have the whole family thinking I'M a transgender or something. Pass.

Another light dinner topic was the entirety of how babies are made, also complete with some suggestive hand motions/demonstrations. Maybe I never had the talk with my parents, maybe I did and I just forget, or maybe I blocked it out completely because of how awkward it is to ask your parents about something so controversial, but I can't believe the Telmo, Sara, and Adrian asked so many frank questions about babies and the whole shindig, while of COURSE Esti was there to give simple, concise, and sometimes disturbing answers. Ah, Spain.

Sometimes at dinner we forgo the talking altogether and just sing a song together. NOT kidding. From the Macarena (which I proudly know all of the words to when they are rambling/singing in the refrain, finally ) to Elvis Presley, to some Spanish TV shows I don;t follow, they know all the words and if I'm lucky, the dances. Sometimes I think I'm living in some bizarro cross between Full House and a Ricky Martin music video to be honest. As crazy and loud as it all sounds, I still probs wouldn't change it for anything. I've learned more about cooking, families, housekeeping, city-living, siestas, and more, INCLUDING vocab for all of the above, with my measly little familia of 7, so why would I ever change that? Besides, then how would I know where babies come from?