Favorite Child

On Saturday, my "intercambio," Nehemías, invited me to a birthday party for one of his friends. At first, I was a little hesitant about this because I knew that Nehemías would be the only person I knew at this party, but I decided to go.

The birthday party was held at Nehemías' church, and I knew that I should probably show up a little late since that is the Spanish thing to do. Unfortunately, I did not show up quite late enough, so I ended up making it there a little bit before Nehemías did. Luckily, everyone at the birthday party was welcoming and I had the opportunity to practice a lot of Spanish, being the only English-speaker there.The party ended up being a really good time complete with as many hot dogs as I could eat and good conversation with Nehemías and his friends.

For Sunday's lunch, I was the only one home with Isabel so she decided to make me something special, paella. I have heard a lot about the legendary paella, a dish with vegetables, rice, and different types of meat, but this was my first time eating it.

When I told our professor about my special treatment (getting to eat paella) the next day, she taught us the phrase "ojito derecho," which literally means "right eye," but it is a phrase used for the favorite child. She said I must be the ojito derecho of us three guys. After this, I asked her if she had a ojito derecho between her two sons. I expected the obvious "I love both my children equally," but instead she quickly responded by saying her younger son was her favorite because he is around more often. Honesty is the best policy for Spaniards.

On Tuesday, I went back to the Hospital de Caridad for the service class. I was sick of playing dominoes, so I decided to bring along my "Uno" cards for a change. Only one guy wanted to learn, but it was still a success in my mind because I was able to explain the whole game in Spanish. While we were playing, he tried to tell me that he was only 56 years old, but I did not buy it for a minute.