the engagement party

Alicia’s “fiesta de pedida” – engagement party – was last night at our house. The family spent two days cleaning and reorganizing the entire house in preparation for a dinner party with 30 people. Tables and chairs were rearranged and flowers were placed everywhere. The kitchen was taken over in the preparation of a bunch of tapas so we had Telepizza for lunch. A student from New Jersey moved in yesterday and I moved into Amancio’s room and am now sleeping in Pedro’s bed. The new student, Ben, is here for two months and is taking two classes.

Manolo, his sister and her boyfriend and their parents and grandparents came over. So there were four sets of grandparents and a few aunts and uncles. We ate, drank and socialized through several courses of food. Trini and Bernardo were kept busy pouring drinks for everyone. A lot of the guys watched Spain play Egypt in a pre-World Cup friendly match. Everyone gathered in the dining room and Manolo’s dad and Jesús each made a speech and approved of the engagement. Alicia and Manolo received some gifts and gave each other the engagement ring for Alicia and a watch for Manolo. Then we popped champagne bottles and gave a toast to the couple. Afterwards I went out with Alicia, Manolo, Pepe and his friend, and Pedro and Amancio and their girlfriends.

I have a lot of pictures from Italy, my birthday, and the party last night but the internet is really slow so I’ll try later or just post them when I get home.