To start I moved. If you want that story you can ask my mother. The new place is awesome. Moving all of my things was not awesome. Priego hills suck.
New address:
Calle Loja, 7
Priego de Cordoba, Cordoba, Spain 14800
After officially moving, I was content to spend New Years Eve with a pizza (I have an oven now!!) and a bottle of wine. In Spain, everyone eats a big dinner with their families and then around 1:00am everyone goes out to the bars. My plan was to enjoy my celebration alone until it was time to join my Spanish friends out. However, that quickly changed when my friend found out what I was doing and invited me to her house for dinner.
My friend Angela
So I ended up enjoying a lovely meal with my friend Angela, her parents, and her grandmother. We feasted on....
STARTER: Olives, potato chips, assortment of meats and cheeses, breads, shrimp, and wine.
1ST PLATE: Soup and wine
2ND PLATE: Shrimp covered in a delicious sauce and wine/
Between plates, I spilled my entire glass of wine. Woops
3RD PLATE: Dessert!! Hojadre con fresas (basically like strawberry short cake but with wafers)
DESSERT: Loads and loads of chocolate. And wine of course.
And finally the last part of our meal consisted of a typical Spanish tradition. On New Years Eve at midnight, it is tradition to eat 12 grapes. Every time the clock chimes, you have to pop a grape in your mouth. If you survive and don't end up choking, you supposedly have good luck for the new year. Doesn't matter how old or young you are, every single person partakes in this tradition.
Now I should mention, grapes in Spain don't come seedless. And a typical Spanish grape has about eight tiny seeds in it. You have two options when eating a grape: pull out each seed which is quite tedious or crunch and eat the seeds which makes the grape a tiny bit bitter. I prefer neither of these options so I forgo eating grapes in Spain.
Anyway, becuase it was my first time, and I had a genuine fear of choking, I opted for the "cheating" grapes they make specifically for New Years Eve in Spain. These grapes were basically like the ones you find in canned fruit cocktail. But the bonus is that they don't have seeds!
I am happy to report that I ate all 12 grapes and lived to tell about it. I managed to not choke. I definitely looked like a chipmunk along with the rest of the table. And now I have good luck for the rest of 2014. After digesting our grapes, we all exchanged besos and popped open a bottle of champagne. Around 1:00am, Angela and myself headed out to the center of Priego to meet up with friends. I soon discovered that the city center/town hall was blasting music and was bubbling with life. Very unorthodox. But very cool. Angela told me that some people (particularly in big cities) go to the city center to eat their grapes. Hence the loud music blasting from the building. Soon we found our other friends. The game plan was to go our separate ways now and meet up later. Sara, Luisa, Mery Jesus, and myself all headed to Luisa's house for a pregame.
SIDENOTE: Spain is similiar to the United States in that there is a ridiculous cover charge to get into the bars. The later you go, the cheaper the cover price.
Sooooo us ladies instead went to Luisa's house, danced like we were high school girls at a slumber party, ate lots of pistachios, laughed until we had tears falling down our faces, and drank some drinks. Oh and Mery Jesus has one of the best singing voices I have ever heard. We're talking the next Whitney Houston or Christina Aguilera. Anyway, she sang some songs for us! It gave me chills it was so good! Around 3:30am we ventured back out to head to a local discoteca. There we met up with Sara's brother and his friends. With our entrance fee, we received a baggie which contained glowstick sunglasses, glowstick bracelets, a tinsel necklace, and a party blower (what are those things actually called??) Now here's where I should I have been concerned but was having too much fun and chose to ignore my possible poisoning...
The baggies containing the glow sticks were hard to open. So I resorted to opening one with my teeth (sorry Mom.) I assembled my glow stick glasses and bracelets and was dancing and taking photos with the girls when part of my mouth started burning. I licked my lips and put my cold glass to them as well. Soon the burning turned to a bad taste in my mouth and numbness on the left side of my lips. Looking at my hands, I saw glowstick fluid all over. I soon realized that I had gotten it on my lips and ingested some. Hence the burning and now numbness. Oh and now my part of my lips were glowing. Not a good look. Anyway, I resorted to google and asked if I was going to die. It was concluded that most glow stick fluid is harmless. I took my chances and hoped those grapes would come in handy.
The face of a girl who couldn't feel her lips
And then the face of a girl who didn't care because she was having too much fun
As they did because I am writing this post now with full feeling in my lips.
Anyway, we literally danced the night away. Around 7:00am I called it quits because I wanted to get some sleep. I started my walk home and soon ran into another group of friends. They coerced me into stopping into another bar with them. I said yes. Danced some more. Finally, left that bar and headed back home to watch the sun rise. Happy New Year to me! Best New Years Eve to date.
Oh, and I'm kicking off the new year with a trip to Rome tomorrow!! Be back Monday.
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