First Real Spanish Date

Yes, you read right. I went on a date. And to top it all off, it was all in Spanish. I met the guy on Friday, the night of muscle tank chulo (see previous post). Francisco (yeah, no joke!) came over and started talking to me. Now usually, my conversations with non-English speaking Spanish guys last for maybe an hour, maybe less. I just run out of things to say or I get tired of thinking in Spanish. For some reason we ended up talking all night. He was very easy to talk...we even joked around, which I always find so hard to do in Spanish (I often can't pick out their funny comments in a conversation, or the Spaniards just don't get my sarcasm). At the end of the night he asked for my digits - he said he wanted to take me to a musical by Nacho Cano the next day. I, of course, laughed when he said it and he got really confused (again, see previous post).

The next day he called me. We met later in the afternoon in Plaza Callao for a pre-show drink. Fortunately, I was able to pick him out in the crowd (I have terrible memory and couldn't quite remember his face - 12 hours later - especially since it was really dark in the bar). And fortunately, he was cuter than I remember (he had some scruff going, which I like); God, how horrid if he ended up ugly!

Anyway, Francisco (pronounced Fran-THis-co) and I went to "Un Musical de Nacho Cano" (Oh Nacho Cano...had to put his own name in the title of his musical and not give it a proper title). The show was quite interesting. I didn't understand everything because they were speaking really fast, but I think the story goes like this:

A blonde baby of dark haired parents is born. As he grows up, it is discovered he is autistic and can't speak. However, he can sing, without words, when he is around fish. His parents and their relatives exploit him and they make lots of money out of the "singing boy". The boy grows up and gets sicker. Before he dies, his family becomes heartbroken and realizes how terrible they've been for taking advantage of a sick boy and gives up their wealth. Then all of a sudden, the sick boy talks but only to his cousin who he is in love with. He tells her his real parents are these people who live under the sea and his destiny is in the sea with them. He dies but leaves "the key to save the world" in his diary/song by providing the winning results to La Quiniela, the weekly bets on football matches (to make his family rich again), and answers to all sorts of other global problems (i.e. the melting of glaciers). Then they all live happily ever after in song and dance. The end.

Oh man, it was so weird. Nonetheless, I greatly enjoyed it - I laughed, I cried, the songs were pretty good and the actors' voices were amazing. And Nacho Cano made an appearance of course and had the theater on their feet as he sang one of his famous songs with his cast. Oh Nacho Cano.

The best part of the show was Francisco got us boxed seats. I felt very Julia Roberts-esque from Pretty woman...minus the red gown, pearl earrings, and the binoculars (ha!). After the almost 3 hour show, we got some dinner and hung out some more. This afternoon, we did some more eating and went bar/tapas hopping. It was seriously the longest date I've ever had, but it was also very fun. I totally ran out of Spanish words; thankgod, he was talkative and was able to deal with my slow broken Spanish. He was very nice...quite the gentleman. He's into travelling, music (especially live music), food, and he's about to open his own winebar.

Sounds perfect, right? Oh but life never is. He's from Barcelona and went back tonight. But whatev. It is what it is. I'm just proud of myself for being able to keep up with Spanish for that long! I don't think I've ever gone that long without English or Cebuano. Oh there's hope for me yet...