An American Party in Spain

Back in December 2014, when I moved to Spain, I was greeted with fiesta after fiesta. As I spoke with the locals, they wanted to know about me and what I thought of their culture and parties. I always struggled to answer their questions (mainly because my Spanish wasn't that good yet), so I decided that one day I was going to throw a party to show them how we (Americans) get down. I planned the whole event, with food and music. Eight months later, I still hadn't done anything past the planning stage. 

Virginia and Leo's backyard, AKA: party central 

By summer time, three new American au pairs had moved to the neighborhood, and I enlisted their help to make the party a reality. Alex, took over the logistics, we figured out a plan with Katie and Joe, and with help from a Canadian friend, Greg (not an au pair), we threw an American party for our host families. 

We decided in order to maintain the attention of the children (and adults) that we would pair each food with a dance, so no one would get too full that they couldn't dance, and that only one thing was happening at a time, and they could fully enjoy that specific experience.  Then, we would play some ultimate frisbee before finishing the party off with desserts and snacks. 

Watch the dance video now or scroll to the bottom of the page.

Order of Events:

Dance: YMCA

Appetizer: Ants on a log (Tim)

Dance: Electric Slide and Achy Breaky Heart

First course: Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches (Tim)

Dance: Cupid Shuffle

Second course: Pancakes with Canadian maple syrup (Greg)

Dance: Cha Cha Slide

Third course: Hamburgers (Joe)

Ultimate frisbee game

Chips and cheese sauce: (Katie)

Dances: Wobble, Crank dat Souljah Boy, Macarena, Teach Me How to Dougie, and then put the music on shuffle
Dessert: Chocolate chip cookies & apple crisp with vanilla ice cream (Alex)

The kids made up tickets for the party

Preparing "ants on a log" - tricking kids into eating healthy

The boys are ready to party, with their festive shirts

Let the party begin!

Take group photos to get everyone up, so we can start dancing

This should be so much easier to teach than it really is

Grill-master Joe

Team Awesome getting ready for game time

Team Almost as Awesome ready for the pull (kickoff)

Alex, the pro ultimate player

An intense and entertaining game ensued

After ultimate frisbee and dessert, we got back on the dance floor

Everyone learned how to dance like an American

Final Thoughts: So, the party seemed to be a success. Speaking with my fellow organizers, we all had fun and felt that our host families enjoyed themselves and were exposed to some of our common customs. 

The dances were a lot of fun, and almost all of the adults participated in each dance, while only a few of the kids were brave enough to try them. As for the foods, Ants on a Log was obviously the least favorite, and everything else was devoured. However, the peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and the apple crisp were much less popular than they would have been in America. Everyone had fun, and even though some of the things we had planned didn't materialize, we think we still gave our host families a fairly authentic American experience.

There is a birthday party this weekend and they are already requesting that we share our American music and dance moves again.