A Spanish Sláinte
- Natalie Penry
- Mar 19
- 5 min read
Welcome back! And congratulations - you survived the Ides of March, whether or not you realized it ;) This is designed to be a mini-post, a quick read, so let's not waste any time...after all, my days left on the island are rapidly vanishing.
There are, of course, side effects for living abroad, especially if your day job is deconstructing the English language for students. Since coming here, I've noticed a heightened sense of awareness for my own accent, an increase in intentionality for my vocabulary and speech, and a higher consciousness of my own cultural tendencies, especially in regards to celebrations and festivities. Like just about any study abroad student could tell you, one's host country most likely doesn't approach holidays or festivals in the same way as one's home country. There's an innate level of compare/contrast with how iconic days are recognized. While the differences in major holidays (Christmas, Easter, etc.) are more talked about - your high school language class probably had a flyby mention of the Spanish/Latin American/French/German version of Santa Claus - the smaller, more regional or country-based holidays produce more dissonance.
To elaborate, a brief case study: Natalie & America's Most American Day. Our Independence Day is arguably our biggest single-day celebration. We do parades! Fireworks! Barbecues! And, obviously, it's a day that is really only celebrated within the US. Since I began my foray into global citizenship back in 2019, I've been out of the country for 3 Fourth of Julys (one in Chile, one in Spain, and one in Northern Ireland, if you were curious!). Depending on who I was with and where I was, the way that I celebrated varied greatly. In Viña del Mar, I was with IUHPFL, so we had a program-wide party; in Belfast, it was just another night out at the pubs with hostel friends employing slightly-higher level of Teasing the American. So, either way, I had a mini-celebration of this holiday, but one was much more muted than the other due to the general lack of countrymen, and it all paled in comparison to a traditional American Fourth of July party.
To that point - while I've spent a spring semester abroad before, this year feels different from Semester at Sea because I'm not surrounded by a plethora of Americans. I might live with native-English speakers, but we aren't Americans Studying Abroad, we are Americans Living in Spain, and there is very much a difference. As such, when a couple of classic, American High Holy Days rolled around in March, we had to make our own conscious efforts of whether we recognize those days or not. Some holidays just aren't worth the hassle of trying to recreate on an island in the Mediterranean; others vale la pena, so to speak. This is all to say that we (we being my main friend group in Menorca) celebrated a truly iconic holiday this week - read on for a brief recap of how St. Patrick's Day has more powers for cultural exchange than you'd think ;)
Shamrock Pride
I'll admit: I have a strange amount of affection for St. Patrick's Day. Maybe it's childhood memories of parades downtown or Mom making green breakfasts and corned beef grilled cheeses (back when I still choked down meat). Maybe it's having grown up in a city that is literally always decorated in clovers - being the Westfield Shamrocks, we kind of had to take ownership of St. Patty's, not to mention March 17th is the unofficial Indy day since our phone area code is 317...regardless, I love St. Patrick's Day! Unfortunately, St. Patty's is not really a holiday in Menorca. For an island that celebrates a shocking number of saints days, apparently Patrick (Patricio, I guess) doesn't make the cut. No reason to be concerned, though: as a partially-employed English Language Assistant; I have more than enough time to find the fun and head that direction with some friends in tow.
Since St. Patrick's fell on a Monday this year, most of my friends and I had to work in the morning. I made sure to wear the customary green, lest I be pinched, ate green grapes for breakfast and snack, and brought some green stickers to school. The real celebration fell at night - one of our favorite local spots, Nou Bar, hosted a Saint Patrick's Day night. A Menorcan bar doing their take on an Americanized Irish holiday? Yeah, this we had to see.
Spolier Alert: it (sham) rocked! The whole bar had been decorated with balloons and streamers, the tables and chairs pushed aside to make space for our very own Irish Folk Singer - Copi is actually Menorquín, but man, his Irish accent is spot on! He even sang a couple of Spanish songs throughout the evening; I can confirm, he has great versatility. While there was no Guinness on tap, the typical island cañas (light, very carbonated beers) were a decent substitute. And because Nou Bar is a Menorcan classic, they put their own Spanish twist on the holiday and offered everyone several free Dixie cups of sangria. I treated myself to Spanish food as well, with a rather yummy calamari sandwich; however, I was incredibly envious of Zoë & Jack, as they both other chocolate lava cakes (with green lava for the holiday!) that looked absolutely delicious.
Regarding the crowd, Nou Bar is a favorite amongst expats in Menorca. In fact, there's an "English Evening" group that meets every Tuesday for a couple hours for native speakers and polyglots alike to come and chat. As a result, I was totally unsurprised to see some regulars at the bar, putting the average age of attendees well into the 60s 😂 To their credit, the energy was great throughout the night. The staff also went out of their way to celebrate, wearing green costumes and even dancing with patrons from time to time. My group spent the night singing along to the various Irish folksongs - Molly Malone is always a crowdpleaser - and playing cards. My personal favorite element? The TV in the corner playing Michael Flatley's 1998 classic "Feet of Flames" on silent for the duration of the evening. I was cracking up watching some sort of dojo-duel interaction between the Irish dancers without any context. From the best that I could gather, there was some sort of battle for the soul of Ireland? And the Lord of the Dance had to dance battle the bad guy? Quality viewing, no notes.
Unlike last year when St. Patrick's fell over Spring Break, I did indeed have to work the next morning. As such, the night wound down relatively early so I could get home and be responsible. (Boo!) And really, that was it! A far cry from green rivers, pints of Guinness, or pub crawls but memorable all the same. It's strangely heartwarming to see a group of relative strangers put so much thought and effort into something that means something to you, whether they know it or not. I certainly feel very lucky to have been there with some of my favorite people on the island and for this adventure as a whole thus far 😊
That's all for now! A short-n-sweet post to help you bridge the gap until this weekend...As I said at the beginning, I'm becoming all too aware of the dwindling squares on the calendar until Departure Day. Luckily, there are plenty of adventures left on the docket - a special guest comes this weekend! - and still ample time to go in search of them. For now, it's time to head back to class and continue on our assignment of connecting Frankenstein to the Real World (really reaching back to sophomore English here) and anxiously awaiting Purdue's March Madness game. For my roommates' sake, they really need to win because I'll be such a pain if they're out in the first round...
¡Hasta luego!
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