Day 7: Exploring Valladolid
Kim and I slept in the next morning, then received a call about 11am from Thai inviting us to go sightseeing with he and his family. So we headed down for a quick cup of coffee, then met Thai in the plaza and walked with him the mile or so to his apartment. When we got to his apartment his family was all there-- uncle Tuc, aunt Maret, mom Dan, dad Tin and sister June, along with a friend of he and Maria's from Austin, Erica. We hung out for a bit then all of us embarked on a walk around downtown Valladolid.
Thai's aunt Maret kept getting confused and calling me Kim. She said I looked a lot like her sister-in-law, who is named Kim as well. She also professed herself to be terrible with names, calling Erica every other name ending in "ca" except "Erica"-- Jessica, Monica, Veronica. Finally she said, "so many people I know end in "ca"...Jessica, Veronica...."ca,ca"...she just "CaCa" to me!" We all died laughing and had to remind her that "CaCa" has another meaning as well. It was too late, though....thereafter Erica was just "CaCa" to all of us.
After lunch and coffee, we headed back to Thai and Maria's place. Maria had returned from seeing her friends and family off, and she informed us that Maria's parents had invited us over to their house in the suburbs for dinner. So we loaded up in Thai's car and Kim and I's rental car and headed out to about 15 minutes outside the city.
The Villarremiels' home was very nice, and they had a lovely table set in their basement for us to relax and eat at. It was quite an experience to have all of Thai's family and loved ones at one table and I felt very privileged to be there. It was also quite charming to see how we all got along even though we didn't all speak the same language. At one point you could hear English, Spanish, and Cambodian being spoken at the same time! Even funnier was hearing the specific things that didn't translate well from one language to another. For example, when Maria introduced her mother to the group by her first name, "Concha," Tuc and Maret laughed and then shared that "Cancha" is "marijuana" in Cambodian. Concha then made big eyes when Maria translated this for her and said, "call me Conchi instead." LOL
Maria's dad, Carlos, poured the wine and when he got to Kim, he asked her if she was driving. She said she was, but that she would only have one glass. So then Carlos made the big eyes at Kim, and proceeded to pour her about a 10th of a glass of the wine. Kim thought he has joking and urged him to go ahead and pour a little more. As it turns out, Carlos really was concerned for real because the legal limit in Spain is only .02 BAC! So they met in the middle and Kim enjoyed her 3rd of a glass.
Then Maria's dad tried to pour more wine for Tuc and he said, "no thanks, I've had enough." Maria translated, telling her dad, "basta" which means "enough." Tuc misunderstood and thought she said "pasta" and a whole conversation ensued about how he wasn't hungry any more and how he was waiting until he got to Italy to eat pasta...so funny!
Thai's dad then quoted the bible in his sparse English, citing a passage that talks about how only language is confusing for people-- when someone laughs, it is the same in all languages; when someone cries, it is the same in all languages-- only language itself is confusing. Everyone smiled at this.
In all it was a very fun day. It was really special to be a part of the first real family meal that the Villarremiels and the Ivs had together, and quite amusing to be a part of the ongoing laughs about who was named what and which words meant what in Cambodian versus Spanish versus English.
Both Kims (the real one and I) and CaCa were quite lucky to get to experience it.
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