Saturday, June 11, 2011

The best party of my life

Continuing with the language exams, I started the Spanish Exam last week.  On Wednesday I had the reading, writing and listening portions of the exam.  I wasn't as nervous for this exam as the Basque one, but still had put in time studying and trying to speak this language perfectly.  However, this week I am quite sick with a nasty cold.  The morning of the exam I woke up and felt like my head was in a cloud and the exam seemed to be a bit more difficult than I expected.  However it was a 2 hour exam, so I had ample time and read each question carefully and listened like an elephant!  When I finished the listening and reading parts, finally came the writing section.

Although I speak Spanish quite well, I hardly ever write in it - let alone formal letters and essays.  The first writing prompt was to write an email to a friend inviting her to a fashion show with me.  Super easy.  It was just like writing emails to my friends how.  Then came the essay, which I was not really looking forward to.  There were two options - 1) write about why pets are such great housemates and 2) the best party of my life. Seeing as I don't really love animals, I knew I couldn't exactly fake it and picked option two.  Not only was option two easier, but for me I already knew the answer as soon as I read the question!  I KNOW the best party of my life, and so I started to write....and it went a little something like this:


I can say, without a doubt, that the best party of my life was February 19th, 2010.  How can I say so surely that it was the best?  Well, that's easy, it was at that party that I met the man who will soon by my husband. 

It was a chilly night and my friend Miles had convinced me to go to this party (that I really didn't feel like going to).  We had been to many parties at this house - which was a student house and often had impromptu parties.  Everything seemed to be going like normal, but little did I know, that this night would be much different.


With a wine in hand, a Basque guy approached me and seeing that I was speaking English with Miles, he tried to tell me something in my native tongue.  But this pooooor boy couldn't speak English if his life depended on it.  He tried to tell me that I had beautiful eyes, but it came like this:  you have a beautiful eye.  Needless to say, I was not impressed.  He tried again and I coudln't help but chuckle and then, all of a sudden his friend behind him told him, in English, how to say it.  So, he finally said I had beautiful eyes, but by that point, I was already uninterested and had made eye contact with the friend.  We started chatting and turned out he knew a lot of English.  He had lived in Edinburgh and had worked as a chef there.  I couldn't believe I had found such a cute Basque guy who also spoke English.  We talked the night away and just hit it off.  


As the party was winding down and he was getting ready to go, I decided that I wanted to see him again for sure.  So, I proposed a bet.  The bet was to name the artist of the song that was playing at the time.  Seeing as I 100% knew the answer, I set up the parameters of the bet.  If I won, he had to buy me a coffee.  If he won, I'd have to buy him one.  A win-win if you ask me!  I of course won, and Joseba accepted his loss and we decided to meet the next day for him to repay me.  Perfect!  
After he left, he sent me a text message saying that he was happy to have met me and that we would see me tomorrow.  I was on cloud nine!  


So, that is how I can say that without a doubt it was the best party of my life.  It wasn't only the party of my life, it literally changed my life!

I just checked the results online and I have passed all 3 parts of the exam and now will have the oral exam next week.  Evenmore, we just got a call saying that all of the wedding paperwork went through and they asked us if (drumroll please)  June 18th is too soon to get married!  We said heck no, and are now one week again from the big day!  Apparently, my Spanish paper was good luck!  I will of course update you all of the plans and the process during the next weeks.  But until then, just imagine me with a massive smile plastered to my face!

Muxu!
Amanda

1 comment:

Gina P said...

what a beautiful story! SO happy for you both <3