Friday, October 30, 2009

Spanish Night

I joined a really neat organization last night called International Women of GK. It's a social group that gets together once a month to get to know the other women, of all nationalities, across the NATO base.

It's an interesting thing to observe, actually. There are so many nations represented at Geilenkirchen, and the fact that this organization exists is intriguing. There were Americans, Canadians, Italians, Germans, Turks, and plenty of representatives from other countries too.

Last night, the women of Spain hosted the party. They were dressed in typical costume, and talked to us about different customs in Spain. They demonstrated a cider pour, and passed out samples of excellent hard cider. They made a meal of a really yummy bean and pork soup of some sort and what I think was an onion torte. It was really good either way. They also did a raffle of typical Spanish gifts. I didn't win - typical.

What was so interesting to me was to see all these women from different countries come together to socialize and conduct business - in English. We are pretty fortunate as English-speakers in the world to be able to understand so many because so many speak our language. It's pretty incredible.

I was only disappointed that I really didn't interact with women from other countries. Baby steps. My focus was just to meet some nice Americans for the moment. I sat at a table with some really great people, one of whom was new like me. I'm going to like it here!

The good ole USA is hosting next month, and I hear that the theme is going to be Fourth of July. I look forward to it!

2 comments:

Madcap Motherhood said...

Wow, that's really neat! I am excited to join an equally fascinating group very shortly-- the Officers' Spouses Club of Columbus, MS. We'll do activities like a sweet tea pour. Our business will be conducted in broken English.

Meredith Cooper said...

Hey, I'll bet NOTHING compares to the ladies of Possum Town when you're talking about an intercultural experience.