When A. Met the Fam

Well I'm happy to report that everything went well with A.'s Meet the Parents test. He managed to get there on his own (in that crazy hurricane weather) without getting lost and, language barrier aside, he and the parentals seemed to hit it off. I was really anxious that it'd turn out to be an awkward mess, but both sides tried their best. And yes, Anonymous, mom definitely threw down in the kitchen for the occasion. She made arroz con vegetales, pollo al horno, lasagna, batata y ensalada. (Sorry, but I refuse to translate any of this. Averiguensela.) Shoot, we even had A. eating platanos maduros. Yum!

All in all it was fun (for me anyway):

- Dad kept trying to fatten the kid up Latino-style by offering him more rice every five minutes. Afterward, it was all about the wine. A. thinks he was just trying to loosen his tongue.

- Because she knows much less English than Dad does, Mom mostly kept to the sidelines. Well except to chime in with a story about helping a drunk guy who'd fallen on his face in the courtyard. She found the incident so amusing, she just had to tell it several times over the course of the night...each recount more dramatic than the last.

- I'm glad my sis was around as she was the only one A. had met before. She'd swoop in to see how he was holding up and tease Mom about her wonderful storytelling. Plus, it was just nice to see her since we don't hang out as much as I'd like thanks to our busy schedules.

- I wasn't sure if my brother would be up for socializing with a stranger so I brought something to draw him in: UNO cards! Mind you he's 18, but I figured a little ice-breaker couldn't hurt. Turned out A. and I (but mostly me) kept winning and the kid wouldn't let us stop until he finally won. That took at least six rounds.

- I don't think A. knew what to expect. I think he was mostly concerned with communicating with my parents, but I'm giving him an A for effort:

Earlier that day...
"How do you say 'Nice to meet you?'"
"'Encantado.' We'll keep it simple."

As we're washing our hands before dinner...
"How do you say 'This tastes good'?"
"'Sabe bueno.' But don't you want to taste the food first? What if it tastes like crap?"
"No! I don't even want that in my head!"

Dad and him talked about life back home, Mom was clapping and dancing around after he complimented her cooking skills and A. even managed to wow my brother with some magic tricks. (I can't lie. I was impressed that he could pull them off with UNO cards.)

"I survived," A. said with a smile as soon as we reached my place. "Now I have to learn some Spanish to please them."

Well here's lesson #1: La hija de ustedes es maravillosa! Es un honor estar con ella. ;)

P.S. I didn't take a single picture that night so instead here's a pic we took a week before in Central Park and the cuddly dolphin he bought me!