Tuna is not a food: Epic Weekend at home

Two weeks ago was my first weekend in Valladolid. No plans, no day trips with Cal Poly, just here. I was really looking forward to exploring Valldolid, make it more my own, and spend some quality time with my friends I haven’t been traveling with. Little did I know what I was in for.
Friday afternoon I was in the “wifi room” at school that us Poly students use, there was a group of us there talking on Skype, emailing, facebook-ing, doing whatever. For whatever reason, I wasn’t having an awesome day, not feeling well or something, and I just wanted to go home and take a nap. I was kind-of waiting around for my roommate and friends who live in the same building as I do to finish up what they were doing online so we could go home, and my friend Jill asked me if I wanted to go to this concert thing that was going on. I had not a clue what she was talking about, she said it was some kind of university band playing outside in one of the plazas. Since I was in my stupid whiny mood, I said I didn’t really feel up to it, and instead we all went home for dinner.
That night a group of us girls planned to go out for a glass of wine, and so after dinner we dressed up and braved the cold, meeting up at a bar/club near our school. We were sitting on couches in the middle of the club, and we saw a guy in some kind of uniform walk by, carrying a guitar. He had a black velvet outfit, with a big cape covered in patches and tights under his... I don’t even know what they’re called - pantaloons? knickers? (later I learned they are referred to as 3 Musketeers pants) A few minutes later he approached us, and started to chat, saying he wanted to practice his English because “it was crap.” His name was Julio, and he told us he was here with his band from the University of Valencia, for a competition this weekend, the same concert Jill had mentioned earlier that day. The bands, called Tunas, are a big tradition at Spanish Universities (leave it to me to meet the Spanish equivalent of marching band kids, right?) and different departments have different bands, many of them founded over a century ago or more. The competition this weekend was for the bands from the different law schools, or Derechos.
Before long, Julio was sitting on the couch in the middle of all of us, serenading us with “Black or White” by Michael Jackson and “Sweet Home Alabama.” It was hilarious, and we were all singing along. Afterward, he told us he was going to call his friends to come hang out, and in no time at all they arrived, filling the bar with boys in capes and black velvet outfits, carrying guitars, mandolins and tambourines, playing for us, dancing with us... needless to say, the Tuna de Derecho de Valencia knows how to party.
They told us that the next day they had another performance in Valladolid, and we told them we’d try to make it. A group of ten or so of us went, and cheered for Valencia’s Tuna de Derecho like they were the Beatles when they took the stage. The poor old Spanish ladies sitting in front of us were scared to death when we started to yell and whistle. The boys saw (more like heard) us in the audience right away, and they proceeded to play a great concert, shamelessly showing off to the crowd of American girls cheering them on. Julio played the tambourine during the concert and performed, what was supposed to be, a traditional Spanish dance, but incorporated some break dancing, to our utter delight. I was lucky enough to get a little wink and kiss from a boy named Esteban while they were on stage; all of us girls were giggling like we were 14 year-olds at a slumber party.
After the concert, we walked over to say hello, and were introduced to the entire band; “These are the girls from CALIFORNIA!!!” Esteban approached me and asked how they sounded, I replied that it was crap. He laughed and invited us all out for drinks that night. So once again, after dinner, all us girls dressed up (I finally got to wear this rad black dress I bought in Bilbao - I’m not a shopping whore by any means but I LOVE this dress) and met up with the boys in Plaza Mayor. It felt like a high school homecoming dance, all of us dressed up, anxiously waiting for our Spanish dates to show up. We were unsure how we’d find them , since Plaza Mayor is pretty huge, and we assumed they’d be in regular clothes this time.
Wrong. There they were, still in uniform, and they greeted us all with dos besos (two kisses, one on each cheek, in Spanish tradition). We had an awesome (and pretty late) night, also in Spanish tradition, dancing and hanging out with them.
Many of us exchanged email addresses and phone numbers, and have been staying in touch since, which is really great. It was especially cool for me to meet musicians from another country and be able to level with them about things we’re both passionate about. I had a great conversation with Esteban about American popular music and the bands we’re in at our respective schools. Interactions like this make me think that this is what my experience here is really about; it teaches me so much about how similar college students are around the world, and how much we do have in common in some respects. Esteban even says that he wants to visit California sometime soon. Hopefully some of them do come visit, and we can show them a good of a time as we all had that weekend in Valladolid.