i threw the sidra

I'm caffeinating, waking up with not quite a hangover but a little raggedy around the edges. We went out to a town called Sevilla la Nueva for a BBQ and party. My old roomate is renting a house out there, a real house with a backyard, on the edge of town. It was a celebration for a guy who defended his dissertation. Like most parties I've been to here, Eduardo instigates a sometimes choreographed dance. luckily I was spared but Becky got pegged for this one. Eduardo is kind of reminiscent of an aerobics instructor and is always surrounded by the girls who, predictably, like dancing. He also made his favorite hot drink from Ecuador with a sugarcane alcohol called aguadiente (teeth water??). The thesis defender and family are from Asturias, a green wet part of Northern Spain with a celtic culture. They drink cider there. There was something like 96 bottles of cider (sidra) brought down form Asturias. I have to admit, my first sampling of the cider was kind of like drinking bile. I have become a fan after drinking it literally all day yesterday. It's flat, uncarbonated and pretty tart, but the ritual is very fun. First the pouring is meant to fizz it up, so you actually pour it from 3 feet above a tilted glass (throwing). You throw about 8 ounces at a time. Once you begin throwing you are obligated to pour the whole bottle. You spill about 50% of it and pour it all over your hand and feet. Then you deliver the glass to some unsuspecting jackass who is obligated to drink it. You are supposed to drink it in one gulp while its still fizzy, but stop your chugging short of the final swallow. The final swallow is poured to the ground to remove sediment and cleanse the part of the glass that you drank from (typically everyone is sharing the same glass-great for getting herpes). This little offering to the ground is also kind of like a tipping a 40 for the dead homies. Also each bottle results in 6 pours and you dont drink the dregs of the bottle because it has too much dead yeast sediment. Also back to the earth from whence it came.