A rather awkward night

Tonight, a bunch of S's family came to town. It was...quite a culture shock (to put it mildly). They speak 80/20 Spanish to English, so even when I recognized words, I couldn't put together sentences. Then they started playing a DVD of a family member's open casket funeral.

I was raised very sensitized to death. I was never brought to a funeral. My mom tried to keep me from all that stuff. So, to see a dead body, it just...I don't like it. I kind of shut off at that point (not that I had been interacting anyway, I had been working on the children's activity books) and played on my iPhone--and, I'm sure, looked very uncomfortable.

I hoped they didn't think I was being rude, but, what was I supposed to say, "Wow, uh, that's a nice corpse!" or "Wow! I didn't know you could peer into a casket from that angle!" I just...I felt weird.

But how can I communicate with them? I don't know what they are saying half the time and then they say stuff like the fact that S's grandma (who is very elderly) said, when she came for his brother's wedding 10 years ago, that S had to find a girlfriend in Texas because she wasn't going to make it back up to Washington again. And then they actually expanded on that thought, "I guess he SHOULD have done that so she COULD have been there." I'm sure they weren't serious, but that sort of hurt my feelings. Of course, I am 9 days away from being a bride, so I'm just a teensy bit sensitive. (just a bit!)

Oh well, I told him I would go back tomorrow night and make a second go at it. I don't know what to do. If anyone has any idea of games or get-to-know-you activities that would work for a Spanish and English family, let me know by emailing me at photodiva85@yahoo.com. I have the strangest feeling the families are going to segregate like a backyard production of West Side Story. His family can be the Puerto Ricans. Actually, his little sis in a few years would make a beautiful Maria...and I digress.