Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, welcome once again!
This school that I'm at really thrives on structure, but today, the students weren't having it. As I told you, in the morning we usually go on our out-and-abouts, but today I chose to stay in and study. I got into some pretty nitty gritty verb and preposition work (I'm sure that's just fascinating you) and I feel like I'm making genuine progress, and having this knowledge under my belt I'm a little less afraid to speak.
I had my first class at the regular time, but as I mentioned in my last entry, today was the Mexico/Angola world cup game, so we cancelled class in the afternoon, pulled out a tv projector and watched the game against a white stucco wall in the class room area. There were about 20 of us there, eating tacos durados (that were fantastic) and hoping and praying that Mexico would win. One teacher and one student were dressed in their Mexico jerseys, but alas, not even that helped. The teams tied, but Angola received the game point that may put them ahead of Mexico in this grouping when they decide who advances to the next round. The game was really good and Mexico was on top of their offense, but the goalie for Angola was incredible. The energy in the room was pretty intense too. In fact, one of the staff, Paula, gets so excited about the games at home that she is pretty much guaranteed to let out a stream of curse words, so during the game at school she taped her mouth shut :-).
After the game we had a shortened class with a different teacher. We talked about the game (we always speak in spanish only) and then we moved on to talking about HIV (I'm sure there was a logical transition in there somewhere, but I don't remember it). Anyway, I realized that in my time here I have picked up a lot of new words that are really going to help me when I have spanish speaking clients. Not only can I now explain routes of transmission, I have also learned how to say food voucher, mileage reimbursement and utility bills :-).
Two of the girls here (the salsa dancers) decided to go out last night, and I decided to tag along. The bars here are a lot like home with their timing... no one is out until at the earliest 11, but we got excited and left the house at 10:30. We went to the Mambo Cafe (which I found out is a bit of a chain throughout Mexico). It was huge inside. The ceilings were covered in rows of tree branches, with fake vines and lights hanging from them, the walls were covered in sea themed murals and there was a big stage in front surrounded by a dance floor. This is one of the two big places to go in Veracruz if you want to salsa. And trust me, there wasn't an inch of space left on the dance floor when the salsa band from Colombia started playing. People were dancing in the aisles. The band was wonderful. There were about 15 of them, on drums, brass, guitar and vocals. I didn't know there would be live music, and I was pleasantly surprised.
Ok, I need to tell you that the girls I went out with are absolutely beautiful, and look very American. Thus, all the men in the bar were after them. Within the first 20 minutes, a man came up and asked Alexis and I if he could take our pictures with his cell phone. We said yes, although it was strange, and figured that by tomorrow our picture will be on some website. About half an hour later, a bouncer at the bar asked Alexis, on behalf of a man at a table, if we wanted to move from our table and sit with the man and his friends. He would pick up our tab from before and for the rest of the night... and his table was right by the dance floor. So, we figured, what the hell.
We sat with they guys, drank on their dime, the girls danced with the main dude and his friend (they apparently weren't very good dancers... the guys) and then it was time to move on. If we were in America an interchange like that would have felt foreign, but in Mexico, it was even stranger. After we left their table, I was done for the evening and I came home, but Alexis and Jessica stayed out dancing for 2 more hours.
I was very glad that I didn't drink a whole lot, because I was afraid that I wouldn't be able to find the requisite hangover greasy food the next day. There are some comforts of home that you just can't live without :-). Hope you are all having a wonderful weekend. Abrazos to everyone! Tracey
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