weekending

So, it's Monday morning, but I had such a long weekend that I feel that I should at least try to give some highlights of what happened.

Friday was such a relief! I still had a fever but felt decent. My Spanish test was alright and class was interesting. I am looking forward to this week because we will be focusing on conversation more than new material. yay! After class I went to the pharmacy for my antibiotics and then came home and slept for an hour. Then woke up and called Katie O. It was nice to talk to her for an hour; usually I can't have long phone conversations because there are other people waiting in line. After dinner we were celebrating one of our classmate's birthday's with a pinata! Little did we know there was a terra cotta pot underneath all of that paper when we began. It took some effort to break that thing, but we succeeded!(picture 3) After some fun and (drinking) games, which I was not interested in, mi amiga de baile y yo left for Samana. We just wanted to dance! We reached Samana, but thought the cover charge was more than the rest of our group (to join us later) would have liked. So, we went to Guantanamera. Overall, it was a fun night of dancing and chatting with Cuernavacans.

Saturday: I woke up and checked my e-mails, excited to start working on my practicum placement materials for next year. I didn't get very far, but my roommate told me she might join me in Patzcuaro for part of our spring break, which would be nice. Rachel and I went to the gym to lift weights and as we were walking out, she dropped her watch down the stairwell. It landed behind the water tank, so I crawled over the rail and stretched over the tank to reach an arm down and grab it. I was filthy literally from head to toe (picture 2). I felt even more noticeable than usual walking home from the gym with her that day! A tall blonde in gym clothes...covered in dirt. nice. I showered and did some homework. Mi amiga met and has known a few young fellows here for several weeks. I met them also the second week we were here. She asked me if I wanted to go with her and the boys to Samana because we all had wanted to go dancing together sometime. I wasn't going to miss that offer! I headed to Il Centro but had no luck finding a dress. I did however, manage to be caught in a bit of a windstorm on the walk home. I liked the wind, but I wasn't fond of the dirt flying off the sidewalk into my face. It was disgusting. By the time I reached home it had started to rain and I couldn't have been happier! I twirled and twirled in our little courtyard at home! beautiful! I napped and then woke up and visited with the group and got ready to go (picture 1). The boys picked us up and we drove to Samana. It was a lot of fun. We just visited and danced and visited and danced. It is really incredible to be sitting there speaking in Spanish and to actually be able to hold a conversation! I am seeing progress and that makes life here more interesting and more manageable, not to mention, more authentic. We drove home and the boys (all three are cousins who have grown up together) were rocking out to Mexican love songs! Mi amiga whispered to me in English "I think I just realized that I am in Mexico." yes. we are in Mexico. The greatest dance of the night was when we got home. The driver left the car doors open and turned up the Banda (which is kind of the equivalent of Mexican polka or Mexican hillbilly music) and we danced in the street! Luckily not many of the students had returned from their evening adventures yet. It was pretty hilarious. We had had background checks on the boys (from a few of our local staff who seem to have this sort of information for us) so weren't just winging it when we decided to go out with them. Mi amiga is pretty fluent in Spanish too, so we don't have problems speaking our mind. Not like we had to though. They are very interesting young men and also have very good manners. By the time mi amiga and I had debriefed over some chocolate ice cream, it was 3 o'clock in the morning. I tried to sleep before waking up for mass and 7:30.