Duppy Conqueror

This weekend in Xela was a good one. Probably the highlight was getting to live  my dream of breaking open one of the fabulous piñatas that I wrote about in my last entry.  One of the maestros invited my friend Laerke and I to her son’s first birthday party, and it was quite the fiesta. They had probably around 50 guests, an endless stream of games for the kids, four (!) different piñatas, and really delicious food. Laerke and I felt like super gringas, we were definitely the awkward interlopers watching everything unfold, but it was really fun. Side note, today I was walking past one of the many piñata stores, and I actually went in and poked around a bit, and some of them are as tall as I am. How awesome would it be to be a five year old and break open a piñata more than twice your size? And so my fascination continues….

I also discovered this weekend that there is a direct correlation between how many cervezas I drink, and how well I can speak Spanish. Unfortunately, there also exists an inverse correlation between how much a drink, and how well I dance. I do actually really like the night life in Xela, my three favorite places are Pool and Beer, Kings and Queens, and El Aguile. Pool and Beer is super classy bar near Parque Central, as I am sure you can tell by the name. I like it because you know exactly what to expect. Kings and Queens is this little bar where if you want you can smoke hookah, and the owners/ workers are just so dang nice that I can’t stop going back. El Aguile is the only place that I’ve found so far that stays open past 1am, so things get pretty crazy late at night, but aside from that, they usually play good reggae music, and its nice just to sit in a booth and chat.

Spanish is getting really difficult, I am learning all about the subjunctivo and I pretty much hate it. I think maybe its so difficult for me because this tense actually doesn’t exist in English, and you have to enter this weird world of hypothetical projections in the future to speak it, blah. I also still speak like a fool most of the time, saying things in this bizarre round about way because I don’t have the words I want to get to the point. However, I am still seeing progress, I was able more or less to explain to my GuateMama last night what the law that Obama just passed means for education reform, and how passing a bill works in the U.S., and I felt very proud of myself. I also am still learning a lot of important, basic things for everyday life. For example, there is a huge, very important difference between estoy caliente and tengo calor, and estoy terminando and he terminado, despite the fact that they sound so similar. Okay, thats enough nerdy Spanish talk for today. Todavia, poco a poco…