Awesome Day:)

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Yesterday was a great day. I woke up at 8 and hung out at my house until 11:30, when I went up to the main office area and saw that the other girls were working on a Saturday! I helped them out until they were ready for lunch and then I ate some really weird tropical fruit, flour, sugar, and water chowder-like mixture that we then added cheese to. Strange.

After lunch I practiced my Spanish on duolingo and my parents Facetimed me. I’m pretty bummed that I’m going to miss the once-in-a-lifetime-storm!

Anyway, the first thing that the one girl, Indira asked me when I got to Finca Dracula was “Do you like to party?” Now, granted, she doesn’t speak English, so you have to take the brashness of that question with a grain of salt. I said yes, and she said that there was a party on Saturday. Well, yesterday was Saturday. I had no idea what to expect except that there would be “chicken, coffee, fish, and wine.” For the record, there were none of those things.

The party was just down the road a piece, but far enough that we took a bus to get there. It was not at all what I was expecting. It was a big community gathering with a lot of traditional dancing. I’m not entirely sure what was going on, but I think I was at a Señorita Cerro Punta contest. There were only two contestants, though- one blue and one red. Mis amigas and I were cheering for red. Unfortunately, red lost, but I got to see a lot of cool traditional dances as well as some contemporary ones. It was really adorable when the little 4 year olds would dance for us, and kind of scary when a 6 year old was dancing really provocatively. I was hungry, so Yolanis and I went to find food. It was some sort of pork with some sort of cornmeal/cheese French fries. Yo no sé.

As a side note, not only was I the only white person there, but I was the only person who didn’t have extremely dark brown hair. I wish I could have seen myself in third person. I must have stuck out like a sore thumb!

After the contest (note, the contest ended at midnight!) it became a baile, or a dance. It was a refreshing change from dances in the US, because everyone was dancing for real, with, like, steps and stuff, which I attempted to figure out. I must have been doing okay because a guy did eventually come over and dance with me. We left there at 2:15 and took a taxi back to Finca Dracula.

But here’s where my day gets AWESOME. I got my computer out of the office and started walking down to mi casa when I stumble upon una salamandra!!!!! I’m here to study salamanders and I just accidentally happened upon my first one! It’s about 4cm long and I have it in a jar downstairs at the moment!!!!! I’m so excited!!!

Aaaannnnd, now it’s almost 4am, and I should go to sleep.

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