Fiesta Fiesta Fiesta (and I could drink!)

Last weekend I had my first Venezuelan experience clubbing.  It started off at a co-workers apartment where we drank Cuba Libres and around 10pm we headed out to the first club.  We got to the door and realized they were charging a cover but soon found out that they would give us tickets equivalent to our cover that we could use to buy bottles.  So 10 of us set out to find a table in the club and ended up right next to the blasting speakers ( I am still having trouble hearing!) We decided that since rum is the most popular drink we would get two bottles for the table.  We pooled our tickets together and began to dance to the live music while we were waiting for our drink to come.  When they finally arrived they had brought two bottles of rum, four glass bottles of coke (equivalent to a can of coke), and lime juice.  I thought for sure they just couldn't fit all of the coke bottles on their trays and that they were going to come back for more, however, I was quickly told that is how we do it in Venezuela.  So we set out drinking well mostly rum!  After two sets of live music and one with the DJ half our group decided to go home and the rest of us headed to the next place.  After a short cab ride with my principal, his wife, and two fellow teachers we arrived at the most famous salsa club in the city El Mani, but I was wuickly warned we were in a bad part of town.  So we quickly went into the club and before we had a table and ordered another bottle of rum someone was asking me to dance.  The great thing about this club and Venezuela in general is that people love to dance so there is no underlying intentions in dancing with someone.  I didn't sit down until 5 minutes before we left which was at 430am!!!  I must have danced with 18 year-olds and 75 year-olds and everything in between.  What a blast.  After an adventerous cab ride I made it home in the rain around 5am and quickly went to bed because I had a school BBQ the next day.  On Saturday night I had a co-workers birthday party to attend which of course included more drinking and dancing.  It was a blast but another ex-pat teacher and I wanted to leave early so we had them call a cab.  When we got downstairs there was an unmarked explorer waiting for us so we jumped in and were off on the scariest ride of our lives.  The ride had taken 35 minutes to get there but he managed to get us back in 11 and stop and gawk at 8 police cars stopped in the street!  Over all it was an adventure.  The weekend ended on Sunday with another party at the house of a US embassy worker so I enjoyed a lot of american food.  I think I have finally recovered from all of the rum!

El Avila and the Hash

This last weekend was a blast, in fact, I had so much fun that I forgot whether is was an A day or B day on Monday.  Saturday morning I woke up and went up the Avila which is a large mountain that sits to the North of the city.  I went with a group of 23 people and it was arranged by the middle school guidance counselor at my school, Jose.  He belongs to a four wheeling club called Club Meru Venezuela.  We went in a caravan of about 9 cars up and over the mountain.  We made a quick pit stop to have a hot chocolate and some breakfast close to the top of the mountain.  After that we headed to the Stone museum which was quite a unique experience.  To start with it was an interactive museum, but you must walk around without your shoes on and to enter the museum you must recreate a stone statue (it consists of three stones balancing on each other) and it was not easy to recreate.  Finally we participated in a variety of activities and it was a blast because we had to work together and few of the people from the club spoke English so we had a blast.  We continued the trip by going back up to the top of the mountain where we took tons of photos.  The highlight of the trip were the gorgeaous views from the mountain with the city on one side and the ocean on the other.  We made it back home safe and sound around 9pm and I crashed.  The next day I was invited to a Hash which is a club of "drinkers with a running problem" that exists in major cities around the world.  You start by running or walking a route that is set up by one of the club members.  We walked for about an hour up and down hills so it was a good workout.  Once we finished the party started.  We went to a members apartment complex and socialized.  It was a great time.

Lessons Learned at the Beach

So on Sunday I set out at 7am on an adventure to the beach.  Although the beach is not that far distance wise from Caracas there is unfortunately quite a large mountain known as El Avila between the city and the coast so you have to drive around the mountains to get to the beaches.  We set out early and only hit a few spots of heavy traffic mainly due to national guard check points.  We reached the beach around 10am and set up several umbrellas and chairs.  Our guide was the middle school guidance counselor from the school so he got us all set up on the beach and quickly ran off to get ice and beer for the day.  When he returned we all learned lesson #1 - When you are on a beach in Venezuela you must always be drinking a beer no matter how early it might be.  So everyone but me decided that they must do as the Venezuelans do so they were throwing back beers at 1030am!  Lesson #2 was also one that I learned very quickly when I arrived to the beach and is best demonstrated in photos that I took.  The lesson is that swim suits in Venezuela are clearly one size fits all.  In all seriousness it was great because I never once felt self conscious on the beach because everyone no matter what shape or size was walking around uninhibited.  As someone said when I first arrived to Caracas trust me whatever swim suit you brought will not be skimpy enough you will need to buy a new one!  I guess they were right.  Well that is all for now. I will keep you posted I am suppose to go four wheeling up the mountain this weekend because we had a slight mishap and locked the keys in the car but it was fine because I got to watch the sunset over the Caribbean. I am loving the Caribbean life!!!!  

Fiesta Time

I now know why I moved to Latin America to teach...the fiestas.  So on Friday my school had the first of many TGIF parties.  Basically, the school administration hosts parties through out the year on Fridays.  The school provides the drinks, music, and dance floor (the canteen) and the teachers all bring appetizers to share.  Man do Venezuelans know how to party. Unfortuantely I am still not allowed to drink because of some of the medication that I had to take while I was sick, but it was still a lot of fun.  The party started with a barrel full of beer at 3 o'clock as soon as the students left. This is a picture of a group of the female teachers when the party started.  We all ate food and mingled and around five the real party started becuase all of the students had finally left.  The bottom left  picture is a few of the administrators and department heads hanging out at the party.  The party moved up to the Canteen and we cleared the lunch tables and created a dance floor.  Next thing you know everyone from teachers, administrator, bus drivers, and cleaning staff were on the dance floor.  Several cases of beer and songs later the whole staff was dancing the night away.  Which you can see in the photo below.We were finally kicked off campus around 8:30 but the party was simply moved to another teacher's apartment.  We continued dancing and drinking until around midnight.  I don't know how I am going to keep up with all the drinking once I can again.  Loving life here in Venezuela!

Human Again...

So after a week of feeling pretty horrible I am finally back to myself.  I did a bit of adventuring with the bus system again on Sunday and went to an area called Chacaito where they have a plaza and a bunch of different department stores.  It was great.  While we were there we decided to get an ice cream and there are people with ice cream carts all over the plaza.  However we decided that we wanted this one type of ice cream bar in particular so we went from person to person trying to find the magnum cookies and cream.  After about four people we located the infamous ice cream bar.  Now the adventures really started when we went to sit in the plaza to eat the ice cream.  We could only find one bench that was free or didn't have a pair of "novios" making out on them.  However, we soon realized that the bench was free because a group of crazy preachers were holding a very enthusiastic sermon right next to us.  After we finally got over that craziness we were approached by a guying doing interviews in spanish about the environment I thought for sure he would know before coming up to us that we were clearly all gringas but no he tried to interview us nonetheless.

Things at school are going really well.  I am loving all of my classes and I am making lots of friends at the school.  Today they decided that it was time for me to learn all of the bad words that they use in Venezuela so that I would feel right at home.  The school is great they are hosting a TGIF party this friday for the staff to enjoy free drinks, food, music, and dance.  I can't wait to try out my latin moves.  I think that I am going to the beach club with a few other expatriate teachers and my principal and his family this weekend so that should be a lot of fun.  Now that I am feeling better I will try and write at least once a week.