it´s getting better all the time...

Things are much improved at work! Friday was excellent and today went pretty well. This weekend was also lovely.

Friday a couple of the teachers threw a house-warming party which I made for just a few minutes before Luis took me to a peña, which is a large party organized to raise money for a particular cause. Normally they are to benefit a sick family member but in this case they were raising money for another party! It was in a huge banquet type room with tons of people. We talked with his friends and danced quite a bit. Yes, I was dancing, in public, in front of latinos. And it´s not as if I blend in here. It took quite some courage and, to be honest, Luis had to drag me to the dance floor for the first dance. As the night wore on however I started asking him to dance, especially the cumbia.

Saturday afternoon however Luis invited me to a baptism.
Baptisms here are not the same as in the U.S. Although everyone does attend the church service to observe the baptism, in Ecuador there´s an after-party - with lots of music and dancing. I as dancing salsa (poorly), merengue and cumbia (surprisingly well), reggaeton, and música nacional - traditional Ecuadorian music. Everyone got a big kick out of the white girl dancing the nacionales, even me.
It was also quite fun when I was offered an alcoholic drink. The host offered me a glass with just a very little bit of alcohol in it, so I accepted and said thank you (gracias actually). He said, no, salud, so I said, oh, salud! He said, No, por favor, at which point I finally realized you´re supposed to drink it all down and pass it on!
Oh, toda a la vez? (all at once?) I asked, and everyone laughed. Pobrecita (poor thing) they said. Hah.

Then today I went to Carmen Bajo! For those who don´t know that´s the school I worked in briefly where the kids I just adore attend. Yes Whitney, I saw Angelica and Margarita! and everyone asked about you. To Brooke, I met Miguel and he is just precious.
It was amazing to see the kids again.

So all in all a really fabulous weekend and a wonderful Monday!