Chiva! (Big Fat Party Bus)

Uh, that's my translation, not necessarily the literal one. :)



What an adventure last night - we got seats on a Chiva - which is basically a big party bus with a little live 3 or 4 piece band, that drives from bar to bar and lets everyone off to dance for an hour or so and then move on to the next place. We went to 4 bars in one night, and thank they lord they weren't smokey, and two of them were right on the beach!



We also took A LOT of pictures, if you go to my flickr set you can see that I was pretty insanely happy for most of the night. And that's with only one sip of rum, just to see what it tasted like (pretty much like all alcohol tastes to me - like burning! :D ).



Part of the deal was, beer on the first stop, rum on the second, little empanada snacks on the third, and at the end of the last stop there was a little dinner of steak, potatoes and salad (I think my ticket was cheaper because I only ate the cheese empanada things)



Yeah, I'm not really ready to go home yet.

Earlier in the day I was standing next to a stand full of traditional Colombian sweets, and G's mom and her cousin were "arguing" about which were the best ones to get for another cousin who is going back to his house in the states, and how much of each, and Vivi (the daughter of the cousin) was buying sweets too and asked me if I wanted anything. I grinned and pointed to the big coconut clusters I had my eye on (and had been ready to buy one myself after the other transactions were finished). G's mom asked why I hadn't asked for one before and Vivi said something about how I was her buddy and gave me a big kiss on the cheek. And I stood there with the sweet taste of coconut on my tongue, feeling welcomed and taken care of, drinking in the tropical colors and trees, listening to the "Negra" (it's not an insult here, it's even a term of endearment. They also call people "Gordo" (fat) affectionately.) packing up the sweets saying things like "Honey, help me out with this. Sister, hold this for me."



Then a little band set up on the corner and started to play, and as their harmonies melted together my full heart spilled over the brim and I almost, almost cried for the sadness of leaving this place, these people in just a few days.



It doesn't seem fair that it's so far away, and that even if I had the money to come here often, that traveling puts such a strain on the planet.

And lest any of you fear of my staying here forever, I'm quite clear that I've been on vacation, and if I DID want to stay long term I'd have to get a job and that would change the dynamic completely. The time off has done me good though. A few people have even commented that it looks like I've lost weight. I don't have a scale, and my clothes don't feel all that different that I notice, but it seems like I've been eating less, so I guess I'll find out when I get home. But it makes sense that it could be something, because an emotional weight has been lifted off my shoulders for these two months, and I haven't been doing the stress eating I used to do in the office. I hope that some of the things I've learned about how to relax and take it easy will stay with me when I go home, because I've been so happy here.

Bambucos

A beautiful and coquettish traditional Colombian dance demonstration that was part of an evening of music and videos about traditional music and dance from various regions. This was just one couple, apparently during the Bambucos festival there are tons of gorgeous dresses and everyone dances barefoot and it's spectacular! (That seems to be a favorite adjective around here.)

"Eso es!! Eso es!!"

I'm giving you my half of a instant messenger conversation I had with G on Wednesday. His responses were things like "wow, cool, that's great." :)

OH! Today was DANCE!
ME GUSTA!
ME ENCANTA!
Me encanta mi profesora de danza.

oof, she's sooo funny!

young and very energetic, she reminds me a tiny bit of Jenna and Lucia

when we were dancing and doing it right she would say "Eso es!! Eso es!!"

and when we started doing something too "gringo", like moving our shoulders or flinging around our legs, she would give us a LOOK, and be like "ah ah aahhh!"

and she was trying to teach us the rythmns

today we did salsa, merenge and REGGAETON!

and she would mix them around and say "que ritmo (?) es?"

and if we got it wrong she would make a sad face and kind of collapse like 'oh, I failed at teaching!'

soo funny

and other times when we were doing a good job she would say something about "why am I here? you already know how to dance!"

she was asking me how I dance with you reggaeton (sp?) and I told her you didn't like it

and she said her husband (boyfriend? I forget) was the same way

and she also asked me if you would get grouchy if I went out dancing with her and the other students in a club
and I said I didn't think so

Bailando en la Fiesta de Cumpleaños (or "Everybody is happy!")

These people know how to party! Last night I went out with G's parents to a joint birthday party of some of their friends. There was a live Papayera band and everything! It's too bad, when I uploaded the video it lost some detail, so it's hard to see the band, but that tuba player seemed to know when I was taping him because he'd dance around a lot more while he was playing if he thought he was on camera, at least you can see the glint of the instrument dancing around:



It was funny, they'd play about 4 or 5 songs, put their instruments back in the cases, sit down, drink some whiskey or something, and then after about 15 minutes get up and do it again. I really thought they were leaving several times, but looking back it makes sense that they'd protect their stuff in the cases during the breaks. I guess I'm just used to a rock band playing 2 longer sets and leaving everything set up on stage on stands and such during their break.


Papayera: a brass band with additional percussion instruments, characteristic of the towns of Colombia's Atlantic coastal region, that plays various types of dance music.(www.dolmetsch.com)

I wasn't sure how I'd feel at the party, but it turned out I ended up dancing A LOT! Whoo hoo! That ear to ear grin on my face was fairly frequent throughout the whole night.



One couple co-hosting the party lives in NYC and were down for his sister's birthdays, and they helped out a few times when we got really stuck on a word or two. Of course everyone is curious about me, what I'm doing, how long I'm staying, if I like it here. They love it when I dance, laugh when I shake my shoulders and marvel at my rhythm, which I guess is pretty good for a gringa, because I got lots of thumbs up and "Very good!"s

In the frequent conversations comparing the US and Barranquilla one thing describing the people here that stuck in my mind was, "Everybody is happy!"

I sure am. I woke up super happy and energized, and yet in a relaxed and lazy way where I was content to spend the day bumming around doing nothing much, uploading vids, chatting with G and A. I guess I've been needing this...