a wild weekend

please excuse my lax approach these past few days but it has been crazy busy with fun, frivolities and yes even football (that's soccer to all of you up north) and when i have had a minute to myself my condition was not conducive to motivation or at times coherent thoughts. suffice to say that there was much fun to be had and little time to do anything else so i will take a few minutes to go over the broader strokes while highlighting a few funnier moments.


friday night started off innocently enough with a small fiesta at my school. there were some silly games that became bearable after a gallo (or two) (gallo = local beer), then there was dancing and a man i refer to as elvis guatemalteco played some sweet latin sounds on his guitar. at the end of his 'set' we started to chat and he offered me guitar lessons, not something i was interested in but when he quoted me 25Q for 2.5 hours i couldn't say no. so tomorrow i will begin to learn an entirely new style of guitar, should be pretty cool. things started to go downhill pretty quickly thereafter. first going to a bar, la rumba, where the drinks were flowing and the dancing was abundant. in fact my salsa partner from a few night prior happen to be there and well i wont call it 'salsa' per se but we danced and danced. we danced until i as forced to flee the dance floor. why run away damon? well what started innocently a high five to a guatemalan couple turned into something no bueno, when i was propositioned to 'take leave' with them. i don't want to come off as a prude for that is the last thing i'd call myself but i do consider myself someone with standards and well, they were not being met. rumba closes and we, for no other reason than because, go to the next bar on the block. i can say that we didn't need to be there and at some point my housemate and i decided it was time to return home. by this time it is 3ish in the AM and we are both feeling very 'good'. we were walking chatting, laughing and generally just being foolish. but when we finally looked up (paid attention to where we were and where we were going we realized that we had no clue as to where we WERE! this was slightly unnerving. i hid my wallet in my clothes and kris got out his knife, just in case. luckily for everyone involved after only a few minutes passed and after turning a few corners we come across another friend of ours, who must have heard us coming, as he stood at the end of the street with his arms outstretched in the air, like a beacon of light and hope after a long voyage at sea!


saturday started much slower than not and i missed a walk to some nearby natural saunas, oh well. our entire house looked worse for wear but we knew that the night ahead would hold no prisoners so we had to sort ourselves out. our mama, sandra, looked at us and started making a local hangover cure, gracias mama. slowly but surely we started to feel 'normal' again. and before long it was time to get ready for the football match that was going to be amazing, the crowds were already about, the cops were out directing traffic and generally spirits were high. spending time with the brits of course like before any big night we went out for some curry. i'll give them this, it was huge, spicy and bloody delicious.


meeting up with some more friends post-feed we went and purchased some bottles of 'ron guatemalteca' a local inexpensive brew or rum. arriving at the stadium i knew i was in for more than i could have imagined. people everywhere. fireworks going off. food vendors. unofficial jersey sellers (which most of us ended up buying...when in rome). it was nuts. buying out tickets we entered the stadium. drums pounding. horns blaring. people everywhere! through the mess and up to the stands (concrete seats). we found what we thought were good seats but later turned still to be good but in the oppositions section...iffy.


now it was time to buy some mix for our rum. so guess what they sell the soda and then pour it in plastic bags. interesting. so here we all are holding bags of coke and rum...too funny. the game starts and so do the minutes of fireworks huge ones, little ones, loud ones and scary ones (ever have a firework fall on your head? well me neither but i saw it happen). truthfully, the game wasn't that hot but we made up for it in noise and good times. right before half time we run out of rum. lauren and amanda head out to pick some more up. 45 minutes later we are all a bit worried. just when we think its time to send out a search party they return and far from empty handed. as well as buying more goodness they not only found a puppy but brought him into the stadium. what they were thinking is well beyond me and to be fair after all the rum we'd consumed i think their actions were beyond them too. somehow the situation sort of resolved itself as a couple of guys who also had a puppy agreed to take 'our' puppy. i say 'sort of' because i am of the belief that the puppy was not lost and abandoned but had an owner and a home. oh well.


the game ended we lost but the party didn't stop. i carried on and we carried on. i left sooner than most but couldn't tell you when and felt only slightly better than the rest the next morning. yesterday was spent very very relaxed. walking around the markets that seemed to pop up out of nowhere, eating greasy food and watching movies in the company of good friends. hurting heads but also good times. 


i have decided that this week (not weekend) will be spent in 'detox'. focussing on my spanish and my mental/physical well being. this may make for some interesting blogging and it may not. only time will tell. hasta pronto.


photos to follow.