Kathryn's Peace Corps Adventure

The opinions expressed and experiences described in this blog are mine personally. Any musings that you read here are not affiliated or endorsed by Peace Corps or U.S. government. Or Starbucks. And I'm not making any money from any of this, so don't send a lawsuit my way. Got it?

Wednesday, December 27, 2006

pump it up, a little more...get your body goin' on the dance floor

I spent Christmas in San Ramón with my host family. They threw a party that, in my opinion, was much more enjoyable than last year’s party. This is most likely due to me knowing more people in San Ramón and now that I have a better control of the language (no, I am nowhere near fluent) I am better at saying, “No, I don’t want to dance with you because you are too drunk to stand on your own” or “No, I don’t want to be your girlfriend because, well, we’ve just met and I bet you don’t know my first name…and ‘gringa’ is not it.”

But really, it was just so much fun. My host sister, Rosa, had some great music and everyone just wanted to dance. Surprisingly, she had a CD filled with early 90s music. (I need to pay a visit to my bootlegger in Santa Rosa pronto!) When ‘Pump up the Jam’ came up, ghetto k made her appearance and danced like a crazy girl. And suddenly I was in 5th grade again at my first dance. Cognitive dissonance. Fo’sho…

And I didn’t have to dance with any drunks (or Evers) because the locos wanted to dance with me. It’s fun dancing with kids because you can make an ass out of yourself, but because people just think that you are trying to get the kids involved and have fun with them. Not a bad thing for a youth development volunteer.

Their party ended at midnight and Rosa invited me to come with her to another party which sounded like a great idea at the time because I was so high from the 90s music and still wanted to dance. But the walk to the party killed me. It was pitch black and we had to walk though a coffee field uphill to get to the house. Because I’m a semi-shortie, I rocked some platform sandals, which were fine for dancing, but for walking in a muddy, rocky coffee field…not so much. My feet were killing by the time we got to the other party. I danced to three punta songs (with success, hooray!) and when the romántica started, I booked. (No straight up hug dancing for me, especially since I was super sweaty from dancing…gross.) I found the locos and asked them to take me home. If going uphill was difficult, going downhill was a nightmare. I was tempted to take off my shoes but walking barefoot sounded like an invitation for ringworm (no thanks). Luis helped me down the hill and piggy backed me for some parts (he’s a team player like that). We got back to my house around 2. My feet were in excruciating pain. The price I pay to be taller.

4 Comments:

  • At 1:39 PM, Blogger *** said…

    Taller? like a workshop? Oh, you mean mas alta! :)

    I eat tons of sandwiches everyday, its gonna take sandra to drag us back onto the plane next thursday...
    We never thought that the states would be such a great vacation!

     
  • At 5:06 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Talk to you next year, chica.

    Happy New Year!

     
  • At 1:49 PM, Blogger Tony Akins said…

    Hola Cati!
    I wanted to spend the New Years in the studio with my Muse; I thought that this would be a portentious beginning to a prosperous 2007. Of course this is no longer happening. Why are women engineered to be so difficult and nonunderstanding when they're asked to take a back seat after a gruelling holiday season where I've been an exemplary bf? So I'll be spending the evening (yet again) with the crew the the Looking Glass Theater. I only just saw them to decorate a Christmas tree for Pete's sake. E has been in London for the last 3 days. She and her bro went to see "Wicked" yet AGAIN!
    It's been nice having the days to myself. More please!
    I hope you're having a FANTASTIC New Years! This is the one that will see you HOME. OMG!
    I haven't seen MV to pass along your messeage.
    Happy New Year,K!
    tres besos!

     
  • At 4:26 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Are you sure 90's music is all you're illegally sponsoring, beer baroness?

    Remember, the penalty for bootlegging is... catapult.

     

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