festival

Last night was interesting if nothing else. After another unsuccessful call to James I headed out for the beach lighting and throwing firecrackers into the street at regular intervals. You forget how late it is when you get to the beach around 1:30 am and their are just tons of families scattered around the beach in little circles with kids no older than 8 or 9 running around and lighting off fireworks. It's kinda of like a 4th of July fireworks show performed by the town collectively. There is no beginning, no end, just a constant stream of whistle-bang and shower of light.

I headed to the bar and grabbed a beer and walked down the beach trying not to look like the weird foreign guy drinking alone. Some people played soccer, and listened to music in English and Spanish and there were little bon fires set up all over the place with circles of friends sitting around them talking and laughing. I made it about as far as I could one was and doubled back down the beach toward the bar. I saw some kid almost blow his hand off lighting a big firecracker in the fire and trying to throw it and even the locals seemed surprised at how close it had been but then they all laughed and kept playing around the beach. I got back to the bar and picked up another beer and kept heading down the beach the other way.

I was heading toward the part of the beach James had taken me to the day before to see if there was a different crowd and maybe to check out a different beach bar. As I got close I could hear the distinct sound of the YMCA blaring over a stereo system. I got closer and realized it was coming from a local yacht club with a distinctively yachty, but fun loving crowd. They had a dance floor set up on the beach and everyone was dancing and drinking as I walked by on the other side of a fence.

Just beyond that was the bar-restaurant I had seen the day before but it was about 2 am and there was a sizable crowd outside, which seemed to indicate it was closing down. Some of the windows were shut up but there were still quite a few people sitting at the tables outside chatting. I decided to just go down the beach were there were tons of little circles of friends of all ages sitting around bon fires and lighting off fireworks. I wish I had had a camera, but it probably wouldn't have gotten a good picture and I would have been super tourist. All the way down the beach there were fireworks going off and people running around and playing and talking. I made a slow circle through the crowd and headed back up the beach to go back to the beach I knew better.

I tossed firecrackers all the way back and listened to the now Spanish music coming from the yacht club. When I got back to the bar I ordered another beer from a lady who has started to recognize me as the lonely foreigner who orders alot of beers. She handed me a beer in a can and I think she asked if I would rather a cup. I told her that was fine but decided to try to ask how to say "can" instead of cup. My fumbled question resulted in her handing me a cup. I think she realized that wasn't what I was after and she looked at me questioningly. I tried the guessing game approach and said, "no un vaso (holding up the cup) pero un....?" (tapping on the can). Well her guess was "cervesa?" and I started feel like I was wasting her time so I kinda gave up and started to move on when she said "in English?". The sudden change of language threw me and I hesitated, and the guy next to me who had been listing to the struggling question shook his head and said in perfect English, "what do you want to say?" I asked in English and he told me and I repeated it and he shook his head and I thanked him. All that work and now I can't even remember the word.

I headed down the beach toward the water feeling a little silly at having struggled with the question when everyone there seemed to speak perfect English. I sat down in the sand by the water and sipped my beer and threw firecrackers into the water. I sat there for a long time, just playing and people watching and looking out over the water. This place is really nice and it's only going to get better as my Spanish improves and I get a solid base of friends so I don't have to keep being the lone beach bum. In any case I finish my beer and head back to the apt around 3 am.

I get there and I'm not feeling very tired after my nap earlier today so I spend some time bumming around on my computer and watching "Walk the Line" on satellite. Well it was around 8 or 9 back home and there were a fair number of people to talk to so I caught up a little with a few people which stretched into waaaaay too much computer time and next thing I know it looks like the sun is coming up and its about 5:30 in the morning. So I go to bed and don't wake up till 1 pm today (so much for getting on the time schedule for work). I laid down on the couch and read a little bit, but I'm getting a little concerned...I'm almost done with my book and I didn't bring another....what will I do?!...I'm sure I'll figure it out. Well its almost 3 now and I had expected to start seeing some roommates soon but maybe I'll just grab my book and head back down to the beach and hang out for awhile.