Lida´s Goodbye Party

Lida















Enrique, the roomie who is never actually in the apartment, and Lida.















Richard and Sharron















Aaron.















Friends















Alex
















Jorge, on vacation from Brazil.

Lida, take care of yourself. We´ll see each other soon. The apartment will be a quiet place without you around. Cuidate.

Kids Write the Darndest Things

The following was written by Daniela, a 10 year old in Aaron´s Spectrum 2 (or was it 1?) Class. It is supposed to be a conversation between the Daniela and a doctor. What this is we have no to figure out. Note that nothing has been edited. This is what he wrote:

Jonh: Hellow Daniela.
Daniela: Hellow Jonh.
Jonh: What the mother?
Daniela: My computer doen´t working.
Jonh: Bok of a cinema is not persong.
Daniela: Let´s go Jond I have two ticket.
Jonh: Let´s go.

Wow.

Give Me Them Bananas!

So we saw something very interesting on the way to Feast last night. Enrique, Aaron, Lida and myself were at a red light around the Cristo (the big Jesus statue here by Burger King). The traffic is front of us was moving, and I saw this truck filled with bananas. Behind the truck, which was moving, was a young boy. This boy was holding on and running behind the truck. I´d say the truck was moving around 30 mph. And the boy was able to get a hold of a whole bunch of bananas to share with his comrade who were washing windows, juggling, and asking for change. Simply witnessing this whole transaction was surreal, like something you´d see in a movie. Santa Cruz the Movie, how would that look. It is sad that kids have to do things like that just to get by. I hope they were tasty.

A story for Thomas and everyone else. But mainly for Thomas.

So the weekend was a very interesting one. More bad than good I suppose, but then again come to expect anything here.

The weekend started off great. Sebastian and I headed off with some friends to Centrosfera, a popular teen hang out place. There you can find many styles of fashion and folk. Punk rockers, emo kids, wanna be frat boys dressed in Pumas and Hollister, accompanied by models and wanna be models. Really the whole spectrum of the Camba youth culture, 90% of whom were consuming cervezas and tragos. On a side note, I met a fine lady there whom I taking out for an evening sometime this week.

Saturday is when it got bad. I went with my friend Ximmena to Centrosfera again where I sang american rock songs with people who didn´t speak any english. That was fun. It was after we left the club that things turned for the worst.

Ximmena had mentioned we were going to a club that had all kinds of people...straights, gays, all kinds of people. That is most clubs from my frame of mind. Maybe some of you can see where this is going, but please allow me to continue. So we go to this club called Frozen. We went in to this club where I saw the one thing I prayed I would never have to see in my life. Gay men dancing and thong underwear on stages all around me to techno music. And it wasn´t like it was fun gay club with disco music like in that movie American Wedding. It was just really really gay. Masculinity in hand I quickly vacated the premesis.

If only you were here Booger to share in that experience. I miss you Brother. I still can´t thank you enough for coming to pick me up that time at the airport.

The next day I got sick after eating at a new restaurant. The wrath of milanesa is a mighty one. So needless to say that the weekend was an exponential worse one.

But the weekend has been pretty good so far. Nothing to complain. But then again it is raining.

The New Year

As we ushered in the 06 here in Santa Cruz, I thought of this Deathcab for Cutie song.

¨So this is the new year.
And I don't feel any different.
The clanking of crystal.
Explosions off in the distance (in the distance).
So this is the new year.
And I have no resolutions.
For selfl assigned penance.
For problems with easy solutions.
So everybody put your best suit or dress on.
Let's make believe that we are wealthy for just this once.
Lighting firecrackers off on the front lawn.
As thirty dialogues bleed into one.
I wish the world was flat like the old days.
Then i could travel just by folding a map.
No more airplanes, or speedtrains, or freeways.
There'd be no distance that can hold us back.
There'd be no distance that could hold us back.
So this is the new year.¨

New Years festivities here are pretty much like any party during the year, but with funny hats, none of which I could wear thanks to my huge had. I went out with of my lady friend and her friends out to some party on the fourth ring. There I was acosted by two small children who kept on asking me to say words in english. Then like most weekends it started to rain, tropical style. So the head of this house took us all to his restaurant, and nice place downtown. We stayed until after midnight, when my friend wanted to hit up Equi Petrol for some clubbin. Leaving the fresh steaks in my hungered state we went dancing for a few hours. Whenever I got back home I was starving so I went walking around the clubs near my house. There I found a lady selling hamburgers, which I chowed down on at 4 o´clock in the morning.

Josh, Jesse, Jonas, Jamie, Bargo, Aaron, Audrey, Rachel, Hannah...my dear friends, I love you all and may there be more happy new years to come.