Halloween Weekend

Happy (Belated) Halloween, everyone! I'm SO incredibly bummed that I'm not in Stockton hosting my usual Halloween night festivities. Larry and I carried on that charade for 4 years, and I know that Douglas Road will never be the same. Even as a kid, and my mom could attest, Halloween has been a HUGE deal for me. I remember making plans to decorate the house. I remember that I once rigged up a metal trash can with a pulley system so that when the front door opened, a ghost would pop out of the can. However, my true inspiration comes from Jeff Clark (remember my mom's neighbor down the street? The one who made me look like a complete jackass with the pinata?), who used to have, by far, the most terrifying house on the street. I can't wait to come back and do it all again. I'm not saying I want to go home, but I'd love to go back for just Halloween night!

Last weekend was a pretty wild experience. We loaded up a bus full of gringos and went to a bar called "Vinacure." It was probably the coolest club I've ever been to. Talk about decked out! This place had it all. The best part was when suddenly, we were all pushed aside and this circular spot on the dance floor became a stage for a bunch of dancers dressed as lions. They had this choreographed dance routine that was absolutely wild. They danced around the stage for about 20 minutes while everyone around them watched, then just as quickly as they had come on, they were gone and people could dance again. It was really weird. Their final act was a "Thriller" routine that had us all cracking up. It was a really late night. We didn't load up the bus until 3:30 AM and got home about a half hour later. I did my usual, "I want pizza!" routine, but can you believe that nobody was making pizza that late? Ridiculous.

The next day, I obviously slept in really late, noon to be exact. This is another thing I LOVE about my new apartment. I have blackout shades. In my old place, I had these totally transparent curtains (more like kleenex) that I think actually intensified the sun's rays and baked me as I slept. For the first 2.5 months here, I never slept in past 9 AM because of this. Also, I was usually woken up early due to some sort of banging on pipes, yelling by neighbors, or maybe even the truck that makes loud chicken noises through a god damn bullhorn, or possibly by the Dunkin' Donuts truck that would come park in the lot and play their little jingle, also through a bullhorn, for about 45 minutes. Then again, it could just as easily be the vegetable truck, whose driver would SCREAM through his bullhorn about the wonderful variety of vegetables he had for sale. At least he only spent about 2 minute s in the lot, unlike the Dunkin' Donuts truck, who acted like my apartment complex was the ONLY place in Medellin that would possibly be interested in buying donuts and thus had to stay until they were ALL sold. I think people bought them just to make him leave.

Anyway, after sleeping in the next day, I went to my neighbors' house. I haven't told you about my great new neighbors. Their names are Carolina and Jose. Carolina is half Colombian, half New Jersey...talk about a combo! She is an absolute trip. The energy this girl has could power the entire city for a day. She is, what you would call, "Off the chain." She teaches 2nd Grade here. Her fiancee, Jose, is a Colombian guy. He's really fun, too. They totally take care of me and make me feel really welcome in my new locale. I go over there often, for pizza, drinks, or whatever else we so desire. After devouring a double cheese, double pepperoni from Domino's, we decided to go to Jose's family's finca on the north end of town. Fincas are really popular in this country. Lots of the wealthy have them as a sort of escape from city life. Jose's place was fantastic. The pictures are posted below.

Anyway, that's about it. I've gotta run because the kids are just about back. Last week, I let them make report cards for me after getting their own. I got great marks, except in organization, but one girl made this comment that I "work" too much on the computer. Yes, it is hard work to constantly check 5 email accounts, write on a blog, and manage my MySpace account throughout the day. Tough work indeed.

Talk to you later,

Ben