Dorothy at the botellón

Thursday night is a big party night for Toledo, bigger than Friday apparently. I went with Belen and Raquel to a ´´botellón´´, which is just a huge gathering of people where everyone brings their own alcohol and drinks before going to bars or clubs. Almost all the people were students at Belen´s university, there were easily 500 people there, probably closer to 700 or 800...it was really huge. I talked with a couple of Belen´s friends, usually no one here has heard of Kansas, but one of her friends said Wizard of Oz was one of her favorite movies, so I got my first Dorothy comparison. Everyone just stands at the botellón, and we stood and talked (they talked, I sometimes tried to understand and sometimes just zoned out and did some people watching) from midnight till 3am...then they were going to go out dancing, but I was pooped so they took me home first. They were out till 6am, so I´m glad I decided not to go, because my legs were sore the next day as it was.

I´ve been quite homesick and lonely lately. Belen and Raquel go home every weekend, so I am alone a lot. Even when they are here, the language barrier seems like it would take years to overcome. I sent an email to a group of other Auxiliares who I think are living in or near Toledo to see if anyone wants to hang out and speak English a bit.