Feliz Navidad

It´s been a while, but all is well. Laura has avoided the buses, and mom´s flight got in on time. Isabel actually drove Laura and I to the airport on Christmas Eve to pick her up. Then she told us about a sort of party in the street that happens in Santa Teresa, a neighborhood really close to my apartment. So we went there at 4pm and it was crazy. About 3,000 people were milling around in the street and in the bars, drinking, eating garbanzos and other miscellaneous Spanish dishes, and there were firecrackers and maybe a cannon exploding periodically. We met up with Isa, Felipe and two of their friends -- Kike and Kris. They told us usually there are even more people there, 6,000 or 7,000, but that other neighborhoods have started to do the same thing so people are more dispersed.

Christmas Eve night and Christmas day were spent mostly just hanging out in the apartment, sleeping, waiting for Laura to break her fever, drinking red wine and eating boxes of chocolate. Three school aged kids came to our door Christmas Eve with a tambourine and sang us a song about the Belén and Christmas bells. It was really cute. We gave them some chocolate too.

We also had visitors a few days before Christmas. Two Jehovah´s witnesses came by and chatted with me for a while. They didn´t give me any books but told me that there are a lot of Jehovah´s witnesses in the states, so if I ever want to know the truth from the lies, I can just go to them. They also explained to me the reason behind society´s downfall -- parents give their kids presents on January 6th and tell them they´re from the wise men, then the kids discover it was really the parents giving them the presents, they lose trust in their parents and turn to street people and drugs.

A few days before mom got here Laura and I were walking through some side streets. We came upon a young man with a cup standing next to a building singing Christmas songs. There was also a strong smell of marijuana. The guy apparently heard us speaking English, because when we passed he greeted us. It went something like this:
guy¨´´´Hello.´´
me ´´Hello.´´
guy ´´How are you?´´
me (slipping into school English mode) ´´I´m very well thanks, how are you?´´
guy ´´I´m fine.´´
Laura and I walk about 40 feet.
guy ´´Excuse me.´´
me ´´Qué?´´
guy ´´One fucking please.´´
me (thinking maybe I´d misunderstood) ´´Qué?´´
guy ´´One fucking please.´´ (then something about him paying...)
Laura and I keep walking, this time cracking up, me wondering if this is what my students´ English abilities will be like 10 years from now.