Merry Christmas, foolz. Over here in Mexicolandia Christmas was celebrated last night and I spent it with Mono and Puticlub and the members of their year in the Air Force. I believe this may have been my most cliche Mexican moment ever. Piping out of the laptop were tunes of mariachi. Frightening AYAAYAYYAYAYA! shouts were frequently declared. People occasionally broke into strange little dances that brought leprechauns to mind. Chunks of some meat something were eaten along with tortillas and salsa and spaghetti(?). And to drink was the most sickeningly pink sweet alcoholic thing coming from a 20-liter water dispenser. I tried it when I was in the midst of a bottle of wine and thought it tasted like horchata, and then was ashamed when I tasted it again later and realized in fact it tasted like crushed Tums mixed with watery milk.

The night was really fun, though, despite its awkward moments. Mono had asked earlier in the day if we could practice English and was finally brave enough to do so after a sufficient quantity of the liquified death. He pointed out that every couple at the party was sitting together and the single guys had all formed a group to themselves. He didn't like that it was divided like that so I told him to go talk to them while I go fill up. On booze, to be clear. I stood up and walked a couple steps and turned to mention that if I'm not back in ten minutes it means I need help with the cork. It came at a moment in between songs or something because suddenly it was silent and every person at the rooftop party was staring at me. No one understood when I'd spoken in English, and later Mono told me they'ed asked if I was mad at him or if I wasn't happy at the party or if there was something wrong. I just needed help with the damn cork!

Another stupid moment came when all of a sudden everyone started going around hugging and kissing each other's cheek and saying Feliz Navidad. Apparently this is what they do at 12midnight - like New Years - but I kept saying "Bye! It was nice meeting you!" until someone told me they weren't leaving, they were just saying Merry Christmas. I kept trying to cheek kiss on the wrong side too, a lingering habit left over from Madrid that resulted in some close calls last night.

Classes ended thank god on Thursday until January 2. My last couple days were really nice. On wednesday my 6pm had organized a secret santa, so I got some prezzies. Matthew was his usual rude self and told me next time I couldn't let that happen "because they don't have money to spend on presents." Then the next day my 7pm had a spontaneous pizza party. I walked into the classroom and one of my students was on the phone again. The day before his boss had kept calling him in the middle of their final test, and the third time I grabbed the phone first and told him he needed to call back later because Juan Carlos was taking an exam. He apologized and didn't call back after that.

Anyway on thursday Juan Carlos was talking on the phone but it turned out he was ordering pizzas. Later when they arrived three other students ran out to buy us all bottles of soda and a special individual can of Diet Coke for me. :) Matthew walks in a bit after that and asks who did this, who paid for this, blah. Evidently he wasn't mad because he asked for a slice and then came back into the classroom two minutes later with a bottle of tequila and glasses for all the over-18s. Normal.

Then in my 8 o'clock class Oscar kept staring at me with glassy eyes and an extremely foolish grin on his face, occasionally punctuated by giggles. The day before in class we were working on a grammar concept and he told me one thing he'd like to learn to do is grow marijuana. Um.

Merry Christmas!