I went to Jazz al Parque with some friends from school to see John Scofield . The weather gods were in our favor - finally - and it stopped raining long enough for us to enjoy a picnic and listen to John play for about an hour and a half. I'm not sure I was supposed to bring in food or wine but my friends assured me if I just acted like I didn't know what the security people were saying when they checked my bags, they'd let me in. I didn't really have to act. They security guard asked me something about comida. In English I responded, "I'm not allowed to have this?!"...and then he let me pass. They then explained that it is considered very Latin to try and find a way to trick the system or get what you want out of a situation, and that can be bad...but in this situation for wine, cheese, crackers and fruit with our jazz, playing the clueless American was worth it. ;-)
(In the picture from left to right: Sandra and David. They are married. David is a history teacher at my school. Sandra teaches at another school. They both speak English, Spanish and Chinese (Crazy!). After living in China for a few years, they both understand the desire to learn a new language and so they are very helpful. Next is another David. David de musica. He is a music instructor at the school. Next is Anita. We actually ran into her at the concert. She is a primary school teacher and rides on my bus with me. She is very sweet.)
Afterward, we went to a low-key bar nearby a friends house and spent the night talking. It was very nice. Everyone speaks Spanish and English - and they are all very encouraging about my Spanish. We spoke Spanish for a large portion of the night but I think when they noticed me zoning out (because my brain was exhausted) we switched to English.
I feel very lucky to be at my school, because it is full of such kind people. We talked about taking some weekend and/or weekend trips to explore some different parts of the country (very exciting!). So hopefully will have some photos to share...sorry I haven't been better about taking photos. Eventually I will post photos of my school and students.
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