Sarah Jane's Travels: Viva Mexico!

My favorite picture so far

After we got back from Puerto Esconditio around 1:00 we quickly went home and unpacked. Ashley took a short nap and then we just enjoyed a few minutes rest before we had to head off to another party. There was an Independence Day party at the church which was so much fun. There were so many cute kids there and so many people dancing and eating. The food was delicious and the dancing was so much fun. Ashley and I got to dance for a long time and I was sweating up a storm by the time we were finished with all the Salsa dances. I was dancing with a young man who is in our ward and he spoke alright English. He was very sweet and tried hard to make conversation with me which I appreciated. At one point he was trying to explain to me that he hadn't spoken much to the other ILP teachers in the past but he didn't explain it that way. He says "Other ILP teachers, they give me no... no.... no pleasure. But you, give me much pleasure to dance with." He was so sweet trying to tell me he was enjoying dancing with me but he used a word that I would have used in a different context. I love how people here when they know you speak English or you are teaching English they always want your help. They always look for your approval and I think its interesting because they don't want you to just nod your head if you understand what they are saying. They want you to correct them. In this situation I chose not to correct him because I was pretty sure if I opened my mouth I would burst out laughing. It was funny.

The food at the church was so good. We had 'pazole' and 'horchata' and 'elote' which is corn on the cob with mayonnaise and cheese and chile (so delicious as long as there is not too much chile on it) and then some delicious tortillas with beans. It was all so delicious. The pazole was so spicy it was nuts. Rachel told us a story that the pazole (which is a soup with meat and some vegetables in it) is actually an ancient Aztec recipe that they used to use. The meat in the soup used to be the meat of the humans they would sacrifice and the reason the soup is red is to represent the blood of the humans. It was an interesting story.

My elote was delicious! A little bit too much chile but still good!

Kelsey and I

We danced the night away and had a blast and then Teo did the Viva Mexico chant (there is a video of it at the bottom of the post) It was a super fun party.

After we were done at the church we went to Juan Pablo's for another fun Independence Day party. We ate more pazole and then I asked them if the story about it being an Aztec soup was true. They said they didn't think so but that they really didn't know the history of it so they couldn't say for sure. I'm not sure what to believe but I do think the story is pretty awesome. We ate all night it seemed like, Kelsey kept joking that she was getting fat but I was totally in my element. I just kept eating and eating and eating and the food was delicious.

Juan Pablos and his girlfriend

After that there was a pinata which was so much fun and halarious because they made it pretty much impossible to hit it. It was super fun. Then we danced the night away. Juan Pablo's father is halarious and dances like a total maniac hopefully the video does it justice. We had confetti and lots of music and laughter. It was a great night. We didn't get home until 3:00 in the morning though so to say the least I was a little bit overtired the whole weekend. It was a lot of fun though and it was nice to be able to crawl into bed after the evening's festivities ended (for us at least). It was a great time.