Karaoke in Honduras? THANK GOD!

Friday night I experienced my real first night out in Honduras. We have named Cid our official nightlife guide of Santa Rosa. He started off by taking us to this bar inside Hotel Elvir, probably the nicest hotel in Santa Rosa. It was situated on the roof of the hotel hosting a great view of the city. Somewhere between beers number one and two Cid taught me how to dance like the Hondurans do. Little did he know that yo bailo como es mi trabajo. So, needless to say we had fun. BTW, I have no idea if that is a real saying in Spanish…if not, just wait, it’ll catch on. We then went to this bar called “Suds” where there was a band playing, songs in both Spanish and English. One thing I have noticed is that it’s not uncommon to hear American songs on the radio here. In fact, when I got to Honduras and was waiting in line at customs the first song I heard was “Anything Goes.” How’s that for a musical theatre nerd in Honduras?

"Learning" how to dance at Hotel Elvir

Suds was pretty cool, not too different than a sit down bar in the U.S. I’d say. As the night wore on we found ourselves at- wait for it- A KARAOKE BAR. For any of you who know me (which is all of you) you know what a big deal this is. I live for Wednesday night karaoke at the Heidelberg in Ann Arbor and there are probably at least 100 photos on facebook that could verify this fact if you are doubting exactly how much I love karaoke. My first night out in Santa Rosa and I sing karaoke. Meant to be if you ask me. At this bar we met some Peace Corps kids as well as one of the former teachers at HEM school, Chris from England. Like obnoxious Americans, we sang in English, and not just English, but “A Whole New World” from Aladdin. I felt less obnoxious however when the Peace Corps crew starting singing “Can You Feel the Love Tonight.” But, the show stopping number was “Gangster’s Paradise” by the one and only Coolio. Oh yeah, it happened. One of the Peace Corps guys picked it, but the best part was that Abby just spit out those lyrics like nobody’s business. We later learned that in 5th grade she bought her first CD- you guessed it- Coolio. Suffice it to say I did not lie earlier when I said she was way cool…io.

Karaoke, bringing the world together, one song at a time.

On Saturday Abby, John and I went back to that Ten Nepal café. Last time I really enjoyed the fact that it was half indoor, half outdoor. This time however, I forgot to drench myself in insect repellent, which is my usual tradition before leaving, after showering, at bed time, before meals, after meals, after writing my blog, after getting dressed…ya know, whenever. The mosquitoes there definitely loved my blood. But don’t worry; I haven’t missed a malaria pill yet! More than I can say for my typhoid fever pills…oops. (Don’t worry, Grandma- I just missed one that I took soon after.) But the hot chocolate fue tan bueno so that made it almost worth giving up some of my blood and itching all over.

Today was a surprisingly eventful day. I wasn’t even planning on doing anything until John told me about an end-of-the-fair-tight-rope-walking event. As we were walking over to the fair grounds we ran into Cid who came with and clued us in to what was actually going on. It wasn’t tight rope walking at all rather it was “la carerra de cinto.” John misunderstood a bit. Picture this- a cord/rope strung in between two phone pole type columns. On the cord are little key chain ring type things attached to Velcro-ed pieces hanging down. The object is to ride super fast on your horse and stick a pen into one of the rings. It’s pretty impressive if you can do it.

Setting up the rope and the rings...

Los vaqueros waiting around, mentally preparing for their big moment.

Check out this video I took of the race:



This provided about 2 + hours of entertainment because, of course, being in Latin America they started at least an hour after they were scheduled to. But it was okay because we had the best seats in the house. John left early but was replaced by Cid’s friend, Cristina, from Spain who has been here for 3 months working for an NGO. She was so nice to me and really made an effort to talk slowly so I could understand. I really appreciated it. I was planning on going home but then they invited me to lunch and as we know I’m not one to turn down food. I ended up spending the whole day with them, trying to soak up as much Spanish as possible. Cid usually speaks English to us, so it was good for me to just listen to them talk. It’s so hard though. I think I probably understand about 1/4 of what people are saying. And trying to speak is even harder. I just get really flustered. Sin embargo, cuando tomo cerveza es más fácil…hehe. But, I hung out with them for probably 4 hours and attempted to converse as much as possible and was proud of myself for doing so. :-)

Tomorrow we are being picked up by at taxi at 6:40 por la mañana. Oye vey. Everyone please cross your fingers that I find out what I am teaching tomorrow. Call me crazy, but I would REALLY like to know before the first day of school.

Love and miss you all! Oh two more things:
#1) Track, Bristol, Willow, Piper & Trig…not gonna lie, I definitely laughed out loud.
#2) 25 to 23? So depressing.

XOXO!
Smiller