Sunday, February 12, 2006
Ball gowns to the wedding
Sunday again, Julia has just left for Guadalajara, and I’m supposed to be doing this week’s lesson plans…. But as usual I’m putting off work with another blog entry.
Last week I started an evening class, the first on Thursday. There were only two students—my friend Rocio and the mother of one of my students. I think it went well. I’m hoping to talk to the principal this week to ask that she not charge those who work in the school for the classes, since the school is supposed to be bilingual, and the teachers who want to take English classes from me really shouldn’t be charged for them. If she insists on charging them, I will provide my own private classes.
We had social Friday again, at last, the four of us working at the school who call ourselves “el club de las locas.” Rocio, kindergarten teacher Cristina, and I went to kindergarten teacher Aracely’s house, where we ate snacks, drank tequila, made fun of each other, and chatted. Actually, I didn’t do much chatting, since I can hardly carry on a conversation in Spanish, but I listened to them talk and had fun. We hadn’t gotten together the four of us in a long time. Rocio had been absent because her boyfriend was here from Chicago for about four weeks in December and January, and then I have been gone a lot on the weekends hanging out with Julia. It was nice to finally get together again with the girls. I wonder why they even bother inviting me, because it’s not like I contribute much. I do think, however, that without me trying to get everyone together, they wouldn’t do it as much.
Saturday, the brother of the principal got married. Everyone at the school was invited, but only a few of the teachers went. I invited Julia, who arrived at noon. We hurried to dress and get ready, ironing our wrinkly clothes and trying to match our few nice items of clothing into outfits we thought would be appropriate for a ranch reception in Arandas. (In the end we discovered you can wear whatever you want—the men were mostly in suits and some in cowboy hats, while the women were mostly dressed down in suits, some younger women dressed up in little sparkly party dresses, and some very young girls practically wearing ball gowns.) We were twenty minutes late to mass in the church at the city center, but it didn’t matter because it was quite long. We couldn’t see anything because the flower arrangements in the aisle were in the way. Julia and I were hungry by the end of the ceremony, and we probably wouldn’t be eating anytime soon, so we contrived to get a snack to eat before heading to the ranch. We ran into Aracely, who took us to a juice place that was still open, and then we hung out at her house until her husband came home from work to go the reception.
We arrived at the reception just as people were beginning to eat. We had tacos, a big plate of meat (carnitas), beans, rice, and tortillas. They served tequila with dinner as well. There was a band playing on synthesizers and drum machines, everything from banda to cheesy Richard Clayderman. After eating, they cleared a space for dancing—a lot of cumbia and banda. Then the cheesy music started, and people were pinning money onto the bride and groom, for their honeymoon. I was going to pin some money on them too, because we hadn’t brought a gift, until I realized that I would have had to dance with the groom, and I didn’t feel like doing that.
Then all the single women were supposed to hold hands and dance around, at the end trying to catch the bouquet. Julia and I remained seated while the other girls really wanted to catch the bouquet. It was the guys’ turn after that, and they danced around and looked like they really wanted to catch the flower he threw, too. It was the only wedding I’ve been to recently where people really wanted to catch the bouquet or the garter; the last one I was at, all the women were backing up and getting pushed forward by others, and usually the men don’t want to catch the garter either. Julia and I then danced with the kids for a while, wearing ourselves out with banda and cumbia.
We left when the band stopped, with Aracely and her family. Afterwards, we went out to play pool at the cinema with Aracely’s husband’s cousin, Alvaro, and Alvaro’s girlfriend. Alvaro is a communications student at the University of Guadalajara, who comes home to Arandas on the weekends. He might be looking for a roommate for his apartment in central Guadalajara, which would be ideal for Julia, but it’s still unclear whether they will have a room available. Hopefully our Arandas connections will help her find a safe, cheap place to live close to the school. It would be more convenient than living in a homestay with a family in the suburbs, she’d meet more younger people, and she’d be close to all the cool stuff in town.
Sunday we just had breakfast at home, and then we went out to the cinema to see if there’d be a movie to see, but there wasn’t anything we wanted to see at the time. We thought we could go to the market in the center and buy a cheap DVD to watch on Julia’s computer. Julia bought a couple, but one didn’t work, and the other didn’t have the movies it advertised. We made milanesas de pollo at home, and then Julia had to leave.
Last night I dreamed we were at Brown again. Julia Sapir had a piece on show someplace on campus. I had to go the airport or something and was crossing the street when a hoard of women in colorful ball gowns with puffy skirts came running down trying to get to a dance first to snatch up the good guys.
Last week I started an evening class, the first on Thursday. There were only two students—my friend Rocio and the mother of one of my students. I think it went well. I’m hoping to talk to the principal this week to ask that she not charge those who work in the school for the classes, since the school is supposed to be bilingual, and the teachers who want to take English classes from me really shouldn’t be charged for them. If she insists on charging them, I will provide my own private classes.
We had social Friday again, at last, the four of us working at the school who call ourselves “el club de las locas.” Rocio, kindergarten teacher Cristina, and I went to kindergarten teacher Aracely’s house, where we ate snacks, drank tequila, made fun of each other, and chatted. Actually, I didn’t do much chatting, since I can hardly carry on a conversation in Spanish, but I listened to them talk and had fun. We hadn’t gotten together the four of us in a long time. Rocio had been absent because her boyfriend was here from Chicago for about four weeks in December and January, and then I have been gone a lot on the weekends hanging out with Julia. It was nice to finally get together again with the girls. I wonder why they even bother inviting me, because it’s not like I contribute much. I do think, however, that without me trying to get everyone together, they wouldn’t do it as much.
Saturday, the brother of the principal got married. Everyone at the school was invited, but only a few of the teachers went. I invited Julia, who arrived at noon. We hurried to dress and get ready, ironing our wrinkly clothes and trying to match our few nice items of clothing into outfits we thought would be appropriate for a ranch reception in Arandas. (In the end we discovered you can wear whatever you want—the men were mostly in suits and some in cowboy hats, while the women were mostly dressed down in suits, some younger women dressed up in little sparkly party dresses, and some very young girls practically wearing ball gowns.) We were twenty minutes late to mass in the church at the city center, but it didn’t matter because it was quite long. We couldn’t see anything because the flower arrangements in the aisle were in the way. Julia and I were hungry by the end of the ceremony, and we probably wouldn’t be eating anytime soon, so we contrived to get a snack to eat before heading to the ranch. We ran into Aracely, who took us to a juice place that was still open, and then we hung out at her house until her husband came home from work to go the reception.
We arrived at the reception just as people were beginning to eat. We had tacos, a big plate of meat (carnitas), beans, rice, and tortillas. They served tequila with dinner as well. There was a band playing on synthesizers and drum machines, everything from banda to cheesy Richard Clayderman. After eating, they cleared a space for dancing—a lot of cumbia and banda. Then the cheesy music started, and people were pinning money onto the bride and groom, for their honeymoon. I was going to pin some money on them too, because we hadn’t brought a gift, until I realized that I would have had to dance with the groom, and I didn’t feel like doing that.
Then all the single women were supposed to hold hands and dance around, at the end trying to catch the bouquet. Julia and I remained seated while the other girls really wanted to catch the bouquet. It was the guys’ turn after that, and they danced around and looked like they really wanted to catch the flower he threw, too. It was the only wedding I’ve been to recently where people really wanted to catch the bouquet or the garter; the last one I was at, all the women were backing up and getting pushed forward by others, and usually the men don’t want to catch the garter either. Julia and I then danced with the kids for a while, wearing ourselves out with banda and cumbia.
We left when the band stopped, with Aracely and her family. Afterwards, we went out to play pool at the cinema with Aracely’s husband’s cousin, Alvaro, and Alvaro’s girlfriend. Alvaro is a communications student at the University of Guadalajara, who comes home to Arandas on the weekends. He might be looking for a roommate for his apartment in central Guadalajara, which would be ideal for Julia, but it’s still unclear whether they will have a room available. Hopefully our Arandas connections will help her find a safe, cheap place to live close to the school. It would be more convenient than living in a homestay with a family in the suburbs, she’d meet more younger people, and she’d be close to all the cool stuff in town.
Sunday we just had breakfast at home, and then we went out to the cinema to see if there’d be a movie to see, but there wasn’t anything we wanted to see at the time. We thought we could go to the market in the center and buy a cheap DVD to watch on Julia’s computer. Julia bought a couple, but one didn’t work, and the other didn’t have the movies it advertised. We made milanesas de pollo at home, and then Julia had to leave.
Last night I dreamed we were at Brown again. Julia Sapir had a piece on show someplace on campus. I had to go the airport or something and was crossing the street when a hoard of women in colorful ball gowns with puffy skirts came running down trying to get to a dance first to snatch up the good guys.
