Today Salsa, Tomorrow Tamales

Whoa whoa whoa. How is it already Wednesday night of my second week in San Pedro? My last day of classes is tomorrow -- crazy! This week is flying by.

Highlights of the past few days include:

Monday night: On Monday, 2 other students moved into the house where I'm living. John and Rachel are both from England and both just graduated from university like me. They're taking a major trip from Mexico to Argentina, and it's fun having English-speaking friends in the house! Although I will admit that sometimes I can't catch their fast British lingo. Anyway, they're taking Spanish classes at my same school, and this week we heard about the Lake Atitlan basketball championships. The top 2 teams from each town around the lake are competing against one another every night this week, so we went up to the town center and checked out Monday night's games. They were good, but the average player was about 5'8," and the announcer talked so fast that we had no idea which team was which. It sounded more like we were at a horserace. Quite the experience hahaha.

Today: Our school offered SPECIAL salsa lessons hahaha...taught by an instructor from a dance school across the lake in Pana. IT WAS SO FUN. It was 2 hours of fast music and awkward partner dancing. (Again, 90% of the males are shorter than me...and I'm pretty short, right?) The instructor was hilarious -- and quite the Latino stud. He kept telling everyone to get "Closer! Closer! And look into each other's eyes the entire time! LOS OJOS!" I was the immature American girl who couldn't stop giggling, but it was a blast. At one point he was giving the men instructions about where to lead the girls during a particular step. He said "And then you deposit her here, and then over here," and I absolutely lost it. I happened to be partnered with him at the time, and he accused me of making fun of his English. I tried to explain that deposit is just a funny word, and by then everyone in the room was laughing. We were a mess hahaha. However, in conclusion, salsa is my new favorite thing. Who wants to take salsa lessons with me back in the States? I'll  start taking names now. :)


Tomorrow: I talked about tamales in an earlier blog, and they will be making another appearance for New Year's! They are a tradition for El Año Nuevo as well as La Navidad, and today my house mom told me that she'll be making them tomorrow and that we get to help! Woohoo! I'm excited! I'll take lots of photos and report back to you.

PHOTO UPDATE!

Me stirring the corn flour filling. We had to take turns stirring for about 30 minutes straight without letting the spoon stop moving! When the filling sinks in water, it's ready!

Cleaning the leaves used to hold all the ingredients together.

Tamale ingredients ready to go: corn meal filling, pork/chicken, sauce, olives, peppers, and prunes. One of everything gets placed in a leaf and then wrapped up like a present. :)

Loving my job tying up all the stuffed tamales.

Loving that incredibly attractive rubber apron even more.

The finished product! About 100 tamales!!

Ok, enough for this blog. I'm loving San Pedro, but I'm also ready to get to NPH this weekend and start working. I find myself with tons of time on my hands, and I can only eat/nap/hike/study Spanish/read/explore town so much. San Pedro isn't that big haha. I'm ready for more to keep me busy. :) Hasta luego!