So fiestas...yeah. Well now that I finally have time to write about them, I'm looking back and thinking that they all just kind of blur into a large fiesta of tomando Brahma from tiny plastic cups, and doing a whole lot of dancing to mostly huayno and the occasional cumbia. There are a few moments that stick out though:

-During the baile promocional (or graduation dance) for the colegio I was the madrina (again!...they seem to use madrinas and padrinos for every big event...but don't worry, I didn't spend much money on it at all...i just gave her photos of it afterward!) for my sixteen year old neighbor Elizabeth, or Eli. She's a great girl who hangs out with us a lot in the evenings playing with Chico and bantering with Beto and Richard. Anyway, during that baile promocional we came into our first contact with the "Circle dance." This is a very intricate and complicated dance in which the participants shuffle around in vague huayno steps while passing and chugging cervezita. Occasionally people get crazy and spin their partner around or something, but that's only de vez en cuando. Mostly it just reminded Maren of a lame middle school mixer with beer.

-On the monday before New Year's we went to a Corrida de Toros...a bullfight. We skipped the one on Sunday because it was a Corrida de Muerto in which the bull is killed (and then eaten afterward), but for some reason we just really didn't feel the need to see that. Anyway, the corrida that we did see was pretty fun, although we sat there waiting for about an hour and a half and I got severly burned. The bulls run around, sometimes try to escape by attempting to hurtle the walls of the arena, men in schmancy suits with red or purple flags/caps antagonize the bull, and when it gets tired men try to lasooe it then pull it out of the arena (which usually takes at least 3 men).

-On New Year's Eve and New Year's Day I attended to Corte de Pelo ceremonies for the youngest children of Paula's sisters, Dionisia and Luzmila. The first was for Dionisia's baby girl, Nayeli (I think that's how it's spelled) and the second was for Luzmila's son Chano. The basic concept is that the baby is sat out on a sheet, the guests line up, choose three intact coca leaves and with them wish good things for the child, put the coca leaves in wine (?), and then the first madrina makes and "pays" for the first cut of hair. The payment is money (for wealthier families it can get into the thousands), toys, or promises of goodies to come. From then on the hair is "sold" to following padrinos and madrinas (usually all of the guests). It seems like there are generally two rounds of haircutting, and in between the rounds there is more dancing and drinking. It's quite a feast. Chano's Corte de Pelo was preceded by his baptism, so the party was larger, with an "orchestra" (really just a band) and everything!

Well, those were the most exciting fiesta time occurences. Next time maybe I'll actually bring myself up to date (about last weekend for example!)