Fiesta Friday

Last Friday I experienced my first real Uruguayan night of enjoyment and partying. And I gotta say I definitely liked it!

After getting to know a few people from my Spanish course as well as some very fine Uruguayans, Becci and I decided to have a little fiesta on our rooftop with our new friends. We also got joined by some Germans who are interning at the German School here with Becci.

Since we didn’t want to leave the door open, everytime someone arrived they gave us a call and either one of Becci and I had to unlock the door. That meant we had to go up and down two flights of stairs and a ladder in order to get to the roof. Lots of exercise for us. Which I guess is a good thing since in case you haven’t noticed yet, I enjoy the food here a lot! 

The evening started out slowly with some wine and crackers. Of course there were only exchange students/German interns at the beginning because Uruguayans are famous for coming 1-2 hours after the set time. We didn’t really have a time set but we expected most of our guests around 11. The Urguayans, of course, didn’t come until later. 

Becci being all cute

Well, all but one of them. A Uruguayan fella named Agustin who had told me earlier that he planned on coming at 11. Prejudiced me didn’t really expect him that early but boy was I wrong! He was at our house at 11 sharp. No more, no less. Adding to that punctuality, he also left “early” (it was still long after midnight) because he has an exam sometime next week that he has to study for. He definitely ruined my picture of the typical Uruguayan. Jajaja. (=Spanish for “hahaha”)

Between 12 and 1am the Uruguayans arrived and brought some good tunes with them. In the absence of a spare table they converted one of our drying racks into a makeshift DJ stand.

Mauro setting up the "DJ-rack"

At some point one of the Uruguayans named Pablo tried to teach me how to dance “Uruguayan style” which I enjoyed a lot. Nevertheless, I suck at it. I am really bad at remembering steps so I got a little confused but I like the way you dance in couples and have specific moves. The way two of the others danced it looked really great and I hope I can learn to dance better while I am here. Even if that means I have to dance according to specific steps. And since according to his own words, Pablo is a “gran profesor” (great teacher) of dancing, maybe I will learn it at some point. Cross your fingers that I’m not a hopeless case!

Bailamos! [Picture courtesy of Izzie Atkinson]

Slightly blurry party people! Note that the blurriness is due to movement and I of course couldn't stand still for a minute... [Picture courtesy of Izzie Atkinson]

At around 4am we all decided to change locations and go to a club named “Tres Perros”.  And after some delays we got there at 5am. At least that’s what I think but I’m really bad with time and schedules and all that. I think in this aspect I fit in very well with the Uruguayans (minus Agustin the punctual one). By the time we got to Tres Perros, it was pretty crowded already and I think we only got in because we’re foreigners. I don’t really care. We all got in. Inside it looked like a regular bar at first glance but when we went down  one of two tiny spiral staircases we came to a dancefloor area. Fire safety regulations? Not in Uruguay! Jaja. The dancing area was pretty packed and the air was a bit too stuffy for my taste but there was dancing. Dancing makes everything better!

Mauro, Analía, Nacho, me, Pablo and ½ of Becci [Picture courtesy of Izzie Atkinson]

Some time later we decided to go back home. In the end, two of the Uruguayans named Pablo and Mauro (Toby and Rusti? I’m not sure whether or not to call them by their real names or their nicknames), and Becci and I ended up eating crackers and alfajores and talking about anything and everything. However, at some point Becci kept falling asleep on us so we decided it was probably time to go to bed.

And that is how the day really ended. At 7 or 8 in the morning. After a very long and very Uruguayan night. 

Buenas Noches!