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Day 33 - 5 August 2005 quisno’s, english songs & shwanky bar so there’s this kiosk in our training town that we always go to after school called Quiosquê de Nós that one of the trainees cleverly nicknamed quisno’s, and yesterday we went with a second year volunteer who has at times had somewhat of a tough time here because of certain cultural things associated with his appearance. for some reason while explaining some of his experiences certain trainees and staff members formed their impression of him as a negative person, while I just listened to him tell it as it is without the PC sugar on top. either way, he’s a great guy and a lot of fun to be around. and we share a mutual respect for each other’s sense of humor. near the end of the other night at quisno’s my buddy in three amigos made a comment about another trainee that went somethin like "you can tell he’s drunk when he talks to a member of the opposite sex" and a roar went over the crowd, and by crowd I mean all 5 of us who were there. it was a classic moment. it sparked a li’l back & forth trash talk between that two that was just hilarious and rumors of it even moseyed their way over to the training center the next morning. how funny is that. a perfect example how "workplace gossip" spreads, even here amongst us folks, and of course is perpetuated and amplified by the small community we’re livin in now. this will come to prove a very important lesson during our 2 months here. the fla fla is off the hook, just like with crazy filipino titas & lolas... so today concluded the model school for the english teachin trainees and all of their classes had to learn a song in english and sing it for everybody. the song selection was very eclectic, thus making it pretty durn entertaining. all levels of english speakers from first to fifth year joined in on the fun and sang their hearts out (sort of). afterwards was a lantxi (snack) and a DJ blasted some of the local and american dance hits for the kids to dance to out in the courtyard. "MODIKI BU TXOOOOMA!" what a sight it was...the boys got into a fierce game of "everybody limboooo!" and girls kept tryin to pull aside the male trainees to dance. to wrap up the week, the two sectors of trainees had a no holes barred, balls out on the field, all out war on the concrete futbol field. I lent one of the guys on the other team my shoes and he ended up scorin three goals to eventually beat us. just my luck! it was quite an event with all of our language teachers comin out to watch the battle of the balls. so tonight one of the volunteers who lives in our town has a friend who owns this really shwanky bar. I walked in and thought I was in another country- one with an African island theme with potato sacks stuffed with fluff for bean bag type chairs, super shwanky bar stools made of tree trunks, and five different rooms to chill in, each with a very earthy/islandy theme. there’s even a blacklight room with glow in the dark stars on the ceiling in the back. reminded me of the chill room at raves from back in the day. a super nice place with "expensive" $3 drinks (most drinks around town are 50 cent to just over a dollar), but definitely worth the ambiance. too bad it only opens whenever the owner is in town (nearly never). <--- back home                 FESTA! --->