A Very Hairy Halloween!

It's not really a big deal here, but some folks like to roll out the red carpet for Halloween. Halloween also happened to be the birthday of my host sister's boyfriend, Luis. He turned 22. My roommate and I thought we should buy him a little something, so we picked up a bottle of Venezuela's most popular beverage, Casique rum.

To our surprise, they already had two bottles in the fridge, and another sitting on the table. We stuck around for a rum and coke, then took off for the little halloween shindig at Venusa. One of the gringos in the group noticed that my roommate happened to look a lot like the Roman emperor Haydrian, hence his costume. Anyway, here's us in costume.

There was dancing, followed by more dancing, and then eventually a trip to everyone's favorite grungy bar, Birosca. Dancing and alcohol consumption followed. This is a picture from earlier in the night in Venusa, mime = Antoni & young lady = Kayla.

Today I woke up at 7:20, bright eyed and bushy tailed from my early bedtime the previous night. Some of my colleagues were not so peppy, so I considered myself lucky to just be slightly fatigued. Had a test in one of my Spanish classes, had a little chat about my flights back home, and hung out with the host family for a while. I figure I'll have a section on them coming up soon, but just as a little preview, you can check out this rockin' pic of Esperanza, Alonso, and Camila. Camila's the dog, but I don't know what kind she is, other than sorta cute and pretty stand-off-ish.

Other than that, I've been killing time at the chemical shop across the street from my place talking with Angel, a young 20 something Venezuelan-US American. Time runs in short bursts, and then stops for a breath only for a second. I've been wishing lately that I had more time here, that I could go back and tell myself things before I came here. I'm still nervous about using my Spanish, although I know that it has improved a great deal. I'll have more to come soon.

HAIR!