Party at the Gym

Ok, so I was just saying yesterday that I didn't have anything new and exciting to talk about, then I decided to go to the zoo and last night there was a party at the gym. Both of which I guess can at least qualify as new. Its like when I'm in Abilene and my mom asks me what I've been doing. I often reply nothing. Then she teases me for after saying nothing proceeding to tell half and hour or hour worth of stories. Anyway...

About a month ago when I was paying for my last month at the gym, Fabricio asked when we were leaving. When I told him the 12th, he said, good, that we'd still be here for his party on the 8th. (Although it was later moved to the 7th.) I said I'd come, thinking oh it will be fun to get to meet people from the gym. As the time grew closer however, I realized, wait I don't like parties where I don't know people, then add the fact I can't speak to a lot of them. What was I thinking?

The party day finally arrived. During the 8 o'clock aerobics class you could tell Fabricio was getting excited. The lights and the disco ball were already up, and he turned them on during class, so there we were doing Body Combat under dance lights. It was funny.

About an hour after the party was supposed to start Anne, Kelsey, Caitlin, (the other girls that go to the gym) and I headed over. (Uruguayans are always late so we didn't want to be the first ones there.) When we round the corner there are a bunch of people, mostly guys, we don't recognize standing outside the gym talking. I think the girls walking in front actually stopped for a second. (I almost ran into them.) But we gathered our courage and went on. (Now understand, by this point I'm really think what in the world am I doing here???) When we pass the group to go in the gym I recognize several of the girls, which made me feel a bit better.

When we get in the gym the multi-colored lights are going and people are standing around in groups talking. (Mostly in all male or all female groups... its amazing how people never get past the junior high fear of mixing with the opposite sex.) So we are trying to figure out what to do, so we form our own little group. We start playing the "who are these people" game. Its really funny, because everyone at the gym pretty much sees each other with their hair pulled back, in their grossest clothes, with no make-up. Seeing people dressed up made it a bit of a challenge. So we stand there 10-15 minutes talking trying to figure out what to do next. One of the girls suggests we go find Fabricio and Dario.

So we brave walking to the other side of the gym. (OK... it really wasn't that scary, the middle of the gym was pretty much empty, but at the time we were so lost for what to do, it kind of was. Did I mention that I'm REALLY awkward in these situations???)

Well we find the guys and get to talking to Dario. He is so sweet. He was going on about how he and Fabricio had talked about us and how much they liked having us in class and how much they were going to miss us. At some point we got to talking about the music they used and Dario said that we needed a CD of it. Which we were REALLY excited about, because Kelsey and I had wanted to ask and never got the guts up to ask about it.

After half an hour or so, we eventually let Dario go, and moved into our own little group again, but at least we were further in the gym. It was fun to watch people eye us trying to decide whether or not to come talk to us. (Of course people will probably tell stories about how I was eying them... but I just really like to watch people.) This one group of guys would work their way closer... then move off... then work their way closer, again. It was pretty funny.

Eventually, one guy who was really out-going finally came and talked to us. Since he didn't speak any English (except for "I love you.") People realized that they could talk to us, so more people started to come over. The ones who didn't speak much English talked with Caitlin and Anne a lot, and there were several people who spoke good English who enjoyed practicing on Kelsey and I. (Although we did talk to people in Spanish some too.)

All in all... it turned out to be really fun. I think we all got at least one marriage proposal... of course it was from the same guy... I think Anne and Kelsey may have gotten two proposals. So that was my big Uruguayan party experience. It will be interesting to see people at the gym this week. :)