Catching Up

It's been a while and some photos are two months old.
Hong Bo, William and I at Jose's birthday bash at Chahue.

New teachers.
Our newest recruits. Meet Donna, the mystery woman on the left, and Rebecca beside her. We gathered at Alex's restaurant way up the hill in Sector J. It's bit of a hike there to the top of the second hill and the streets are formidable but it's definitely worth the trip. Besides our own table, those are almost all UMAR people you see in the background

It's not easy to catch everyone smiling at the same time with a group this large. This will suffice.

I managed to get a peek in Brisas Hotel in Tangolunda when the regular English speaking announcer wasn't available for a concert. It was all written out for me, a no-brainer. I just showed up and saw the show for free for 2 minutes of speaking or less.

What I saw seemed vast and I was only in the lobby where gift shops offered deluxe prducts you'd expect to find in a huge international airport.

Maybe I'll find time for more random pictures tomorrow.

Trekking Adventure Tour

Students from the tourism department of UMAR organized an after school walk downtown yesterday. Coincidentally, my bike was locked up in my apartment after repairs and I had planned on walking home anyways. All I knew was that people were walking home in a big group but it was a big deal in honor of Children's Day and people were dressed for the occasion.

I took a lot of pictures but people were in motion and the light was fading. These are the ones that turned out.

It was dark when we arrived downtown so no pictures of the dancing and water balloon fights that took place. Good times.

UMARELA 2011

While many of the people from Centro de Idiomas went straight home after work for a long winter's nap, Santa's most faithful fans stood by to join him in the march downtown for UMARELA 2011.

It was time to go. We weren't the only ones late for the starting point.







The original plan was to just escort Santa to the propane station parking lot but the parade had already moved ahead. We were late. We couldn't wait for the rest of the stragglers. Full speed ahead.



Normally, I would have made a video of this event but, when you're responsible for the safety of the number one VIP, it's both hands on the handlebars. I passed the camera off to a willing helper with two free hands who did her best to chronicle everything.




Harrrr.





















Everybody loves Santa.




He's a rock star at UMARELA.