VIVA MEXICO!

Last night, I was getting a little restless, and, as it was a Saturday night, I wanted to go out, preferably dancing. It had rained all day, Amanda and I made a million pierogi, and I was ready to go work off some excess energy. Thus, I called my friend Yu to see if she was interested, but I got no response. I then SMS'd Florian to see what he was up to. He was game for heading into the city, and we were about to take off when I got a call from my friend Miguel inviting us to a Mexican party celebrating the Mexican Independence Day, which is this week.

Holy goodness, is there ever a thriving, vibrant, open, friendly, and welcoming Latino community in Trier! I met around 20 Latinos, many from Mexico City, a few from Spain, and one particularly good-looking one from Venezuela, who has lived and worked in Trier for the past four years. Everyone was super welcoming to the two lost little Americans and their gangly German friend.

The party was a blast, held in the common area of a Studentenwohnheim for the Catholic college in the city. Delicious, flavorful, REAL Mexican food was devoured, including rice, mole, chili con carne, and some delicious taquito-type food. YUM. How thankful I am for the Latino community here! They were also very giving with their tequila, many various bottles and sliced limes lying around, everyone always asking if we had a drink.

After eating, it was around midnight, and one of the Mexican men got on the table and explained in Spanish and Deutsch the reason for our gathering, and we all yelled "VIVA MEXICO!" many times, celebrating Mexico's independence.

Then, oh then... came the dancing.

At this point, people were starting to loosen up a little, and the natural friendliness that is so often found in Latinos really geared up. I found myself talking for hours with four guys in particular, trading topics like one of their recent trips to Paris, one's home in Venezuela, jobs, school, and everything.

Over our conversations was the thump of beautiful bass, the glorious sounds of reggaeton, salsa, and other traditional and new Latin and Mexican music. A few people started dancing, and soon Amanda and I were being pestered to dance, also. I was interested, but I also was enjoying the conversations a lot, particularly with the Venezuelan, Eric. He asked if I knew how to salsa, and when I replied no, he said that when the next salsa song came on, he would teach me how.

And, oh, how he did! Eric is an incredible dancer! Wow! He can break dance, moonwalk, pop it with the best of them... and he taught me the basics of salsa, a little samba, and merengue!! It was SO much fun! I found myself whirling around the room for the next five hours, being grabbed by a different boy for every dance, and even when Amanda and Florian were practically walking out the door at 5 am, I was hardly ready to leave!

But, leave we did, walking outside, Eric accompanying us, and attempting to call a taxi. As the clubs were all emptying out at the time, we got no answer from two different taxi services, so Eric walked with us to the Porta Nigra, where there is perpetually a taxi or four waiting.

Thus, we arrived home, exhausted and excited... but with still enough energy to eat some of our millions of homemade pierogi.

Things are really looking up, guys! I'm excited to hear from my new friends (can I say that already) whom I met last night, and orientation starts next week!! Wow. Even though the weather is, as Amanda so aptly described, like a beautiful November day, the sun is shining, I've eaten REAL food again and danced my heart out (at least until tonight), met some great people who are here for the year (or longer!), and life is just plain awesome. :)