"...What kind of animal is it from...?"

I can`t believe how long it has been since I have written on here. There is so much to catch up on that I don`t even know where to start!

First things first… Probably the most dramatic thing that has happened to me in the last two weeks was a recent occurrence related to food— it happened only two days ago. I was Skyping on Monday evening with my Dad and Donna, happily chatting away when I was told that the dinner someone had made me was getting cold. In Venezuela, the biggest meal of the day is lunch. People eat a big bowl of soup and a heaping plate of food for lunch, and for dinner they often just eat a piece of bread with cheese, nothing, a piece of fruit, or more typically, an arepa (basically a thick corn tortilla) with meat, eggs, cheese or something else. I often prepare my own dinner, and sometimes dinner for the whole family, but lately Tarary who has proven to be among the sweetest men in the world, has been making us delicious dinners of fried empanadas, arepas with avocado and cheese, elaborate sandwiches, and many other fried delicacies that I don`t know how to explain. So I was not surprised by the news that someone had made me dinner.

In the kitchen, everyone was standing around, some eating, others already finished, some choosing not to eat dinner, when they gave me a plate. On the plate was an arepa with little chunks of some sort of meat in some sort of red sauce. I eat a lot of things that I don`t recognize here, sometimes eventually figuring out what they are…. OH! It`s sardines! Or OH! It`s spam! Or OH! This chicken noodle soup has oatmeal in it! Or OH! It`s that weird hairy vegetable that I saw in the market the other day… or OH! That potato is purple and I guess I just have NO IDEA WHY! So I asked what it was, and they said it was chicken. Ok, likely story given that it looks NOTHING LIKE CHICKEN.

So I started eating it, everyone watching a little too closely. It was sort of the texture of squid… a little spongy, with a little bit of gristle on it. Too spongy for chicken, too tough for poultry. I kind of stopped eating the meat and just ate the arepa… “This does not taste like chicken,” I said, “What is it??” I already had an idea of what it might be. I suspected that it was something that I had seen in the supermarket, something that I hoped I would never, ever be served, but I didn`t want to accuse anyone of lying to me so I kept with the questions.

“What part of the animal is it from??” … We don`t know what it is called in English. “What kind of animal is it from?” … A vaca, okay, a cow. “What is it called?” “Mondongo.” AHHHHH! My suspicions were confirmed. I was, in fact, eating a big plate of COW INTESTINES. Awesome. Four years of vegetarianism, and now I am sitting here with a plate of COW INTESTINES that I am expected to eat. I decided to draw the line. I said I couldn`t eat anymore, that this would be REALLY weird and considered really disgusting in my country, and I just couldn`t get past it. They were like, “But WHY? It isn`t like it`s a weird thing to eat or anything…”

“In my country, it would be just as weird to eat cow intestines as it would be to eat crickets, or to eat a snake…” I told them. “EW! I would NEVER EAT THOSE, THAT IS SO WEIRD!!!!” they responded. And so they took my cow intestines, and told me that they would eat them for breakfast because they were too full from the huge plates of intestines they had already eaten to eat them now. And we laughed… and I felt a little gross…

In other news, I feel REALLY busy lately. My typical week has been to wake up around 6:30, leave at around 7:30 for work (either teaching English classes to elementary aged kids in rural schools with Bibliomulas or tutoring at the American Corner). I am there from about 8 until 12, when we face the horrible colas (translated: traffic jams) to go home for lunch. Susana, my host mom, makes us lunch, which is typically very good, though there are always some slightly different things. Want some ketchup on your rice? Mayonnaise on your pasta? Lime on your green beans?

I then come back to the university for my level two English class, from 2-4, and my children`s class from 4-6. I absolutely love my level 2 class. It is so fun, we always laugh, and it is really great to see how much they have learned in 11 weeks (most of my level 2 students are from my level 1 class)! My little kids class is challenging, and I will be relieved when it is over. Afterwards, I sometimes stay in the University until around 8 correcting exams and homework and planning classes, or else I do it in my house. I make dinner, hang out with the family, sometimes skype a little, and go to bed pretty late. Add in hand-washing all my clothes and trying to keep up with foreign correspondence and HAVING FRIENDS. It`s a lot.

The good news is that without a computer, I have certainly had lots of time to hang out with friends, travel, and experience many, many different (cough) cultural activites. I went to Maracaibo last weekend, where I found myself at a professional baseball game, drinking watery beer with a whole bunch of ex-professional baseball players (as in they played in the US) in our own VIP box. Below us, we could see people throwing beers through the stadiums, mascots dancing salsa and merengue out on the field, people shouting unfamiliar chants in Spanish. The vendors brought us fried plantains, churros, whiskey and other foods that I wouldn`t expect at a baseball game, but that were fabulously delicious. After the game, I went out to a gay club with friends. I would leave out the detail that it was a gay club, except that it meant that I was in the unique situation of feeling comfortable in front of nearly all the men I saw. We danced the night away, until the sun rose and the lights were turned on. We ate a breakfast of pastelitos (essentially mozzarella sticks in circular form) before we went to bed, finally collapsing in our beds at about 8 in the morning.

I have also had the opportunity to attend some musical and dance performances. I`m sure it will come as a surprise to many of you that Venezuela has one of the most progressive music education programs in the world. In Venezuela, there is a program called El Sistema, which essentially funds music education for poor children nationwide. There are youth orchestras in every city, including Valera, and they are incredibly talented. Many conductors for some of the most famous orchestras in the US are Venezuelan-born and participated in El Sistema. SO, needless to say, there are many very talented musicians here. About a week ago, I went to an event which was essentially American Idol for the university where I teach. University students and professors competed for the title of best voice in the university. Every single person who participated was very talented, though some were truly incredible. The most impressive group was a vocal quintet at the end which sang some of the most interesting and tight harmonies I have ever heard in a small ensemble. There was also a mediocre, somewhat strange dance performance at the end. It involved a lot of girls, some Shakira songs, and some sparkly scarves. A strange way to finish off the night, but nonetheless entertaining.

I also attended a showcase of Flamenco dancing about two weeks ago. The dancing was really entertaining. I could barely sit still in my seat on the stairs while watching the women dance. It made me want to wear a flowing skirt and stomp my feet… the awkward part of the night, though, was that the friend of mine who invited me to the event was a participant in the dance. You know how in every dance performance, there`s always that one person who is spinning the wrong direction, and gives an extra three stomps after everyone is stopped… well that was my friend. Painful to watch, but definitely a really fun event!!! It made me want to take Flamenco classes.

So that about brings us up to date. My classes end next Thursday and I have planned a fantastic trip to Angel Falls, the tallest waterfall in the world (and one of the natural wonders!!), and to several other places in the Amazon/Orinoco River delta on the other side of the country. I am also planning to spend a week on the beach after Christmas! So I am peachy as can be, awaiting the delivery of a new computer that my Dad and Donna so graciously and generously sent to me this week, correcting homework and learning new Spanish slang every day. I hope you had wonderful Thanksgivings! Hasta luego!