alright. i’ve come to accept that seeing students when i go out is inevitable.

last weekend, lisa and i went out for a really nice dinner at a place a co-worker recommended called archie’s wok. we were so stuffed afterwards that we walked the malecon about five times, and after we got sick of doing that, we decided to go to de santos, a swanky lounge-bar w/ a rooftop patio. as we were heading down the street towards the place, i spotted a grade 12 student standing on the balcony of another bar, and she saw me at the same time. she started shouting out to me, and this drew more students to the balcony, of various grade levels (the lowest being grade 9--they start drinking at around age 14 here). when the attention became unbearable (approx. 10 seconds later), we made a beeline for de santos. i personally wish we’d walked around the block first just to cover our tracks a bit, but lisa walked right in, so i followed her.
we headed up to the rooftop, and about 30 seconds after we’d been up there, i heard ppl calling me by my last name (seriously, it weirds me out to hear ppl calling me by my “teacher name” outside of school), so i turned around and there were three of my students standing behind me. they’d freakin’ followed me up there! they claimed i’d ignored them when they were shouting out to me from the balcony (truthfully, i hadn’t seen them; i guess the whole damned high school was up there or something), and they’d followed me to be properly acknowledged. so acknowledge them i did, and then they went away, which i will admit was quite nice of them, considering how they could’ve stayed there and made my night that much more mortifying.

i’ve also realized that this town really is way too tiny. yes, other ppl have told me this before, but it didn’t genuinely sink in until friday night, when lisa, kim and i were heading down to olas altas (a really cute street in the zona romantica) towards a martini bar that, believe it or not, some of my grade 12’s had recommended as having the best cocktails and martinis around (they also told me that they rarely go to that part of town b/c it has the stigma of being the church st. of vallarta, which made it even more appealing to me, since this makes it much less likely i’ll ever run into any of ‘em there).
anyway, as we were making our way down there, we ran into these guys that we met the previous night, and seriously, every five mins., we’d run into another group of guys that we knew. i think we’ve met all the local dudes that hang out downtown on weekends by now. there are no more. i’m going to have to become a tourist-shark(ette) soon.

this all brings us to saturday night, where alex & jen, dave, kim and i attended a millionaire’s wedding along w/ some other teachers from the school. the invitation said to wear white and not to bring any gifts. (what could you possibly buy a rich couple that they couldn’t buy for themselves, anyway?)
our taxi pulled up to the house (which is quite new; they’ve only lived there for nine months, and it’s supposedly for sale now), and the place seriously looked like one of the art museums i visited in europe this summer. there were pillars, fountains, and gold trimming. i think the little girl that invited us (she’s kim’s student in gr. 5, and the sister of the girl who spotted me heading to de santos the previous weekend) looked very out of place (but very cute in her white dress w/ orange-ribbon trimming) standing at the gate to greet us.
i like this girl very much; she was kidnapped from that very house and held for ransom at the start of the school year, and she handled it all very well (her father brought in some kidnapping experts from guadalajara and they managed to rescue her; it’s a long story). she was back at school two days later, and seemed barely affected by any of it. she’s a strong and smart kid (although i worry all the baggage that comes w/ being a rich man’s daughter will catch up to her one day) and she is in no way spoiled or bratty. i just think she may be feeling a little lost and confused about her life, and the reason why i think this is b/c she gave us a tour of the house and her room also looked like an art museum display, save the one humongous spongebob squarepants doll she had on her dresser. her father told us he was a big fan of the baroque period, and her room was chockfull of religious artwork and even contained something that looked like a shrine to some saint, but was kind of devoid of stuff a young girl would want to have in her room (her older sister’s room didn’t look much like a teenaged girl’s hangout, either). she showed us the games room in the basement and it had a wurlitzer jukebox that she didn’t know how to use. how could she feel comfortable in this home? it was very impressive (the kitchen looked like a restaurant’s kitchen, w/ the staff to match, and there were even small spiralling stairs that led down to the wine cellar; the guest bedroom was bigger than my whole apartment; the backyard had three bars, a swimming pool, and a lower-level lounge area that i think was set-up for the wedding) but didn’t seem very liveable.
i don’t want to feel sorry for her b/c i don’t think she needs sympathy--i just hope that she’ll eventually be able to figure out how to handle everything and be okay.
anyway, back to the event. it began at 7 p.m., and at around 7:30, the girls learned that there would be a ceremony. they didn’t really know what they had to do or where it was going to take place, so i’m guessing it was all kind of last-minute. either that, or they just hadn’t been informed about it for some reason.
the bride wore an orange dress that flattered her busty cleavage and the groom wore an orange shirt that matched it. (i guess it’s like what miranda from sex and the city said when she refused to wear white at her wedding: “i have a baby: the jig is up.”) the ceremony took place in english and in spanish (american groom, mexican bride) and was all kind of informal. many of the guests were talking and some didn’t even get up from their couches to witness the ceremony.
it was pretty sentimental, though. for the first dance, all the children were rounded up, and it turns out they’re kind of like a backwards brady bunch; the bride has two sons and the groom has three daughters. the eldest kids cut in and danced w/ their respective parents and then the next eldest took their turns and so on. i was surprised to see the eldest daughter had tears in her eyes while she was dancing w/ her dad, since she supposedly thought the wedding was going to be “stupid.” i guess a moment like that would make anybody feel emotional.
as for us, we hung out w/ the older teachers that were there (they all seem to have mexican spouses or partners) and took advantage of the open bars that were stocked w/ just about everything. we also lingered around some of the kitchen doors in order to attack any poor server guy carrying a food tray that walked out of them. for dessert, there was a table full of cakes, fruit pastries and chinese spoonfuls of creme brulee. there was also a chocolate fountain where you could drizzle or drench the stuff all over your skewers of marshmallows. yum.
dave got smashed and started dancing on the makeshift dancefloor outside by himself until some of us felt sorry for him and joined in. i ran into a few students that had been invited, and decided there was nothing i could do about it (except claim that i was only drinking “water”), so i accepted it and had a good time despite it all.
the PTA parents were dancing up a storm, and i have to admit that they were pretty fun to have on the dancefloor. they pulled me in to dance w/ them and laughed at how young i was. then they started doing crazy, yet hilarious dance moves that i’m sure their children would’ve cringed at, and when the dj started playing undanceable crap, they made us all stage a sit-in on the floor until he played something we liked.
oh, and there was also a mariachi band interlude and an impressive fireworks display (and it’s hard to have impressive fireworks when they literally have them every night here) somewhere in-between it all.
we ended up leaving at around two in the morning. it was kind of a surreal night, and i don’t think i’ll soon forget the sight of that jawdropping house all lit up and filled w/ people dressed in white staring down at us while all of us crazies from the american school burned up the dancefloor.
to be honest, it was kind of odd to be there, and it reminded me of this summer when i was in europe and went to see the vienna boys choir sing at a sunday mass. almost all of the ppl there were there to see a spectacle, and didn’t really seem to realize the actual meaning of the event (nor did the organizers of the mass seem to discourage the ignorance).
eh. i enjoyed myself last night. i guess i should leave it at that.

view from the backyard

serenaded by mariachis!

i know i keep intending to write about the males in vallarta, but i always seem to end up having too much to say about other things, and really, there isn’t that much to say about them. so here’s the gist of it:
- they all seem to marry very young here. most ppl my age have kids already
- they can be charming, but 90% of the time they’re not my type (it’s pretty hilarious to see what they come up w/ to say, though--from catcalls in the street to pick-up lines in bars)
- they can usually dance well, but i’ve never been good at that partner-style dancing stuff (unless it’s pre-choreographed!)
- i don’t think they’re trustworthy--99% of them, anyway (i actually got to have a pretty fascinating conversation w/ a cabbie once at something like two in the morning. we discussed the hypocrisies of male-female relationships here, and he was pretty candid about how he was married w/ children, but also had a daugher w/ another woman. he would never allow his wife to have an affair though, and doesn’t think she ever would. he was all so matter-of-fact about it, like it was almost normal, and to be honest, it probably kind of is here.)