An embarrassing day in which I see too many familiar faces!!
                  These last couple days, Favio, Lore, Ana, Diego, Evodio and I have been outside on the concrete basketball/soccer court practicing for our escolta!! On Monday and Tuesday, Lore and I spent our whole time teaching kids from tercer ciclo (fifth and sixth graders, well also a fourth grader with Oscar) because they out-of-the-blue decided they wanted to compete in the escolta competition (which was on Wednesday). That left us with TWO days to teach finicky younger kids how to do practically everything we did in a month!!! It was Oscar, Ricardo (Ana's brother), Juan Carlos, Claudio (Lore's sweet cousin who I tutored because he was in my position), Luis and Carlos Eduardo. We taught them as best as we could, spiffed them up for their competition and went through a last minute practice.
                 While they were gone to their competition, we started our first day-long practice with hats and lots of sunscreen. We can concentrate on it long enough to do one run-through or less and then we start goofing off. We are doing pretty well considering our really short attention span!!
                  I got burned one day (I am not sure which) and even now that I wear a hat and sunscreen every day since that, I still have red cheeks!! Today, our Spanish teacher and her husband (our escolta teacher) brought us each two bolis (milk popcicles with flavors) to eat!
                  Our competition is tomorrow and so I am a tad bit nervous about all the steps.

                   El chiste es que nos van a dar puntos basados en como hacemos los evoluciones en una manera especifica, nuestros uniformes, si vamos juntos y como levantamos nuestras rodillas etc. (Sorry it was just easier for me to right that in Spanish than English to describe that, now wait while I translate what I just wrote in Spanish with Google Translate back to my native language....how sad!)

                                                       ..........................................
I'm back, okay here is what I said:
"The point (in Spanish: the joke is meaning the same thing) is that we're getting points based on how we make the changes in a specific way, our uniforms, if we are together and raise our knees etc"

Wish me luck!!

Primary's escolta practicing before the competition. From far left, Ricardo, Juan, Oscar, Claudio and Luis in the back. There is one more person who goes behind Juan though he is blocked by him.

Oscar and Luis in his serious-verging on grumpy face

Okay, well I went to the competition on Friday and here is what happened:

Well, on Tuesday, I asked Miguel (my soccer friend) where he went to school and he said the state school so when I heard that that was where the competition was, I wondered if I would see him there. 

As luck would have it, he was the first person I saw as I entered the gates to the public school in puffy white hats, gloves and full on uniforms. I instantly smiled as I saw him (he tends to have that effect on me) and he came over and kissed me on the cheek before walking off to do whatever he was doing. 

They informed us that because we arrived late that we would go last so as we waited for our turn, Favio went and talked to some friends as did Diego. That left Lore, Ana and I constantly adjusting our boinas (the definition I believe are white puffy hats) as Evodio sat on the ground with his back to the wall as he asked us to kill him so he wouldn't have to go through with the escolta which he said was extremely embarrassing using stronger words. In Spanish that would be "que puto pena" (what f***ing shame), he and Favio kept repeating it over and over and I didn't understand quite what they meant until I had a major slip-up as we presented! 

Diego was talking to his friends one of whom just happened to be Brandon the goalie for the older team. I tried to make it so he wouldn't notice me but Diego told me later that Brandon told him that he knew me and Oscar and that we played well. 

After waiting, more adjusting of hats and photos, we got ready to go onto the arena, my heart started beating really hard and I saw Miguel walk over to watch as we got set up. The first part turned out well but as soon as we did the foot slap on the concrete (called as "desplante") and then turned to form a column of one, I slipped. Just as we were turning, my foot slipped out from under me on an extremely slippery part and my leg slid out. I caught myself before I fell and kept going but everyone was already giggling. I don't think I have ever been more embarrassed in MY LIFE!!!!!! I am sure my face burned up but I didn't show any emotion and I just kept doing the routine. We did pretty well besides that though at the end, since I was next to Favio, I could hear him hyperventilating, which I sort of inwardly cracked up at because he never is freaked out!! 

We finished and after we filed out, Lore burst into tears it was because of the nerves and because she thought we were the worst escolta ever. It took a while for her to calm down and stop thinking she and the rest of us were awful. Then, with a calmer Lorena, we went and got sandwiches and soda. As we were walking back, I hear someone calling my soccer name: "Yur, Yur, Yurmina, Yurmina." It took me a while to realize that that was me but I turned around and there was Miguel who called me over. I got Ana and Lore to come with me and we walked over to him. He kissed us on the cheek and then said that Lore looked familiar to him, turns out that an old friend of Lore's had shown him pictures of them and so that was why he had seen her before (albeit in photo form). We said good-bye and ate our food. Lore's hands still shook but her mood had greatly improved.

After we had finished, we had to don our hats again to meet up in the middle of the makeshift stage so all the comandantes (leaders, ours was Lore) could receive our certificates. Then, they announced the winners. The school that we were competing in won first place and in second place was the afternoon version of the school we were in. The funny thing is, Lore whispered to me that she bet the school we were in would win. Everyone in my class including teachers, thinks that the competition was bought, meaning that the school paid to win. That really surprised me because in the U.S., that would never have occurred to me!! That just shows how different these two places are.

As we were about to leave, someone called my soccer name again.  I turned around and there was Lenny; evidently, he goes to school there. Then, I am with the rest of my escolta buddies and someone else calls my name and I turn around and it is Gabi!!! They practically all go there and I was so embarrassed that they all saw my trip!!

We went to get popcicles where I accidentally picked a nasty one (note to self: never get grosella!!). We  took a detour going to school but eventually showed up!!

Our escolta practicing in front of our school before going to the competition