The Office Party

I am going to present to you the happenings of the school Christmas party. It was on Friday; the kids had early dismissal to make time for this staff-only event, which, by the way, is called a 'posada.'

Because it was actually pretty cold that day, the party was held in the gym. It was still freezing in the gym, so they put three patio heaters in there to heat the place. It wasn't nearly enough, and everyone was still wearing their coats. My friends and I managed to push through the crowd to sit at a table beside one of the heaters, which resulted in my face being hot and the rest of me frigid.

The celebration started with people speaking rapid Spanish (is there any other kind?) into a sound system that made every noise coming out of it sound distorted. Then there were the plays. Four groups of people volunteered to present little plays about the devil getting in the way of the shepherds on their way to Bethlehem. Apparently these plays are very common. So the first group had two people dressed up as Mary and Joseph in fully-made costumes. They began their play by walking around the gym with a donkey. A real donkey. They made their way to the stage, and then things got loud, distorted, Spanish-y, and confusing. I have no idea what the play was actually about. The next three plays were equally beyond my grasp. What stands out, besides the Pokemon-inspired music, was a play that had angels and devils fighting it out with boxing gloves. The whole thing was insane, and it would have been a great basis for an acid trip. I haven't mentioned yet that there were caterers BBQ-ing food. Indoors. So I was getting pretty high on the CO2 also, I think (and everything smelled smokey).

It was finally time for the food. We lined up, walked past the heating trays, and helped ourselves to some pretty good grub. There was a mole (which is really just saucy meat), a bunch of other meats, and tortilla shells to put everything into. Apparently it was very traditional Mexican food, and it was good. I've also noticed that they're not big on vegetables down here... . Dessert was cotton candy (I don't know how traditional that is...).

After food, we played loteria, which is bingo. The prizes were pretty awesome: a bunch of big-screen TVs, some tiny laptop things, a few small appliances (toaster, etc). We didn't win squat. It was interesting that most of the winners were the maintenance and cleaning staff...

And that was it. Posadas are a pretty big deal here, and seem to be pretty expected for any business to have. We had a second, much smaller, posada for the Upper Elementary (grades 4-6) division yesterday. Similar food, and then just sitting around talking to people I don't normally talk to. The kids in my class are going to have a posada too, but there isn't a settled date yet, so I don't know if I'll be going or not.