Thursday, June 02, 2005
Lord of the Ring
Today - well, technically yesterday since it's 2:20 AM now - I attended the first of four events that occur for the graduating senior class: The Ring Ceremony. Basically, what happened is that I had to get all dressed up, walk down an aisle with my parents, and receive a gift and my class ring. Afterwards, there was a "cocktail".
This year, they decided to change the "cocktail" a bit. Whereas in past years it was basically just a buffet where you get whatever you want and mingle with everyone, I don't think it's safe to call what they had this year a cocktail. More like a "fancy shmancy sit-down dinner." Each student had their own table where they would eat with their families and whoever they invited - we didn't invite anyone since we didn't realize it would be so formal. It was kind of surprising to sit down and be faced with three forks and two knives, since we weren't expecting something so formal. We were probably the only table that hadn't invited anyone to attend with us, so that was kind of awkward.
The "salad" consisted of tomatoes and cheese on top of a lettuce bed. I don't call that a salad. I call that decorative vegetables.
The main course was pretty good: chicken lasagna. Other than that, I mainly just chowed down on rolls and Coke.
Something really weird happened though. Before leaving, we noticed a piece of black rubber lying on the ground upstairs. We figured someone had scraped their shoe or something and it had fallen off. No big deal.
When my dad got out of the car at school, his entire right heal was missing. Just gone. Left in the floor of the car. Turns out he hadn't worn those shoes in years and years, and they were so dry they were basically falling apart. It was kinda funny to see him hobbling around trailing black chunks of rubber. Eventually it got to the point where he had to change shoes with James since he was afraid his shoes would completely fall apart as he was walking down the aisle. By the time the evening was over, the other heal was gone and the sides looked pretty rough. Something tells me that pair of shoes is going into the trash.
Lesson of the day: Wear all your pairs of shoes on a regular basis. Otherwise, when you finally do get around to wearing a pair you haven't touched in a long time, they'll fall apart as you walk.
After the ring ceremony I went out with Souwa to join the whole rest of the grade in "celebrating". We ended up going to this bar. Now, I had never been to a real bar or discotec in Central America before. Anyways, we paid $5 to get in, and the guy at the door asked us, "What are you going to drink?" Souwa and I, not planning on consuming any alcohol, simply said, "Coca" - short for Coca Cola. It was really noisy and the guy evidently didn't understand what we said, since he marked us down as drinking "vodka". If the vodka was served in bottles, I was planning on using that to get two bottles I could take home and post pictures of here. After all, better to have vodka at my house not being drunk than causing some moron to drive and die. But alas, it was served in glasses, so I didn't get anything to drink or carry home.
The bar consisted of an pretty small area where people were smoking and drinking. It was freakin' crowded. Now I know what a sardine feels like. Seriously, at times we couldn't move because we were surrounded on all sides. When I first walked in I could hardly see anything because of all the smoke - and I came home smelling like smoke, which kinda sucked. Souwa and I had been standing around donig nothing for 15-20 minutes when a guy from our grade came and announced, "It's two for one at Code!" Code is another bar/discotec, and they were letting two people get in for the price of one. As a result, the entire grade basically left and went there. Souwa and I didn't feel like going to another bar or dancing, and we didn't want to spend any more money, so I called home and my mom came to pick us up.
Right as she pulled up, we were informed that students from our school could get in for free. Oh well. It didn't matter - we just weren't in the mood.
It was kinda sad to see so many people crammed into a smoke-filled room smoking and drinking, with music so loud you had to shout in order to talk. I saw a few 9th or 10th graders in there - underage drinking is extremely common here in Central America.
Ah, well. It was an interesting experience, to say the least.
Quote of Da Moment:
"If you need an excuse for why you don't drink alcohol, you could say that addiction runs in your family and you don't want to try it even once because you may not stop until you are dead in a puddle of your own vomit or smashed into the side of a mini-van with children's body parts scattered all around your corpse."
--Duane Alan Hahn
This year, they decided to change the "cocktail" a bit. Whereas in past years it was basically just a buffet where you get whatever you want and mingle with everyone, I don't think it's safe to call what they had this year a cocktail. More like a "fancy shmancy sit-down dinner." Each student had their own table where they would eat with their families and whoever they invited - we didn't invite anyone since we didn't realize it would be so formal. It was kind of surprising to sit down and be faced with three forks and two knives, since we weren't expecting something so formal. We were probably the only table that hadn't invited anyone to attend with us, so that was kind of awkward.
The "salad" consisted of tomatoes and cheese on top of a lettuce bed. I don't call that a salad. I call that decorative vegetables.
The main course was pretty good: chicken lasagna. Other than that, I mainly just chowed down on rolls and Coke.
Something really weird happened though. Before leaving, we noticed a piece of black rubber lying on the ground upstairs. We figured someone had scraped their shoe or something and it had fallen off. No big deal.
When my dad got out of the car at school, his entire right heal was missing. Just gone. Left in the floor of the car. Turns out he hadn't worn those shoes in years and years, and they were so dry they were basically falling apart. It was kinda funny to see him hobbling around trailing black chunks of rubber. Eventually it got to the point where he had to change shoes with James since he was afraid his shoes would completely fall apart as he was walking down the aisle. By the time the evening was over, the other heal was gone and the sides looked pretty rough. Something tells me that pair of shoes is going into the trash.
Lesson of the day: Wear all your pairs of shoes on a regular basis. Otherwise, when you finally do get around to wearing a pair you haven't touched in a long time, they'll fall apart as you walk.
After the ring ceremony I went out with Souwa to join the whole rest of the grade in "celebrating". We ended up going to this bar. Now, I had never been to a real bar or discotec in Central America before. Anyways, we paid $5 to get in, and the guy at the door asked us, "What are you going to drink?" Souwa and I, not planning on consuming any alcohol, simply said, "Coca" - short for Coca Cola. It was really noisy and the guy evidently didn't understand what we said, since he marked us down as drinking "vodka". If the vodka was served in bottles, I was planning on using that to get two bottles I could take home and post pictures of here. After all, better to have vodka at my house not being drunk than causing some moron to drive and die. But alas, it was served in glasses, so I didn't get anything to drink or carry home.
The bar consisted of an pretty small area where people were smoking and drinking. It was freakin' crowded. Now I know what a sardine feels like. Seriously, at times we couldn't move because we were surrounded on all sides. When I first walked in I could hardly see anything because of all the smoke - and I came home smelling like smoke, which kinda sucked. Souwa and I had been standing around donig nothing for 15-20 minutes when a guy from our grade came and announced, "It's two for one at Code!" Code is another bar/discotec, and they were letting two people get in for the price of one. As a result, the entire grade basically left and went there. Souwa and I didn't feel like going to another bar or dancing, and we didn't want to spend any more money, so I called home and my mom came to pick us up.
Right as she pulled up, we were informed that students from our school could get in for free. Oh well. It didn't matter - we just weren't in the mood.
It was kinda sad to see so many people crammed into a smoke-filled room smoking and drinking, with music so loud you had to shout in order to talk. I saw a few 9th or 10th graders in there - underage drinking is extremely common here in Central America.
Ah, well. It was an interesting experience, to say the least.
Quote of Da Moment:
"If you need an excuse for why you don't drink alcohol, you could say that addiction runs in your family and you don't want to try it even once because you may not stop until you are dead in a puddle of your own vomit or smashed into the side of a mini-van with children's body parts scattered all around your corpse."
--Duane Alan Hahn
# posted by Andrew Johnson : 6/02/2005 04:19:00 AM 
