Juan, the chef, began preparing the grill. I'm not sure what all he did, but it was worth it! We waited for hours it seemed to have our grill out. Everyone began joking that he was cooking breakfast and we'd just go inside to find dinner.
He fixed the meat with onions, green peppers, and an avocado. He also made some quesadillas. I have not been the best about only eating as much as I should, so I was one of the last to get a tortilla and fix my taco. It was delicious and I let that be it! I was full, so I stopped. Wish I could say the same for Culiacán and Tucson, but....
We all sat outside, where it was getting much colder. At this point, I had seen the Titans' final score. It took the commentators so long (since the Steelers' score was historic having never ended a game with 10-11 ever in NFL history) to let us in on the details, that I went and looked on the internet. My "Go Titans, Go Titans" cheer only increased in volume, frequency and energy! I considered changing into my Titans t, but had to save it for the following day.
I was in shorts and a t-shirt, so I put on a long sleeved shirt and grabbed my trademark blanket. We all were sitting around, smoking (they), drinking (they- though I had my Coca Light). They were all asking why I didn't "tomar" and I couldn't really explain my concept of moderation to them. So I settled with "I prefer wine." Paloma was all up in arms saying they had been to the store and could've gotten me wine, that they just thought I didn't drink at all.
It was kinda hilarious. They all felt terrible.
After we had been sitting awhile, Paloma and Chori asked if we wanted to play a game called Psychologist. I got nervous. Who wants to play a game called psychologist with a bunch of strangers?! And in a new language?! But I took it as a learning opportunity.
I hesitate to explain the game on here because once I do we can never play, but my story won't be nearly as good if I don't explain it.
So if you want to ever play Psychologist with me, stop here and pick up in about three paragraphs.
So Juan was the chosen one. He knew most of the people there the best. (They were all high school friends, but girlfriends added in there, etc.) So he had to go away while Paloma explained the game to us. A week or two earlier, he and Chori had played with a group made up of half Germans, half Mexicans and they played in English!
While Juan was away, Paloma told us that he would have an hour to ask us anything he wanted except our names. We had to answer as truthfully as we could, but as the person to our right. If we answered incorrectly, that person (or anyone who knew the answer was wrong) could say "metira" (lie) and anyone could swap seats with anyone else. That meant you were now answering for a new person on your right. It had great potential to be hilarious, but poor Juan. I was glad I was not the psychologist. And every time he asked me a question I got nervous about understanding (I did fine). It helped that his questions were stupid:
Do you like the moon?
Do you know the answer to this game?
Why do you want to throw me into the pool?
He had one hour to figure out what was "wrong" with us (we were speaking for the person to our right) or into the pool he went.
At several points during the game, he was struggling big time, so we helped. Instead of waiting for a question, we would just give him hints. Chori was to my left one time and said that he was a girl and spoke perfect English. There were some more colorful helpful hints, too, which were really funny if you were in on the game.
Paloma and I had several exchanges. He, as me, would speak in Gringo Spanish and say things like, "I like the Dallas Cowboys" and then I of course, would shout "mentira!" I would return the favor saying I liked the Titans for him. He made some comment about Coca Light. It was a really funny game. After over an hour, Juan still didn't get it, so we (they) tossed him into the pool. It was FREEZING just outside the pool. He took it like a man. And when he got out, didn't even shiver. He waited patiently for us to explain the game and then went into the sauna (I did mention before that there was a sauna, right?). There were about 4 that went into the sauna. I didn't want to get all hot only to come out and be freezing, so I abstained. We sat around a few more hours talking about the game and making fun of Juan. "Es que no entiENdo" (it's just that I don't underSTAND). I'm really glad we played. The hour flew by and I learned a lot about the people around me. I want to play with some of my friends at home. Maybe at New Years...
***Pictures are taking unusually long to load and I have to go catch the bus from the mall. Will try again later.
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