Posada. Spanish for pot-luck. Monday, the owner of the spanish language school, Flor, announced a Christmas party, a posada, Friday night. We students talked about it during the morning break, with excitement. Several of the other students joked about bringing beer, since apparently none of them cook. I thought about it all week, and finally decided to make a typical botana, appetizer, Chileajo. Not a very descriptive name. It's blanched vegetables with a garlic and chile sauce, served on crispy little tortillas with a crumbled local cheese mixed with onion and oregano over the veggies. So, Thursday night, I set the pot of water on the stove, and blanched potatoes, green beans, cauliflower and carrots. I roasted twenty dried chiles and ground them with lots of garlic and a little salt. That mixture had the next 24 hours in the refrigerator to marry. Well, it was a hit! Flor had THREE helpings of it, and some of the wary gringo students tried it and prounounced it good. Flor and her staff served a delicious bean soup and tostados, and arroz con leche, rice pudding. Stuart brought beers, and late in the evening, Flor poured little cups of mezcal for everyone.
The first picture is Stuart and me with my teacher, Rosi. Notice the huge noche buena, poinsettia behind us. It must be 7 feet tall!
This is Flor is in the bad Santa suit, pillow under her shirt., getting ready to break the pinata, which was stuffed with tangerines (which cost about $1US for a truck full!). Before the pinata, thought, the staff broke us into two groups, gave us the lyrics to a traditional song (none of us knew the music), and we 'sang' our way through the Christmas story of Joseph and Mary looking for a place to stay. In spanish, of course! The singing was perfectly awful, and we laughed the entire time. That ceremony was completed with setting the Joseph and Mary figures in the little creche, to wait for the baby. There will be another ceremony when the kings arrive in January. After the terrible singing, 'Santa' appeared on the roof over the courtyard, and spilled a bag full of balloons on us. We sang Feliz Navidad, with Jose Feliciano on the boom box leading us. Then, Flor led the fun in breaking the pinata. Stuart and I had a great time. The school attracts people from all over the US and Canada, and we enjoyed hearing some of their stories. During the school day, there was little time for visiting. The food was good, the conversation was entertaining, and the staff did a great job. Late in the evening, Flor made the rounds with a bottle of mezcal, pouring little cups for each of us.
The party seemed like a personal send-off, since it was also my last day of class. I studied with Rosi four hours a day for two weeks, and my brain was in overload by Friday. I couldn't even think of some words in English! I learned a lot, and now need to practice lots. Of course, I'm working in present tense mostly, so I'm just beginning. The day before the party, I went to the market to buy veggies, and asked for 4 kilos of beans, instead of a quarter of a kilo of beans! The man was nice about my mistake, afterwards even lead me by the hand to another vendor to buy dried chiles. It's all magic, if you ask me.
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