"A Riot of Color*" (La Fiesta del Naciones)

I thought of my dad as I hesitantly reached a hand up to cover my ear. The prime seating of the third row came at a cost-- my hearing for the night. It's normal for my dad to sneak his way out of loud venues. He takes good care of his ears, as do I. But this moment was one to experience fully, and eventually, I just gave up. The cultural music of Chile, Argentina, and Colombia (among many others) refused to be blocked by the feeble skin and bone of my left hand. Plus, I needed it to clap along with the rest of the three or four hundred people seated behind me in the auditorio (gymnasium). We clapped and clapped as the reds and blues and greens and blacks flashed and swirled, guitars danced, and drums and other unknown instruments pounded.

Los Estados Unidos (the United States) stand I had begrudgingly agreed to help with the Thursday before the event of this past Sunday turned out a lot better than I'd planned. Yes, I did spend two days and a night of studying that I needed for the three tests I have this week on making banners for E.U. football teams and coloring E.U. flags. Which I am still a bit bitter about. But it was worth it. Our stand was a success, and the entire afternoon was amazing!

First of all, here at the UAP, it seems that things are done halfway. They go all out. There is no little mini-stand with a few pictures and some red carpet. Oh no, there are jungles and beaches and food. Such delicious food shouldn't be allowed to spread apart in so many different countries. With all the incredible creativity and action taking place, imagine Adele music blaring in the background, people in their traditional outfits dancing up to you, an entire train (non-working) made out of cardboard and dollies, and bamboo jungles to explore. With only two days to plan and put our measly little E.U. stand into action-- as well as come up with a presentation to represent our country-- the few ACA students who rallied together to make this happen did a pretty decent job.

The overall theme of the Fiesta this year was the history of your country. We decided to go with a Superbowl/ patriotic themed booth. One side of the booth consisted of banners with different football team logos on them, a TV playing football game clips and commercials, and a little couch. The other half of the booth showed snippets of our history through hand drawn posters (we discovered there are a LOT of talented artists in our ACA group) and then a game of Twister. In the middle was home-made macaroni and cheese and Orange Fanta floats for people to try. We even had a fancy little Statue of Liberty with the face cut out for photo-ops. Surprisingly, people loved it! There were always three or four people playing Twister, the floats were a hit, and the mixed Spanish and English in the air made the constant stream of people interesting to interact with.

Now jump back to the load music and bright colors. That was presentation time. Each country had a video clip play first showcasing their country, then a little act or song or whatever up on the stage. In total, each was about 5-7 minutes long. For our presentation, we sang the Star-Spangled Banner and then had a gymnastics routine to "Cotton-Eyed Joe". Success! I have to say, even though our ACA group is pretty diverse this year, we have some pretty amazing people in it. Singers, gymnasts, artists, leaders, organizers, and supporters alike made our booth a success and inadvertently helped with a little bonding as well.

Among the countries repping on Sunday were: Perú (they literally built the mountains of Machu Picchu into their corner of the gym) Colombia, los Estados Unidos, Curaçao, Canada, South Korea, Europe, Paraguay, Chile, Argentina, Cuba, Ecuador. After the presentations came the annoyance of cleaning up, but it was quite easy in light of our simple booth.

If your not bored reading yet, here are a few other unrelated things I've learned the past couple of days:

- My Spanish is getting better.
- I've been writing my tildes (the little accents on Spanish words) wrong. The are written from top to bottom, not with a little flick up kind of stroke.
- I can go a full day without eating something deliciously sugary here.
- I need to study my vocab more if I want to learn Spanish faster.

Now it is off to an early bedtime for me! I still have two more tests to get through this week.


*The phrase "a riot of color" is taken from one of my favorite movies, A Knight's Tale and describes perfectly what the presentations were like. I've been waiting years to use it. Even if it is only in the title of this post, I am now content.