Well, the fourth of July is not only going to stick in my mind as an American holiday. All islands have their individual patron saint holidays. Boa Vista's happens to fall next Wednesday, July 4th. So there's reason to send sparklers in the air after all :) The entire island is scrambling to make preparations, they have built a new polivalente, like a sort of small stadium type place. Our apartment building has undergone rigorous construction for last two weeks, like it's going to make a difference really. But Boa Vista is determined to look it's best, especially my town of 2,000 people. They are making all the preparations they can to look and feel their best for all the people who will be coming in from all over the country to participate in simply a big party on the street, with maybe someone getting on the stage in the polivalente and singing at around 3am. I'm really not kidding. I was not cut out for this kind of socialization. This staying up all night and partying for two days straight business is killer for those of us who enjoy our sleeps! It's also a nice coincidence that Cape Verdian independence day is July 5th, the following day. So where else to spend it than the island that already began partying two days before?! So as we have heard from many of our friends, the island will be flooded with out of towners and no doubt the large handful of large-video-camera-toting-tourists. I am told by a friend of mine who used to work for the government, but now I'm actually not sure what he does, that an American singer/performer person will be coming to participate in the festivities. I believe he will be performing. I was pretty baffled when my friend Paolo told me his name and then asked me if I knew him. I'm sure a look of baffled amusement came over my face. I replied that sorry I didn't know him, although I held in the statements that America is not like Cape Verde, where everyone knows everyone else, if for nothing else but for the fact that they're probably related in some way. Anyway, he said he would introduce him to Leland and me and we would all go out for dinner.

Anyway, excitement is in the air for the up and coming party fest of non-stop drinking, eating, hitting buried chickens (probably while drinking and eating all that the same time), running through lighted bonfires (again, not really joking about this one), all while occasionally turning an ear towards the stage to listen to the current performer and possibly trying an attempt to dance with the nearest unlucky girl who happens to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Well, I'm excited. No, really. This culture has managed to shine and excel at the most bizarre and random times, I look forward to seeing how they stand their steady ground in this event.

In other news, school is officially over, although I have to give a small recourse to a few students who managed to fail the cycle, meaning that their grades from 7th and 8th grade were bad enough combined that they may have to take a retest in order not fail my subject. I believe I have 5 8th graders who may be taking the course. When this recourse starts, or who exactly is coming, or really what exactly i'm supposed to do are still bits of useful information that have yet to be passed on to me. I'm not that worried anymore, as I am usually the last person to know anything. But it could have been worse. There could have been MORE than 5 people who failed. So my life has become a little more dull these days, as is evident by the complete lack of blogging, and for this I am sorry. I will give you all an update on the goings on of the festival as it progresses. But on the major plus side, ENGLAND IN 29 DAYS!!! Hope everyone is well :)

So, I almost never go to the discotheque. In fact, the last time I went was Christmas. So owing to a huge lapse in my judgment this past weekend, I decided to brave it yet again. The reasons for my going were basically one-fold: I was curious. You know, the same way a bug is drawn into the light and then gets zapped. It was something social to do on a Saturday night. Now my reasons for not going in the past have been about a hundred-fold and of course they were all reinforced the night I was there.

We the night began at a local bar where I was asked to be someone's girlfriend. Now this offer is not new, but the justification was quite original. He is a guy who works in our apartment building's office. He's actually the guy we ordered all our bookshelves stuff from, so he's an acquaintance of sorts. He basically told me that his situation in life demanded that he had a respectable looking girlfriend. It's not right that he has a comfy job in a respectable company and not have a nice little bit of arm candy to show off to all his friends (ok, when I refer to myself as these ridiculous things, please don't think that I was the one who actually said this about myself, these are all the silly things the beings we call male Cape Verdians come up with; I am not that conceited). Ok, well one interesting relationship proposal for the night, and we hadn't even made it to the disco yet.

We at the disco, I avoid the central areas as it is likely I would have ended up dancing with a sweaty smelly male who would likely thrust his hips just a little too close to mine and then I would regret ever being born and subjected to the kind of torture that is a 7 minute Zuk song. Who in their right mind decided that slow songs should last this long??! Not only that, but the DJ has decided to play a 1 1/2 hour run of these auditory nightmares and you can't really tell where one song stops and the other one begins, so what started as a 7 minute slightly bearable dance, turns into a mishmash of hell on a dance floor that has no apparent end. So anyway, I move myself to the outside and find a nice comfortable row of chairs that resemble a row of theater seats that were unceremoniously ripped from the theater and place on the wall of a Cape Verdian disco. So there I sit, waiting for 3am and therefor the bus ride home. Enter the man who wins the award for drunkest Cape Verdian at 2am. Conversation ensues. And when I say conversation, I mean he talks (and spits) about how beautiful I am and I try and politely inch farther and farther away from him. And before I know it, he has proposed marriage. Nope, I'm not joking.

Oh, I'm not done. 3am finally comes around. I am about to get up and go outside to catch the bus, when the man who wins the award for second drunkest man in Cape Verde enters, and sits down next to me. Several ridiculous compliments and a lapful of ponche later, I tell him I am leaving and I have to go. He seems to be a little troubled by this, but I am relieved to see he doesn't follow me. Oh nope, I was wrong. I am sitting on the semi-full bus and we are waiting for more passengers so he can cart a full load back to Vila. I see my latest admirer outside the window and I immediately try and hide myself. Didn't work. Onto the bus he comes and stands over me speaking nice and loudly so that all the people on the bus have a nice show to end their evening. He tells me that even though we've never had a conversation, he knows that I'm the one and he likes me so so much. I'm the most beautiful girl in Cape Verde, blah blah blah. It's just nice that it was dark or i'm sure I would have been 8 shades of purple by this time. People on the bus are of course staring and when I don't let him sit next to me he leaves once again. At this point I am tired, near tears, and I just want to go home. Oh, nope, he's back however. By this time there are of course more people on the bus, but there is also a non-groping/spitting man sitting next to me, thankfully. Apparently that is no object to my admirer who practically steps over him to hand me a little piece of paper with his name, phone number and address on it. I called it already, we're going out this Saturday :)

No, I haven't lost my mind quite that much yet! Anyway, that was my eventful Saturday night and if I ever consider going there again (unless it's for an extremely special occasion) will you please go to any lengths to stop me? Well, in other news, the end of the school year is in a week (yay!)and all my students have finished their final exams. Now, I just have to correct them all. Oh, and I go to England in 44 days. So excited.