Disco craziness!

Friday night Maricela invited the boys and I to go out with her and some friends. We didn't end up leaving the house until 10:30, which to some of you crazy party animal night owls probably seems normal or early. But let me just state that I am NOT one of you! I love a 10:30 bedtime quite often! Anyways, so we went to a bar near our house and had a couple beers, then went to another bar at the fancy mall for a bit and then to the discoteca next door (called Moods). Maricela used to work for the national beer company, so she knows all the bouncers at the club and gets in free, plus gets one other free pass, which meant I got in free too. The boys were a bit behind us and weren't so lucky--apparently they had to pay like $12 each to get in. Yikes! We danced quite a bit, Maricela knew about every 3rd person in there, and generally it was a good time. Neither of the boys have great rhythm, plus they had a bit more to drink than I did, so watching them dance was quite entertaining! I think back home in Europe they party quite a bit. Not over the top, but definitely more so than me (hard to do, right?! haha...just kidding). One of the bad things about the club is that you can smoke inside, and lots of people here smoke, so it felt pretty gross in there and I absolutely reeked of cigarette smoke when we left. Sick.

The rest of the weekend has been pretty relaxing. I finished all my homework by Saturday afternoon, and we watched a movie Saturday night. Yesterday I went to a small group near my house that I got connected with through Hosanna, the church I attended last Wed. There were about 10 other young adults in the group, and they were all very welcoming. We played a couple of games (charades with movie titles in Spanish...eek!, and capture the flag inside the house! haha) then spent some time studying the Bible. Julie guided the study, which was on the Holy Spirit. It was a good reinforcement of the lessons the Lord has been teaching me about the combination of our efforts to become more like Christ and the work that the Holy Spirit does in us to complete those efforts. It's a blessing to be connected with a small group here and a church where I can be plugged in and continue to grow in my faith while I'm here.