Black and White Phantom of the Opera Themed Party!

What a fun mesario (monthly anniversary) Marco and I had this past Friday. We celebrated 26 months. How the time flies! We like to celebrate as many anniversaries/mesarios possible. It keeps things fun! It is also an excuse to go out.

We went to a super fun party at the Circulo Militar which is where we are going to have our wedding reception. It won't be nearly as big nor in the garden but the table dressings will be similar and it will be even more fun. The theme of the night was Black and White but more specifically Phantom of the Opera. They hired people to dress up in costumes and greet people as they came in. There was a whole display with a piano and old furniture. It was really great. The party was held to raise money for the charity that the women's committee of the Circulo Militar works with. I am sure they made a decent amount of money considering the tickets were 50 soles and there were at least 2500 tickets sold.

We got to the party around 9:30pm and went through three different checkpoints before getting the actual event. We had to get our table checked, get our tickets checked and put our number in for the car raffle. (Needless to say we didn't win.) We made our way through a sea of tables and a huge dance floor before getting to our table number 129. I met a few officers and their wives. One was Argentinian and taking the course that Marco is in as a guest. The other is also a guest at the school and is in the Peruvian Air Force. Later, one of Marco's good friends and classmates arrived and sat at our table. We didn't spend too much time at our table though. The music was wonderful and as anyone who knows about Latin culture, dancing is in their blood. It is one of the things I really love about Peruvian and Latin American culture. Everyone dances. It doesn't matter if you are a male or female. Everyone can move their hips and starts doing it from the time they can walk. We danced a LOT!

There is something called Hora Loca here. It seems to be around midnight or so and clowns and balloons and crazy hats come out. We got to keep our silly hats. There was one point when the main singer of the band taught everyone a line dance. It involved a decent amount of hip movement and was quite hilarious. There were also two silk acrobat artists. The guy was much better than the girl so I only took pictures of him.

I had a great conversation with another wife of Marco's promo. (They use the word promocion or promo for short to call someone with whom they graduated any type of school.) She has a three year old and is interested in having her take violin lessons once they are all settled in. They just moved to Lima from Piura. I would love to have her daughter as a student!

Finally, it was really great to see Marco with his buddies. He was having such a blast. He hadn't seen or hung out with them in a really long time. Given the nature of his work, it doesn't surprise me. We are going to take full advantage of opportunities like this one and when something comes along where we can go out and meet up with his friends, we will do it. Lima has a way of isolating everyone since it is so big and there is only so much time in the day. We make the most of what we have and it's really not that bad in the end.

I joked that this picture is the closest thing we have to formal engagement photos. Haha!

The crew

I am branching out and I joined a group called Women with Wine. It is a group of mostly expat ladies who get together and drink wine once a month. My friend Julie, who sang for me in Cusco while I was in the States, introduced me. She is living here in Lima too and teaching at an elementary school. We have yet to set up a time when we are going to get lunch or coffee. Like I said, it is not as easy to set up dates with friends when it takes 30 minutes to an hour to get somewhere.

I am starting my training with Coro Arpegio this week and I will be singing as a trainee this weekend at a wedding. We (myself and a woman named Viviana whom I have yet to meet) were going to start in August as new members but because May and June are high season for weddings, they need us to sing as full on members on May 18th. Perfect timing since I will be getting back from Spain shortly before that.

Wedding planning will go into full swing once I get back from Spain as well. There is definitely a lot to do but the main stuff is all squared away. It's all the other stuff that comes along with planning a wedding and since I am not hiring a wedding planner I get to take on the roll of planner and I am sure at times coordinator for my relatives and friends who will be traveling to Peru. It's all good because I can't wait to see all of them and have them see Peru. It's going to be awesome!

All right. This was a sufficiently long blog post. Happy Monday everyone!