Woops!

Last night I went to a park with 3 Brasilians, a French, and a Portuguese (oh my!) to watch the ocean from the cliffs and drink a few beers. While we sat in the grass and shared travel stories in both English and Spanish, the French shared a project with us that he has been working on. The idea behind it was that he would video tape someone telling a story, completely made up on the spot, for as long as the sharer wants, leaving a transition for the next creative person to tack on something spectacular. Well the only issue was that each person had a different native language so we couldn't be 100% sure as to what the previous story teller was saying. I was second in line and was given a brief synopsis; 'It's World War II and all of the world's resources had been exhausted so the human race had to move to the moon. There was a conflict between the capitalists and anti-capitalists.' How the hell was I supposed to follow an opening like that!?! I was given permission (and encouragement) to be completely creative so I ran with it! The red light indicating that recording was taking place came on and my continuation of the story went something like this; 'One day on the moon, the capitalists and anti capitalists saw out of the corner of their eyes a spacecraft! As the object moved closer and closer to the moon, the inhabitants of the moon felt tremendous fear towards the unknown flying object. The spacecraft hovered over a small crater and began descending. Suddenly a blue light escaped from the craft shining it's light onto the moon's surface. A door opened and something began descending from the ship.' I'm pretty sure I took a very different spin on the story that was intended, but then again, I was told I could be completely creative! I felt that my transition was perfect because the next person in line could be creative and describe the aliens! I love setting people up for awesomeness.

On another note, Phil the new Australian bartender left us on Sunday morning. He bar tended with us for just over 1 week even though he told us he'd stay through New Years. He decided to leave and join up with his lady friend in Argentina to give himself the opportunity to travel with someone he really cares about and wants to spend a lot of time with. While he was really nice and lots of fun, he wasn't the best barman. He never washed a glass and would leave me a pile of about 27 dirty cocktail glasses for me to wash when I started my shift the next afternoon. While chatting with customers is lovely, he would continue to talk to a hot chick a ignore a guy trying to get a cold beer. He never restocked beers in the fridge, refilled the ice, wiped down the bar or made a drink with more than 3 ingredients. Phil abused the whole 'free drink' rule and would collect cash for a drink but never rang it through the computer so one night we had 50 Soles too much in the drawer so his accuracy with money sucked. Other than all of that, we loved Phil! So now Team Awesome is down to it's 2 senior members; Rob and me, bffs! The pool twosome can continue to reign on! 

I met the co-owner of The Point in Arequipa which was where I was supposed to take that managerial position except I didn't know at the time that he was the owner (woops!). We were talking about american sports followed by a discussion too inappropriate to discuss here, and I was cursing a lot. I even lost a bet and had to buy him a beer. About 2 hours later I found out he was the owner- slightly awkward for me but I confronted him about my non professionalism which he brushed off like it was no big deal! Marcus turned out to be a really cool guy, contrary to what I had heard about him. We even chatted last night as he was the only person in the bar on a quiet Sunday keeping me company. Marcus is from Florida, went to Florida state, has been married to a Peruvian woman for 5 years and is going to DC to visit his sister and new nephew on December 21! I told him about Las Canteras in Adams Morgan, a delicious Peruvian restaurant! I can't wait for his feedback.

I had the day off on Friday, the first weekend night shift I had had off since I started working at The Point! I decided to spend the evening with 2 of my friends; Eric and Henrik. Eric is American and teaches English. He's from Houston and Henrik is from Denmark but lives in Peru making a living as a (very successful) professional poker player. We had plans to get together around 2:30 after Eric's last class however Henrik's plan to meet up with Eric and me at the hostel was interrupted by a phone call from his father. A friend of Henrik's father was being held in Peruvian jail for attempting to smuggle drugs out of the country so Henrik had to ride to the Danish embassy to talk to his peeps. Eric and I decided to go along for the ride in hopes of seeing something really cool! However Henrik made us wait outside. Understandable but lame. Our taxi ride consisted of Henrik taking a nap in the front seat and Eric and I making Danish jokes mostly about pastries and eating snacks. We had a pleasant evening watching the sunset, walking around the beach and discussing the meaning of life, love and religion; basically an ideal evening with intelligent friends who challenge societal norms. Life is good.