Hello world! I guess it's time that I give you a little insight on what I've been up to these last few months...so buckle up because there's a lot to tell!! I'm going to write a bunch of posts rather than just one really long one.
One of the first things I have to tell you about is Cena Blanca! Cena Blanca is basically Argentina's form of prom but a whole lot different. Cena means dinner and blanca means white so it was the "White Dinner". It includes every school in the city (and there are a tonnnn!!!) rather than each school having it's own function. That being said, about 3,000 people attended.
So, the two most important things on my list of things to do were to borrow a dress (because I didn't want to buy it to use it just one time and not bring it home) and to find a date because you have to parade through the city with your date..i'll explain that better in a minute. Finding a dress wasn't too difficult. I tried a few from different people and ended up using my host mom's. It worked well because she is about my height. All of the other dresses I tried were a little too short. As for a date, I didn't have a date until the day before the dance. This is because I didn't know if I was going until the week of so at the very last minute, one of my classmates asked me and I said yes.
Cenca Blanca was held on Friday, December 7th. It was a very rainy and chilly day and we lost power at my house the whole day so I was very worried about getting ready. I took a freezing cold shower and then my host mom told me that we would be going to my host grandmother's house in the city to get ready because she didn't think the power would be back in time. So, we drove to her house and the minute we got there I started getting ready because there wasn't much time! My host mom curled my hair, I did my make-up and got dressed, and my host grandmother lent me some snazzy jewels. After an hour of preparation, I was ready. We took some photos quickly and headed down to the center where the parade would be. It was crazy!! There were parents and kids everywhere, it was a mob scene really and somehow we had to find my date. I didn't have his cell phone number so we really had no idea how to find him.
The way the parade works is that everyone lines up by school and parades through the city with their date. All of the parents and other people take pictures and it's really just one big mess. So, my host mom and I ran to where my school was supposed to meet only to find that they had already started marching. Great, now I really wasn't going to find my date. Sooooo, we ran up the side of the parade until I saw some of my classmates. I jumped into the parade and asked them if they had seen my date and everyone said he was at the back of the line looking/waiting for me. So I ran to the back of my school's section and didn't find him. The people in the back told me he was in the front. So I ran towards the front but didn't make it so I just ended up walking with a boy who didn't have a date. When we got through the entrance, I finally found my date and then walked with him the rest of the way. When we got in, it was crazy! They had lots of professional photographers set up, waiters with trays of food and drinks, news reporters, the whole nine yards. We went to the section where our school was supposed to sit and picked a table. I was excited to finally sit down and relax a minute. However, I didn't relax for long because then all the pictures started and of course lots more food came. We waited around and took pictures for a while while the rest of the kids entered. It took a very long time to get all 3,000 in!
Once everyone was in, we started dinner. It really wasn't that good. I honestly don't really know what it was, some cold chicken thing. After dinner the dancing started! They had a famous cumbia singer perform and everyone was really excited about that. Basically the rest of the night was just dancing! It didn't end until 6 a.m. and you weren't allowed to leave unless your parent came to the entrance. I have to say, by 6 a.m. I was extremely exhausted from dancing the night away and was ready for bed! It was a really fun night and I will always remember it!
 |
| My date! |
 |
| One of my school friends |
 |
| School friends |
 |
All the exchange students from my school. From left to right: Davide from Italy,
Me, Nonni from Malaysia, and Parkee from Thailand. |
 |
| Dancing the night away! |
 |
| School friend |
