Karaoke .... Cochabamba style!!

Today, Tiana and I hit the local bar.

We took the cab back from downtown Cochabamba. We didn`t plan on going down today, but our internship coordinator, Zoran, who was here with us just for the first week was supposed to fly back to Canada today, but a hurricane hit Miami and he was stuck here for another night, so we went to see him, for a second last time.

I don`t believe i`ve even mentioned Zoran yet.
Maybe i should give a little background on this whole internship first anyways.

This is a CIDA (Canadian International Development Agency) funded internship. Its a part of the Canadian government`s YES project & IYIP program (Youth Employment Strategy & International Youth Internship Program) Basically, its trying to give young people some practical experience so as to increase their employability.

There`s a whole bunch of internships being funded by this program, and mine is being run by Nova Scotia Community College.
Zoran is the project coordinater at NSCC. He`s the nicest guy you`ll ever meet, and he cracks us up all the time.
We`re going to miss him a lot, but it was really great to have him with us here this first week.

Tiana, who I keep referring to as "the other intern", was born and raised in Nova Scotia, graduated from Acadia University, and was taking Addictions Counselling at NSCC. She`s loads of fun, and we get along great, which I`m so thankful for.

Ok, so back to tonight!

We got off the cab coming back from downtown, and heard music!
We decided to follow the sounds, and who would`ve guessed! We were led to a bar! In fact, it was a kareoke bar! Hmmm "Japanization" has hit even Cochabamba!! (....suuure)

We tried walking by a few times to get a peek, but couldn`t really see, so we thought, the hell with it, just go in!

Inside, we saw two people we`d met at our language school so we joined their table. They`re really nice, actually, one girl is working on her Ph.D. in anthropology, and is doing researching on one of the indigenous groups, the Quechuas. Really interesting research, and right now she`s learning how to speak Quechua. Cool eh.

Oh so anyways, we walk in, join their table, and all the people at their table want to meet us. There were about 5 men, between the ages of...i`d say late 20s to mid 40s.
I`ve gotten the impression that Bolivians are very welcoming, but I think the fact that they don`t see many young japanese girls walk in to their bar make their welcoming of us extra warm!

We had a glass of this pink drink...it was like pink beer. Its not exactly a piña colada (isnt`t it so cool that i can make my Ns into Ñs!!), but drinkable.

There was a band playing local music, a band from Potosi (the mining region i mentioned before). Very cool music, but very hard to dance to...yes we were forced to dance.
And boooy did I feel like a KLUTZ!!
But hey, who the hell cares! It was fun.

A bar is a great place to practice Spanish... people are incredibly patient in trying to communicate, so it was cool.
But it would definately be a lot cooler once we can understand and speak more!

We only stayed about 45 min, actually, a guy spilled the pink beer and Tiana was soaked, so we left. But this one man who must be like at least 45 kept on saying "I love you" to me, and would not let go!

But all in all, a fun evening!