STL Hispanic Festival

On Friday September 17th, I headed to Soldiers Memorial Park in downtown St. Louis for the annual Hispanic Festival. The evening was a bit dreary, but all of the festivities really brightened up the night!

The scene was filled with beautiful and lively hispanic music, people dancing their hearts out, delicious feed, and margaritas galore! Here are a few snap shots of the event...

This was early on in the evening, and that little old lady up front stole the show! She had some mad dancing skills!

Up next, meet the contestants for this year's Miss Hispanic Festival competition. Lovely lovely ladies!

Dinner time! Dos tacos del pastor, y dos tacos de carne. Los tacos son muy rico!

I had to try a margarita.... and it was wonderful. Absolutely wonderful.

I spent the evening downtown with a friend, and had dinner with two men that were also enjoying the festivities. One of the gentlemen had spent a few years doing art excavation in some of the indigenous regions of Guatemala. He told us countless stories of crazy the interactions that he had with the people he met while he was working there. We had a really wonderful time hearing all of his tales about driving through the mountains, being welcomed into homes for meals, and learning about ancient indigenous art techniques. The world is so full of rich cultures and amazing people... It was really great to get a taste of that in good old St. Louis.

Festival of the Nations

On Saturday August 28 I went to Tower Grove park in St. Louis for The Festival of the Nations. While I was there I got a nice little taste of Peru...

I spent this past summer living in Lima, and made it a point to scout out as many Peruvian things that I could while at the festival....
I split a nice big Peruvian style lunch with my boyfriend. We had some delicious arroz con pollo con ensalada de cebolla, an anticucho de carne, and a papa rellena. La comida de Peru es muy rico!

And now on to my favorite part of the afternoon... INCA KOLA. INCA KOLA became one of my favorite sodas this summer, and I was quite overjoyed to be able to have some here in St. Louis. (I even brought a 6-pack home with me!)

After lunch we hung out at the main stage and were able to see a few dancers perform some traditional Peruvian dance...

While I was there I learned that there is a Peruvian cultural group in the city and was invited to look into it and check out some of the gatherings they host sometime. I really loved Peru while I was there this summer, and I think that I would absolutely love to look into visiting some of the events in the city sometime!

Amores Perros

A few days ago I watched a very interesting movie named Amores Perros. It is three stories that have no relevance to each other until one scene when each story is tied together.

The movie begins with a man named Octavio (on the far left). He is in a terrible car accident and then the movie cuts to three days earlier. He is in love with his brother's wife. Octavio also begins to earn a huge amount of money through entering his dog in dog fights. The second story is about the woman in the middle. She is a model who is married to an older gentleman and having an affair with a younger man who she decides to move in with. This is the woman who Octavio hits. The man on the left find the dog after the accident and takes him in. He is a hitman that is hired to kill an important man.

The message behind this movie is to show that love (for people, money, etc.) makes people do crazy things and can turn your entire life around.


-Danny Newgent

Fui a una fiesta de cumpleaños!

On September 5th, 2010, I attended a little boy's birthday party. Currently, I am dating a MEXICAN :) man and his entire family speaks no english at all. I have been with the same person for 3 years and every time there is a party for a special occasion, many parties like this occur. It is a great listening experience for me and I think i'm starting to actually pick some of it up! :)

The birthday boy is on the left, and my boyfriend's brother is on the right :)

Pinata time! :D

My family! :) I'm behind my sister on the left!

In my boyfriend's family, at every birthday party, it is tradition for the birthday boy/girl to get their face put in the cake! The kids really like when they do this!

I think Jesse enjoyed it too! :)

And here's Jesse and his Mom!

Overall, the birthday was a great time! All the kids had fun and Jesse made out like a bandit with gifts! :)

Feliz cumpleaños Jesse!

Ashley Kurtz

SPAN 101-009