Christmas Party

I’d been hearing about the Escuela Americana Christmas party for months now and was excited to finally get to experience it in all its glory! Everyone kept telling me, “It’s quite the experience…” They were right! :) To set the stage, the school employs probably around 500-800 people from administrators to teachers to aids to secretaries to guards to maintenance people to coaches. For a school that only has about 125 per class, it employs a LOT of people and all are invited to a giant Christmas party at the Holiday Inn. While we were waiting to go through the buffet lines, the DJ, decked out in a festive, felt- top hat boasting the flag of the US, kept us entertained with snippets of Latin and US songs alike.

After people had eaten, the music increased from background level to dancing level. Imagine big, crazy wedding reception: crowded dance floor, colored flashing lights, bubbles and streamers floating down intermittently. Then, the Salvadoran special was a video being projected on the entire side wall that was completely unrelated stylistically, or really, in any way to the music being played as well as two promotional dancers. The male was wearing a fluorescent orange shirt with ruffled sleeves and the female was dressed rather scandalously in short, tight clothing for a school Christmas party and both were dancing in an extremely enthusiastic manner winding throughout dance floor.

I watched wide-eyed taking in the grand spectacle and wasn’t considering being a part of the soirée taking place in the center of the room. However, when my table buddy told me that she was going out there to dance, I decided to leave my comfort zone behind at the table and join the dance party! Soon I had been handed a glow stick bracelet and I was doing my best blend in by getting my dance on. After about an hour the lights came up and the final portion of the afternoon began.

The giant video on the side wall was converted into the prize randomizer. The prizes ranged from computer speakers to water glasses to pillows. Each person’s name that was called had their ID picture projected to billboard size just to ensure we knew who everyone was. The majority of the people stuck around all through the dance and the distribution of maybe 50 menial prizes all to be in the running for the final grand prize: a plane ticket to Miami! When it comes to travel, many costs can be reduced or evaded except that of a plane ticket. I wanted to win it. I didn’t. I hope the recipient has a nice trip! :) As I left my inaugural Escuela Americana Christmas party, I felt that an additional level of Salvadoran induction was complete.