They day we arrived in Trujillo was during one of the biggest celebrations of the year. It is two weekends full of fiestas, parades, and bull rings. It is to celebrate the virgin in which they take her out of her case up in the old cathedral that looks down upon the town’s plaza and carry her in a procession around town. After this, there are many fiestas going on. Everyone including children are out until six in the morning partying and socializing with their friends. It was hard for me to wrap my head around the fact that there were five-year-old running around the plaza without parental supervision at midnight. My curfew was 10 pm until I was sixteen years old. The night we got there we toured La Coria and had dinner with the host families. Afterwards all the students want to go home and sleep because we had been traveling for hours before, and not used to the time difference yet. The host families couldn’t believe we wanted to go home. It was eleven at night which is considered early. The next day was the day of the women. Everywhere you looked there were groups of girls ages ranging from fifteen to fifty wearing matching t-shirts. It looked like I had walked into a sorority bid day or something. Our professor later told us that because it was the day of the women, it is tradition to wear matching shirts and go into the bull ring together. We were warned to not participate in the bull ring but we were allowed to go and watch. A few of us went out of curiosity and it was exactly what it sounded like. Lots of women running around in a bull ring trying not to get trampled by bulls. After a few mins of being there I spotted my host mom in the ring with her girlfriends. It was crazy to see, I didn’t even know what to think. Afterwards there was a DJ outside of the ring playing music until the early hours of the next morning. Lucky for me my house was on the other side of town so I couldn’t hear it.

            Since the first crazy weekend things have calmed down, but it is still surprising to see people not leave to go out until ten or eleven at night, and not come home until four or five in the morning. Nobody goes out on Friday’s. The plaza looks like a ghost town compared to what it looks like on Saturday nights. For reasons unknown, the people of Trujillo don’t go out on Fridays, only Saturdays. Every Saturday the restaurants and discotecas are always filled with people. It was a bit overwhelming at first to be surrounded by so many people that didn’t speak the same language, but as a few weeks have passed, I feel a lot more comfortable and confident.

            It has been about a month now of being here in Trujillo and I am absolutely loving it. I am feeling more confident in my Spanish and more comfortable around my host family and the locals. It is exciting to meet new people, learn about the culture and better my Spanish speaking skills. I am looking forward for the upcoming weeks filled with more travel and new experiences.