Ze Talent Show

I had to move fast because I still had stuff to arrange before Abe's arrival. Little did I know, for while I was preparing my notes for my next essay, still wearing jogging garments, suddenly Juana barged in and announced 'Xallicita, there's someone at the door for you. It's a surpriiiiiiiiiise!". And so it was! Abe had figured out the way to get to my place all by himself (awww) so we greeted him with the tea and the kind of friendliness only our house had to offer.

There was to be a Halloween party going on at our residence common room in the night, so we went for a bike ride around town, visited my dear friend Soph (a magnificent human being with whom I happened to share so much more than a nationality) danced some cumbias in her living room (she asked for it) and went back to ready up the mental truck for some paaaartyinnnng!

The party was ok, I suppose. Nobody was really dancing or anything, but the costumes were fun to look at, at least from the other side of my own "luchador" mask. I introduced Abe to the gang, and after some drinks we went over to the Music Room, yet again, for a final rehearsal with the new members. We rocked like bosses for an hour or so (Abe proved to be an amazing drummer) and we had two other new band members! we managed to convince Lau and her boyfriend Raf, from the second year group to join us for the event (since they were keen on music and fun to get along with anyways). So an ukulele and another fantastic voice were also added to the ensemble. We played "La Bamba" until our fingers and ears bled, with new lyrics that my dad had so nicely suggested we use, to add up to the folkloric atmosphere. 

After some time Abe and I parted momentarily to visit a friend of his who lived in South Street. We took our bikes and went to town: the party over there was basically done by then, but we stayed for a while and talked about St Andrews and electronic music with the hostess and two of her remaining friends. The house was rad! we sipped our ciders while visually absorbing our surroundings (charcoal drawings and movie posters), but after a while the time came to leave.

Back in Fife Park we went over to our usual place at the back of the boys' house. We smoked in a circle, telling more stupid jokes and laughing until reaching complete exhaustion. After that Abe and I went to my place and ate quesadillas while catching up on our more recent existentialist speculations about everything and nothing at the same time. Then we went to sleep.

The next day we biked all over St Andrews, played some more music and in the afternoon we all moved to the Hall where the festival was to take place. Once there we tried some of the food that was available (it was an international event, so there were stalls where our friends were selling all kinds of yummy treats... sweet homemade stomach stuffing!). To kill some time (and anxiety) a bunch of us improvised some rhythms with culinary artifacts so that we could dance a little. And finally, after weeks of conjugating our chaotic musical personalities, we were called on to the stage, to inaugurate the festival with our performance.
GOD HELP ME, WHAT HAD I GOTTEN ME AND MY FRIENDS INTO.

"And now, for our opening act we present: "Carmense un chingo!"

We took a large breath, got in front of everybody, grabbed a mic and an instrument (correspondingly) and tested the equipment as fast our fingers allowed. I honestly don't know why, but after literally a single round of tuning in my guitar (while the rest were had barely finished tying up their laces), I decided it was suddenly time to start singing "PARA BAILAR LA BAAAAMBA!" So everybody had to forcefully join in, hahahahahaha, spontaneously yet in an amazingly accurate manner, according to the impulsive rhythm I had just catalyzed.

It started a little nervously, but in the end we knew what we were doing, so the moment unfolded almost magically: our Latino mood was spreading throughout the audience like fresher's flu. Due to the fantastic attitude Laurita and the rest of the girls were projecting with their infinitely colorful vocals the show was sweeter than ever. We sang some fairly original parts that went like:

A las morenas quiero

a las morenas quiero desde que supe

que morena es la virgen

que morena es la virgen de Guadalupe, Ay arriba y arriba...

or because Carmen tends to (royally) flush anytime someone tells her something nice or attempts to damage her vegetables, she had to sing:

La otra vez que te dije

La otra vez que te dije que eras bonita

Se te puso la cara

Se te puso la cara coloradita, Ay arriba y arriba...

I even had a solo part that I didn't screw up hahaha, my man Martin on the bass had my back, but the thing is we rocked that show... in spite of everything. Aimed, and scored!

After finishing with our usual rock-star racket, we bowed before our applauding peeps, walked away and drank a lot of orange juice we got from the alcohol-free bar stall. After watching the rest of the show went back to our houses in order to have some celebratory drinks (properly spiked ones, please).

Repare en su tesis

This is the end of my sling-shot parenthesis. Next Wednesday I hop on a flying vessel that will elastically take me back to the old continent and to my country's old colonial mother: SPAIN. The sequel is about to begin.

So what the eff happened during all this time I've been not glob-blogging about our adventures?

AN EFFING LOT.

I won't be able to tell about absolutely everything that went on during the last part of our extremely tumultuous semester back in St Andrews :( but for the sake of the adventure I shall write about the most "transcendental" incidents that moved the Mundus gang to a new level of cohabitation.

This is for Juanita (I love and miss you and nothing makes sense anymore haha).

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Chapter I: ZE MUSIC ROOM

An unexpected bunch of us really bonded over playing awesomely OLD songs from our shared childhoods. Cheesy as our covers may have been, we still managed to improvise cumbia rhythms heaving on the piano and bass (to which little Alex had to keep up with the drums... he managed). I'll give us that.

Both then again the lovely hippie and the barbie were extremely gifted singers (each on their own fields and preferences), hence we formed a nice sort of musical conglomerate in spite of our differing styles (in hairdo, especially).

I don't even remember how or why, but due to a particularly incoherent kind of scenario, Mar, one of the lovely gals from second year gals ended up inviting me to play at her society's talent show. I agreed, because I'm Mexican and that's what we do (nah, it also sounded appealing as a challenge). So I decided to implicate others in the scheme: Machiavellic Xalli mode ON!

During one of our "Music Room" gatherings I subtly announced the gang that we had the unique opportunity of testing our capabilities as a group... at a real uni gig. Nobody payed close attention to that, but we practiced on. Each time I insisted a little more ('Hey guys, I've already given our names to the board', 'Hey guys, we need a to choose two songs to play, we've got two million unfinished ones!') until the time came when nobody really doubted the fact that we WERE gonna play. Inception-Mission accomplished.

'Hey guyzzzzz, we need a name for our band.'

After a rigorous cheap whiskey drinking session (to which we munched jalapeño jam sandwiches, 'cos we're real macho, that's why) sitting on the doorstep of one of the boys' dorms, facing the indecorous bushes, we had an epiphanic moment. Carmencita, the lovely Colombian pseudo hippie, approached as cutely as she always did while we were cracking up to some stupid joke. I decided it would be a good idea to shout to her "CÁRMENSE UN CHINGO!". Pause.

Contextualization: I had just explained to them the Mexican expression "Cálmense un chingo!" (which literally means something like "relax a f*cking lot, y'all!") so, naturally, due to our altered state of humor, we all laughed (Carmen turned purple out of blushing so much) and realized we had just come up with what was to become our legitimately ultimate band name.

This was during the time I finally decided to move to Fife Park (I gave up having to move back and forth like a yo-yo in order to avoid sleeping on other people's floors. Too often did I end up doing that). I packed my stuff, said my goodbyes to my soon-to-be ex-flatties (OMG), took a cab accompanied by Jan and Juju, and arrived to my brand new room. How did I manage to convince the managers to switch residences? ask me one day you see me drunk as f*ck ;) you won't regret it.

Anyways, in order to celebrate yet another Machiavellic-Xalli victory, I went over to the Music Room to play some cathartic self-welcoming tunes on the lovely piano. Jan, or as we ended up calling her: Juanita, joined in for the fun and we ended up recording one of my hilariously defective Youtube videos. We played The Cranberries' "Linger" on the guitar for the two of us to sing along.

Evidence: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FhrJ7ubfFn0

The following weekend was bound to be extra special, because, in addition to the fact that the Talent Show was scheduled for Saturday, I would host one of my dearest friends: Abe, a philosopher as crazy as I am, who had recently moved over to Glasgow to carry on with his PHD studies. I called and warned him about that hehehe, so it was ON!