Merida was great. We stayed at Kasia's roommate's aunt's (Senora Mirella) house. We hiked in the mountains, took the cable car to the highest peak, ate strawberries with cream (something Merida is famous for) and enjoyed the cool weather and sunshine. Senora Mirella's son was our guide and truly I don't think we could have begun our Christmas holdays better than going to the part of Venezuela which is the least like Mcbo. The city of Merida is similar to European towns, with a center and parks where people gather. It is a very easy city to get around in and we felt secure at all times. There were people in the streets and buses functioned until late in the evening - what luxury. OUr travel group consisted of Kasia and I, the Check guy who is working like us in Mcbo teaching English, and a Turkish guy who is doing an Aiesec internship in Caracas.

After spending one week in Merida we returned to Mcbo in order to celebrate Christmas with Jose's family. Was very nice. Both Kasia and Jose were worried about my Spanish and how I would be able to communicate, which was quite funny since I was not really worried about that. So I decided to convince them of muy ability to communicate sufficiently in Spanish by starting to speak in Spanish with the two. I have been speaking Spanish with them eversince, even though I am a bit tired cause it does require more thinking from my part. So we ate hallacas (I won't even try to describe) and pan de jamon ("bread of ham") and chicken salad. And exchanged gifts and drank tequila.

Now I am at Kasia's. She begged me to come over so she would't have to spend the days after christmaseve alone. To be quite honest I am glad to be here, I wouldn't like to be alone in my apartment either. Both our room mates have gone to their families (mine to Cumana and Kasia's to Caracas) to celebrate Christmas and new year. Tomorrow we leave for Caracas. My sister comes the day after tomorrow to Caracas and we'll meet her at the airport. Then, on Friday we're going to see a baseball game, and on the 31st we're going to Tucacas (a beach) with a bunch of people from Aiesec to welcome the new year.

I had no internet connection at my place so I wasn't able to write to you earlier (ok I could have gone to an internetcafe but...). And because I still don't know where the post office is (I just know that the post from here takes ages to get anywhere) I haven't sent a single christmas card. So, merry christmas everyone. I have not forgotten you (even though I haven't answered your mails) and happy new year in advance. I am pretty sure that I won't go through the trouble of going to an internetcafe in Caracas. Although, we'll be staying in the same place where I spent my first month in Caracas (and Kasia her two first months) and I know that there is an internetcafe nearby. Maybe I'll write you a nostalgic mail from good old Ccs. Hardly likely, I am happy in Mcbo now and haven't been planning to return Ccs for a looong time.

My Christmas holidays begin today. All our classes (all my two classes) have been cancelled for today and the coordinators have organized a Christmas lunch for us. And tomorrow, at 8 in the morning, Kasia and I are taking the bus to Mérida. Kasia has been planning this trip for ages, it seems, and we are both really excited. Ah, and I think Honza, our Czech trainee (I never mentioned him before I think, he arrived like a month ago), will be there as well.

Mérida is like the most chrismassy place you can find in Venezuela cause it is the coldest. I think it is situated somewhere in the Andes, cause there are mountains with snow even. We´ve already got a reservation for the cable car to go up the mountain. We can´t wait to get out of hot Mcbo and experience some cold weather for a change - cold meaning 15-20. Á propos cold...I have a cold again. So I am planning on taking the max dosis of medicine tomorrow when I´m sitting 12 hours (or something) on the bus to Merida.

We don´t have the return tickets to Maracaibo yet, but we´re planning to return for Christmas. We´ve been invited to (several places, actually) Josés house on the 24th so I guess we´ll return on the 23rd or something. We´ll see. I´ll let you know what happens.

Sunday morning. My room mate is still sleeping, a cock just crowed (incredible, first time I heard that here, must be an imitation, a tape or somehting, no now it crowed again. There is a rooster somehwere here nearby, I can´t believe it). Well, I´m washing laundry and thinking that this past week has been really quiet, nothing special or exciting has happened that I could write about. No strange encounters, no big parties, no dramatic turns and no new aquintances. So I´ll have to write about my everyday life instead.

The only thing I have planned for today is a German class. I´ve been teaching the Aiesec gang German on Sundays. I think we´ve had about 3 classes sofar, which is not a huge amount considering the fact that I´ve been here almost four months (almost five months in Venezuela), but it is my tiny contribution to Aiesec Maracaibo. And is saves my Sundays, which would probably be pretty boring otherwise.

Originally we were supposed to have German and Spanish on Sundays. That is, first I would teach German and then there would be a Spanish class for all us trainees. But last time we met we decided to change the Spanish class into a conversation on a specific topic. That is, each week there would be a different topic to discuss. A very nice idea but we´ll see how it works in reality. I have no idea what the topic for today is supposed to be.

And yesterday we started a new level in Salsa. We passed Basic one and begun Basic 2. Maybe I should explain that what we are dancing is not traditional salsa but salsa casino. That is we don´t dance in couples...or we do but the couples form a circle. So we dance in a circle and change couples. There is a leader who shouts to everybody what to do and we follow. For example, "arriba!" (up) and then we dance in a certain way, then she shouts "arriba de verdad!" (and we start moving) "abajo!" (down), "abajo de verdad!" etc. It is really a lot of fun.

Gotta go.

Chavez won. By 61% or something. I have to admit that yesterday when I was watching the counting of the votes with my room mate and her boyfirend I could not help hoping that Rosaes would win. But oh well, life goes on. Like a Venezuelan friend of mine wrote to me (in an sms) last night after the results had been presented on TV: "What the hell, our lives don´t depend on on that". Even though some see more like "Venezuela is going to hell". One of my trainee friends said that this is better for us trainees, things will remain the same and there won´t be any problems.

It wasn´t too bad staying inside yesterday. I read, drew a picture of my red converse trainees, slept, read a shortstory, and watched the elections. There seemed to be some problems with people who wanted to vote after the voting places (there must be a better word for this) had been closed. The places were supposed to close at four, unless there were people outside in line waiting. By the way, here people stand in line for hours to vote. When I turned on the TV at 6 p.m. it seemed that some places closed the doors even if there were people in line outside, waiting to vote. And very soon after the doors were closed, the people supporting Rosales were requesting to count the votes themselves - foreseeing that Chavez would win or that there would be some shenanigans with the counting of the votes.

Today I woke up and listened to the sounds coming from the street below. Everything sounded normal. I turned on the light in order to see whether we have electricity or not and went to the bathroom to see if we have running water. Everything worked. I talked to some friends in Caracas on msn and they went to work today as usual cause everything was calm. I´ll stay inside today just in case and casue I have promised to do so (also, I haven´t received any invitations to go out). Tomorrow I´m going to work - like planned.

Now I´m gonna go and check out the Finnish newspapers to see how they´ve written about the elections.

Sunday morning and I´m stuck. I´ve promised to stay inside my apartment all day today and tomorrow, in case there is trouble because of the elections. I don´t really like the idea of spending two whole days inside but I´ll survive.

Some people have adiveced me and Kasia to buy dry food and water for storage, in case there is a strike or other trouble so that we have to stay inside or shops will be closed. So yesterday I bought tuna, rice, crackers, and water - just in case. Others have said that they are not going ot prepare for trouble, that there is going to be so much military around that there won´t be any trouble.

So I'll spend the whole day reading. Does not sound too bad does it. And in the evening I´ll probably watch with my room mate and her boyfriend the counting of the votes. This election is supposed to be really crucial for the future of Venezuela. If Chavez wins Venezuela will follow Cuba and become a closed country (this is what some people say) and if Rosales wins Venezuela can start to follow western models of free economy and so on. This is my subjective simplification of the situation. Thank god I don´t have to vote.

Yesterday I went to a... how should I put it. I was invited to the opening of a building: There is a womens' magazine here, Tendencia, which is moving office to a brand new building. Yesterday was the opening and I got an invitation there by Carlos, one of my musician students. His band, Skama Sweet Selection, was going to play there so he could invite some people.

Before going to the Tendencia thing José and I went to have some beers with our Aiesec friends (my student was kind enough to give invitations for me, José, and Kasia). I told one of the guys that we were going to the opening of the new Tendecia building. He looked at me and said: "You´re going dressed like that?" and shook his head. He said, "I´ve beent o two press parties and let me tell you, the people there are dressed really well." I said to him, well, I don´t know anybody there so I don´t care (or something like that). José was dressed even more casual than I so when we passed some people in the street who were obviously going to the opening he said to me: I´m not going in there dressed like this. In the end, after hearing from everybody that the party would be packed with stuck up snobbish people etc. I was not sure either that I really wanted to go. I kept repeating: "We can go there and check it out and leave any time we want." And "I just want to hear the band". Well, anyways we went in and were not the only ones dressed casually. Sure, most of the people there were dressed like they expected to appear on the fashion pages of next months issue of Tendencia, but I could not have cared less. I was there to listen to the band. ...And have my share of free food and drinks.

So, we hung out for an hour or so waiting for the band to start to play. I said hi to the members of the band I knew (the singer was on the cover of the latest issue of the magazine) and we even bumped into some people we knew. At some point, as I mentioned that all cover girls are supposedly at the party, José called a friend of his who was a covergirl recently and was really happy to find out that she was there as well. Small world.

The band played and it was a good gig, but it wasn´t easy for the band cause the guests were not exactly the kind of people who normally listen to Skama Sweet Selection. After the gig we hung out for a while listening to Carlos spinning and then we left. I think this evening was a "once in a lifetime" experience. I will not forget Kasia anytime soon for not coming with us.