Puccini House Party

Last night was so much fun! We arrived at the Warehouse while the second act was playing – I didn’t catch the name of the performers, three guys doing some rap / hip-hop. I really enjoyed it, more than the others, I think. Luderitz was great – it was more rock than hip-hop, and I was surprised their lyrics were all in English, being a French group after all. Turns out, Luderitz is staying at Paradise Garden, the hostel where Adam and Javier are staying (!). From what I understood, there is a large HIV conference in the city this week and there wasn’t any room in the hotel where they were supposed to stay, so they ended up at the hostel. Ludertiz gave the boys a few free tickets (yay for saving N$55) and that’s how they heard about the show. Awesome!

We met a few of Javier’s friends, a German girl name Jenny and a Canadian named Nicole. Both are in a masters program at the Polytechnic. I had a blast talking to Nicole – she’s been in the city a while and had a lot of advice for us (and numbers of inexpensive private cabs), we really hit it off. I’m hoping to meet up with her and some of her friends this weekend.

When the show was over, we headed over to El Cubano (it’s next door). Nicole warned me it’s easy to gain weight here, you don’t run outside (she was also a runner and volleyball player in undergrad) and good beer is really cheap. A bottled beer is anywhere from N$8 to N$14 – usually never more than $2 apiece. It’s like happy hour all the time! Brooke recognized a few fellow Puccini-house guests, Bianca, a Namibian from Swakopmund, and the Brazilian documentary guys. There are three: Marcus, Luciano, and Rodrigo. From what I understood, they received a grant to do a documentary about Brazilian women living and working abroad, focusing on their professions, their experiences. We ate breakfast together (all straggling in just before 9am, when they take down breakfast) and I learned a bit more about them. Their filming has already taken them across Europe, and now they are traveling through Africa. Marcus was recently filming extreme sports for ESPN and has worked in Los Angeles and Las Vegas quite a bit. They’ll be filming for the better part of a year – remind me what I’m doing in law school again? At any rate, I had a good time chatting with them and comparing travel stories.

I am looking forward to a good night’s sleep tonight.