And They're Back!

As if they didn't already take up like 5 post last month, they HYI crew is back at it again! After a prolonged (almost 2 and a half) trip to Stafford, Va (when it should have just taken like 45 min) I was reunited with a small part of my familia! Thankfully there was no sobfest involved this time. If anything I'm physically drained from the 1st HYI Reunion. I spent the day playing pool, catching a football, passing a soccer ball, throwing a frisbee, and playing three hours of volleyball!

We were at the home of one of the key note speakers (I think I wrote about him? All about going after success and how he was real with us) for the HYI and the house was huge and is exactly what I think of when I think rural Virginia. Not that we were in the middle of nowhere, but he had about 4 acres of land and we clearly got to enjoy the volleyball field.

It was so nice to see everyone again and to feel so comfortable with people that, even though I might have only spent a few minutes of them before or didn't even know them, they were so genuinely nice. Everyone was having a good time and reminiscing about the good times that happened like...three weeks ago? lol. The learning part was still there though. I noticed this t-shirt a fairfax buddy, Errol, was wearing with an acronym for lideres (leaders in English) which was given out at the National Council de La Raza in DC. I'm a little irked that I didn't find out about their Annual Conference until like two weeks after it happened but I've signed up for their newsletters and am waiting to hear more about them. I am very determined to be active in anything revolving  around Hispanic issues, especially since I am so near DC. I feel as if there aren't enough leaders in the Hispanic community and when almost 1 in 4 kids is Latino you have to wonder why that is. All these great people I've met are those leaders and I want them to recognize it and go out and change the world (with me too of course!)

Other really fun games that quickly turned hilarious were Taboo and Guesstures (which I seriously kicked butt at, not even gonna try and hide it!). Towards the end we decided to give this girl (Pamela) the Taboo cards and have her describe it in Spanish which was a riot because her Spanish wasn't so hot and she sort of sounded like a 5 year old at times. Not only that but she would also try and make up some words in Spanish by just adding an e in front of everything! Like I don't remember what Nick (my RA) was doing but he was helping her out way to much and she was like, "Ayy, tu si eres un...echeater!" Which if you pronounce that last one in English it sounds like something else really funny. And then this other girl in a very thick Hispanic accent said, "Ohh, in my country we say tramposo!" and everyone just burst out laughing again. It's just one of those moments that will become a great memory of our 1st Reunion since I am sure there are many to come. After all, I've already seen my 6th grade buddy Mauricio like 3 times!

UYL,
Andre