Fish Out of Water

For my “Fish out of Water” activity I decided to attend my friend’s sister’s quinceanera. A quinceanera is a Mexican coming of age ceremony for girls on their fifteenth birthday. The ceremony has two parts, a religious part that takes place in a church, and then a big party for the girl. The party is kind of like a sweet sixteen birthday for American girls.
When I got to the event I realized that what I was attending was actually the celebration after the actual ceremony. The ceremony was apparently held before at a church where there was some sort of religious event that happened for the quinceanera. I was not present for this so I had no idea what went on there.
What I was present for was an enormous party that took place after the ceremony. There was a lot of alcohol and many of those present including myself wasted no time in partaking in the festivities. Since it was my friend’s sister’s quinceanera I did know some people there, however it was kind of awkward that I was the only person of Asian descent there. It was also awkward for me because many of the people there did not seem to know how to speak English. However, even though I could not communicate with many of them I was received with many smiles. Unfortunately, I also think that I was the victim of a number of jokes. Some of the men there said some sentences with the word “chinito” in them, which means Chinese person. After these sentences they would laugh. I assume since I was the only Asian there they were referring to me.
As the night progressed on, a lot of people became very intoxicated. One of the men there, who I believe was one of the birthday girl’s uncles came up to me and started speaking Spanish. I had no idea what he was saying and all I could do was nod along and pretend to laugh at what he was saying. Fortunately my friend came and saved me and took me to another area of the party. There was a huge dance floor and a Mariachi band. The dancing at this party seemed to be traditional Mexican dancing. I learned a little bit of it toward the end of the night. It felt like a quicker version of ball room dancing.
Overall I had a fun and interesting experience. Even though at times I felt like a fish out of water, I would gladly repeat this experience.