The Weekend: Placita, Blackjack, a Birthday, and Jazz

So, back in PR this weekend, my weekend began on Friday night at "La Placita del Mercado" (trans: the little place at the market) in Santurce, just a few blocks from my home. During the daytime, this small area is actually a pleasant, if somewhat slow-paced market where people come to buy their fruits and vegetables.

[placita during the day]

On Friday nights, placita turns into a raucous outdoor party - the police close off the streets, and the beer costs $1.25! So our new and wise intern Josh, and his two friends (Kyle and "mini-Hulk" - a guy who bore an amazing resemblance to the incredible hulk) ambled on down. The party is generally OK, but one can only drink so many medalla lights before boredom sets in - but this time, there was a fairly large percussion band that was accompanied by fire-blowers! Unfortunately, I failed to bring my camera, so I can't show pictures, but it was pretty cool. Afterwards, we all went to the Intercontinental Hotel to go to the casino - I promptly lost $20 playing blackjack (seriously - nobody should ever play cards while I am at the table.), but Josh won $180, and Kyle $75!

Saturday, after blissfully sleeping in, I decided to go pick up our tickets for the Puerto Rico JazzFest which started at 8. I had been told that this could be easily accomplished by going to any of the TicketPop machines located at movie theatres and some banks. Three hours, forty miles, and $4 in tolls later, I finally managed to make contact with TicketPop, who gleefully informed me that the machines would not be able to print general admission tickets, which I had purchased. ARGH!

Putting that past me, I went to dinner at one of Condado's finest Chinese Restaurants to celebrate my (*gasp*) 27th birthday, which was actually last Monday. A number of esteemed members of the San Juan law clerk community came out to help me celebrate:

[Lory, Josh, Batman, Monica, Anne, Marianne]

Josh, Lory, Monica, and I (along with Lory's boyfriend Ivan) proceeded on to the Jazzfest, which, after a few wrong turns off of the highway, we managed to find. The seats weren't great, but we all had a pretty good time:

[Monica, Adam, Josh]

[Josh, Lory, Ivan]

The first band was a quartet featuring Ignacio Berroa, a cuban drummer. The real highlight of the night was the Dizzy Gillespie All-Star Band, featuring Slide Hampton, a trombonist - particularly neat because I spent three years of elementary school and middle school trying unsuccessfully to learn the trombone.

"we did not have good seats"

Here's a brief videoclip of the performance, which may give you some sense of what it was like:



In any case, the jazzfest is pretty cool - although if anybody is considering going in the future, I think we'd all strongly recommend bringing folding chairs, as the concrete is rather uncomfortable after about two hours!

Next: Cake week 4!