Camera phones and hipster uniforms

The second annual international art festival of Loja began last Thursday, the 16th of November.

On Friday, the 17th, the school I work at organized to be in the parade, both to celebrate its 25^th birthday, and to promote its image in the public’s eye.

All the teachers met around three in the afternoon, about a twenty-minute walk from the city center, where we lined up behind a float. The truck had the name of my school in bold letters on its front and a giant globe on the back, which referenced the logo of the language school. The globe could open up into four wedges and from the center a drone arose, with a silk bandana hanging under it that had the school’s logo and a giant 25 on it. Behind the globe sat the two winners of the school’s beauty pageant in elaborate Egyptian costumes, waving and smiling alluringly.

Behind the truck walked/danced a row of teachers holding a banner with the school’s name on it, and behind them lined up the gringos in perfect display for the public. (I’ll address the gringo syndrome in another post) After us walked/danced two long rows of students, wearing revealing, sparkly dresses.

Since our school asked us (the teachers) to dress up in traditional costumes of countries we are from or where they speak English, I decided to dress up as a Bavarian, with long socks, shorts, white shirt and suspenders. I figured it’d be easier to find that than a tradition Hungarian costume, and since my grandmother is German, it technically counts. Well as it turns out, it was harder than I thought…

I looked everywhere for moss-green shorts and, for the life of me, couldn’t find any. So I figured, what the hell, only the gringos will know that it should be green, so I’ll just wear my dark blue shorts with black suspenders, white shirt, black shoes and pulled up socks. The result was, I looked like a gay hipster (so basically a hipster), with a subtle hint of an English prep-school student’s uniform’s lack of taste and style…

When I arrived at the rendezvous point, my colleagues had two reactions. A) “huuuuuuhhhh, oh my god!” and trying desperately not to burst out with laughter, or B) “Wow man… that took balls! But you mother*in’ own it man! You make it work…” with approving glances at the others. I even overheard some students asking Charlie “Teacher, where is that from?” To which he replied “apparently from Germany.”

At this point I would like to apologize to all my German readers. I am sorry, I will not do this to you or your culture again.

As we walked behind the truck, with blaring music to dance to, we smiled and waved at the thousands of people standing, sitting, pushing and shoving on the side of the road. I have never seen so many girls point at me and hold their phone’s camera on me for the entire time I was in sight. Let’s just say it took some time to get used to.

Overall, I had lots of fun in the parade, even though I originally wasn’t that enthusiastic, and am looking forward to all that this art festival has to offer.

As time passed, and I couldn't publish this post because I was waiting for the pictures, I got many pictures sent to me by people who found pictures on different social media platforms with different captions and emojis. Below you can see a few that are postable. 

A.D.

(post about the festival itself will be coming soon.) 

Pictures / fan art: