My phone rung at 4:30 am. I picked up but missed her. It was Sachiko. I have so little money I never want to make calls, only text messages. I thought, perhaps something has happened, perhaps it's an emergency.

I should have guessed it was only a juerga. Come! she says, I'm in Jerez at Luis de la Pica with Luis!

Getting my bike out the door at 5 am, I told myself to just pretend I had to catch a plane or something.

Anyways, it was a happening juerga. Sachiko and another Japanese dancer/singer student of Luis's, had gone from Seville with him to El Puerto de Santa Maria (next town over, on the coast) for a festival and all the artists had headed back to the peña here in Santiago after.
It was full of flamencos, many of whom I didn't recognise, obviously some from Seville, one guy said there were a few from Algeciras...

It is hard not to feel like such an outsider in these events. Sachiko doesn't seem to suffer from the same feelings. Partly because she is just a less neurotic person than me, and perhaps maybe a small amount because she is Japanese. The Japanese have a lot of recognition here for their very great "aficion" (aficionados). Their serious interest and often greater knowledge than those from elsewhere (and sometimes I think the fact that they are not white) usually means they are received well.

Anyways, a huge group of people gathers spontaneously, leaving a space in the middle for whoever gets struck with the desire to sing the next letra or dance a bit. The group breaks up at some points, someone continues singing at the side of the bar with a few others doing palmas, then another big circle gathers farther over.

Being from Seville, Sachiko does not see as many fiestas like these as I do, which are not merely stocked with professional musicians, but a crowd of normal gitanos whose life involves flamenco, just being in their veins. This was a particularly good one.

Both the girls danced, something which I don't dare to do yet among such a group of pros and others who have it in their blood. Maybe at the peñas closer to home, soon, where I know more people. When Luis and the two girls had to get a taxi around 7:00, the ladies, who had been almost inactive until later on, almost wouldn't let them leave and insisted that Sachiko dance with one of the them in the middle of the current circle.