Don't Swat The Flies

    Finishing my 2 week Spanish study program in Santiago, a couple new friends from school and I headed to Valparaiso and Vina Del Mar for the weekend. After an eventful day of exploring the artsy city of Valparaiso we headed out for dinner. A group of 7 jolly Chileans were at the table next to us enjoying cocktails and celebrating a birthday. I was among new friends and we were generally talking about our lives back home and where we have traveled. The jolly table next to us was being entertained by a magician who was really good at card tricks. After he left, people at the table did their best to keep the magic going, which in a short amount of time I would be ruining.
      I was enjoying a glass of red wine and admiring the liveliness of the table next to me when a fly kept pestering me and my food. I grabbed at the fly with my right hand only to catch a handful of air and without hesitation swatted at it with my left and sent my full glass of wine sailing across the room. I couldn't believe my eye's when I looked up to see that my glass of wine broke on the chair of a guy dressed in a fresh white button up, covering him in red wine. Let's just say that if I were a magician, then I would have done my disappearing act right then.
    Not knowing what to do, I stood up and tried to offer some help to the irritated gentleman I soiled with wine in Spanglish. The group's festive laughs and conversation vanished from the room as quick as the blood from my heart rushed to my head. The people that did not get hit with wine were nice enough to write it off as an accident and told me that it was no problem. The guy that I covered in wine choose not to look at me, I'm sure out of pure frustration and disgust. I offered to buy a round of drinks for the table, but they respectfully declined and I slowly made my way back to my table realizing that I was all of the sudden at the center of everyone's attention.
    I tried to smile and act like I was comfortable while the rest of my group laughed and slowly drank their drinks. My only thought that was that sure it was embarrassing and painful now, but it would make for a good story later on. I felt a huge sense of relief as we left the restaurant and I made my way back to my hostel. I felt fortunate that I did not have to fight my way out of the restaurant.