Birthdays since

... I hope it doesn't seem like all I write about is birthdays but that's mostly what I bring my camera to! And we had a bunch of tings to celebrate- our friends Marta and Kike both had their birthday the first week of November which is also when Mark and Lori celebrated their 10th wedding anniversary ( we kept the kids!) There have been other things that have popped into my mind to comment on if I was able to enter entries more often ( due to problems with my computer and this website) But big OTHER news is I bought two plants for the summer- it's getting very warm in my room in the afternoons. We had another election- for mayor. We'll be celebrating Thanksgiving with the MTW folks and a family from the Embassy. I'll teach a little about it in my English classes ( this is a pic of my class that will meet Thurs. night, this is from Martha's pre- party, after dancing! They're a whole bunch of fun ladies!)
The cake shot is Becca's Heath ( sent from the states) Bar cake- really good-almost like a chocolate tres leches! There's no shortage of sweets in the last month- thanks for all the care packages!

Post- Birthday Bash

Hi all- I've found that I'd rather read other blogs than write my own but did have to fill you in on this story...as I was telling my sister I realized it was "blog-worthy." A liitle background... Everyone should know that birthdays are a big deal here. SO my friends Patty and Monica wanted to take me out to celebrate my birthday- they decided we were gonna eat a big something! We went out a few nights after I returned from Panama, which happened to be the birthday of a mutual friend. We all ended up eating at that party and the mothers started to dance, so we stayed there until 11pm! I ,of course didn't want to cancel on my friends and their birthday celebration they planned ( and rarely pass up an offer for food) so I said let's go.The girls brainstormed that we wouldn't find muc in our neighborhood so we should head out. Patty knew I wanted to taste the Picarones (Liman doughnuts) but was perplexed by where to find them as was the taxi driver- he told us we wouldn't find them but there was a place in Surco. The idea of Baranco was tossed around but the said "full discos" so thhat was not an option! He dropped us off in a square that reminded me of the squares in Arequipa( well- lit) and we strolled around. Patty was still on the trail of Picarones but all the vendors were sutting down that we found! I told her I was not set on them so after taking a quick picture in front of the church we made a full circle and went to the Turistic restaurant where he dropped us off. We headed in hearing live music, passing the rotisserie chicken to see the group singing and went further back and came upon a cock fighting arena. We decided we liked the music- popular Peruvian music- from Raggaeton, to ballads("My body's not made of wood") to Selena favorites! We sat down and enjoyed their semi-dry wine- very good! We enjoyed the music and at midnight the girls decide it's time to order- none other than pollo a la brasa (rotisserie chicken) I was gonna take it home but couldn't resist! Just after it was served was about the time the cock fights seemed to have ended because these men came through carrying what looked like miniature versions of the canvas laundry compartments- which held none other than, you guessed it! The chickens! Some had less professional "carrying cases" and at the end of the stream of men was one with a flour sack with blood stains (I hope no one's eating and reading!) Well, it was a memorable evening/ morning to say the least! Not sure if that tops my former story of eating arroz con pollo (chicken and rice) and chickens walking around freely in the open-air restaurant in Costa Rica! ( At least they had a chance of escape!) Maybe I'll show a pic if Monica sends them to me! I felt celebrated though- the band even sang happy b-day- well not to me particularly- I didn't want to get up and dance!