Last Friday night we had a birthday party at the training center where I teach English to celebrate all the October birthdays. Nilda and Pablo, the couple running the program, are planning on celebrating birthdays the last Friday of each month to give the students and teachers the opportunity to meet outside of the classroom and enjoy one another's company. The night was full of dancing, conversing, eating, and laughing. The whole group is pictured below.
On Sunday night, one of my students had a birthday party at his house. Willie turned forty and was kind enough to invite Jamie and me to his home to celebrate with his family and friends. Though the start time was "seven", Jamie and I arrived between 8:30 and 9 to find that we were some of the first people there. :) Oh, Latin America. As we conversed, more and more people arrived and the dancing began in the living room. One tradition that many Peruvians seem to have is that the person who is celebrating his or her birthday stands in the middle of the group and takes turns dancing with each person of the opposite gender. When it was my turn to dance with Willie, the whole group began laughing at the site of a tall, fair-skinned girl dancing with a short, Peruvian man. They called for Willie to get a chair in order to spin me and the joke continued throughout the night.
Let's just say this is not the first time my height has been commented on. :)
The whole group celebrating at the training center!
