29. A year to reflect on….
Last weekend I had the pleasure of turning this fruitful age, and as a way of heralding in another insane year of my life and saying bidding farewell to the one that just past, I had a set of parties. If you can’t get all your friends together in one place….just have multiple parties in multiple places!
In addition to an entire (three day) weekend of partying to celebrate my completing of years (a nice direct spanish translation), I got a special visit from my Argentine, Mariano…who got his ass on a 24 hour bus ride from Santiago Chile (as far north as he has reached on his biking trip), braved the mountain crossing and came to see me as a present. Best present I have ever gotten by far.
Fiesta numero uno
The first party was on my actual birthday, and had decided long ago that I wanted to celebrate it in the barrio with my local friends. Leave it to me to think that an appropriate birthday celebration is not in a bar with all the americans and hip and fashionable argentines that I know….to me an appropriate birthday celebration here is in the ghetto, making empanadas, putting back a few cold ones and hanging out for the afternoon. Oh and dragging poor Mariano and my friend Nancy along with me!
It was a great afternoon. Sadly (or maybe not so sadly) I had invited my Paraguayan friend and her family to come, but at the last minute her daughter was picked to be the flag barrer in a school procession, which is quite an honor actually because the selection is done based on grade point average. I was so proud of Micaela that she was chosen, so I can’t say that I was truly sad that they couldn’t come….but Eva, the wonderful woman that she, did still make me a cake!!!!!!!!!
Making the empandas
Takin’ a break with the kids…. Maia and Valentine!
And of course, with Eva’s AMAZING cake that the baked me. Especially for me…after we had had a nice long conversation about what I wanted…and she had promised me a peanuty-dulce de lechey suprise! Yes…it was a dulce de leche batter cake, with a filling of cream, dulce de leche and peanuts in the middle…I almost died of happiness…and then of an exploded colon!
It was the perfect birthday celebration, and everyone left full and happy!
Fiesta numero dos
Jump forward a few days to Monday, since it was a three day weekend in honor of my birthday….ha ha ha! That would be pretty cool though. The second party would be at my best friend Mari’s house, in the most tranquil place in the world for me, the middle of no where Villa Elisa. Honestly, one of the happiest places on earth for me….you can breath easy, see the sky, hear yourself think…oh and Mari is there, and her warmth and love is just buzzing around the place. There is a reason that I will be moving in there my last three weeks here in Argentina!
For this afternoon of relaxing fun, again I dragged alone Mariano and Nancy, though this time I knew it would be more of a pleasure for everyone, instead of my silly need to have a party in the ghetto 
My other teacher friends from Educaser came, Lidia and Camilia along with their spouses and children, along with Mari’s mother.
This is Luca, the son of Camilia, who is probably the cutest most button nosed being on earth…
And it turned out to be a nice enough day that we took it all outside (even though it is winter here….gosh globe warming scares me), at which point the afternoon took an amazing turn. Lidia took out her guitar and Camilia’s husband magically produced his acordian…and we all sang Argentine folklore and tango for a while. Until the singing took that deadly turn…to happy birthday! And an amazingly decorated cake was produced…thanks Mari, honestly the intertwining of two worlds.
Yes that is a map of the Americas!!!!!!!
I might have cried. Just a little bit. I do really love my friends here, and to have the best ones all at my side at the same time was pretty amazing. Thank you Mariano and Nancy and Mari and Camilia and Lidia and all the people of Villa Alba, Eva and Norma and Mari for making this one of the best and most memorable birthday weekends of my life.
what an amazing birthday!! you deserved it