¡La Semana del Cumpleaños! (The Week of Birthdays!)

This week's schedule: September 30 - October 6

martes (Tuesday):  Cumpleaños de mi primo Adrian (9)
miércoles (Wednesday): ---
jueves (Thursday):  Cumpleaños de mi Tia Teresa y mi primo Alejandro (17)
viernes (Friday): Cumpleaños de mi Papá
sábado (Saturday): Fiesta de mi primo Adrian

Tuesday night my parents came home and asked if I had any homework.  When I responded no, they said okay we're leaving in 30 minutes to celebrate cousin Adrian's birthday.  He turned 9, and I have yet to give away any of the little beanie babies I brought with me, so I took this opportunity to do so and Adrian seemed very excited to have toys from me from the US!  We sang Happy Birthday (in English first) #globalisation and then again in Spanish.  And all in all, it was a pretty low key celebration, which I was okay with especially as I had class all day Wednesday!!  As we were leaving everyone kept telling me "Hasta jueves" (until Thursday) and I was so confused!  I asked my Tia Teresa and she informed me that her birthday and her other son, Alejandro's birthday was on Thursday... so until Thursday!

So Thursday played out very much the same as Tuesday.  I arrived home and we were out the door in about 45 minutes and returned to my aunt's house.  We ate dinner and drank a very strong wine that my sisters described to me as wine mixed with the aftertaste of tequila... It actually didn't seem that strong to me, but I guess that's when the trouble starts!  We sang Happy Birthday and just hung out, playing games and chatting!  It was so fun, but it was also getting late and my sisters and I had been in classes all day, so we were exhausted and falling asleep on the benches outside!  Then 12:00am hit and suddenly there was ANOTHER cake, our mom was calling us all inside and we celebrated my dad's birthday at exactly midnight!  All of the adults was pretty drunk, so watching them try to sing Happy Birthday and eat more cake was pretty entertaining!!  We didn't leave until 2:30am!  Everyone was drunk and exhausted, but it was so fun no one was complaining... or at least, no one complained until the morning!

Friday I had class ALL DAY:  9-12:30 and then 3 - 6:30 and it was rough after all the celebrating the night before.  And so when I got home around 7:00 I was ready for bed... except my mom, sister Valeria & our abuelos' maid had been cooking all day to celebrate my dad's birthday at Tio Antonio's house.  I didn't even get to sit down, I was immediately put to work packing up all the food, counting the soda, making sure we had all the gifts and then we all piled into the truck and drove to Tio's house to set up for the party!  We set up tables, set the places, made sure there was ice and continued cooking some of the food.  We arrived around 7:45 to set up and no one showed up until 9:00, so waiting for the food was painful!  We all joked that we would eat the "llajua" (hot sauce - pronounced 'Yawk-wa') we were so hungry!!  But people started showing up and to be honest, I have no idea how many people ended up coming, but we filled all the tables and had to add an extra one!  And much like the previous celebrations there was lots of food, cake and beer!  We had two cakes for my dad and the food was amazing!  It was a sort of chicken corden bleu Bolivia style with potatoes and other goodies!  And it was plated so beautifully I had to take a picture!  After the meal and cake my sisters, Misah, Gus, a few other cousins and I played cards!  I learned lots of new games!!  So hopefully I'll remember them still when I get back to the states!  We played for a few hours at least, until everyone started leaving (which was around 1:30am...)  the Bolivians really like to stay out late!  After most people had left we cleaned up and while we worked my sister Valeria slept in the truck-- she not only went to class all morning, but she cooked most of the meal and was a marvelous hostess, so no one was really complaining! We we could barely stand and we didn't do much!  When we got home one of the puppies was missing from his bed (it turns out he was just on the other side of the kitchen, but we were worried and frantically scavenged the house for the little rascal.. ) and after all that excitement we still had to find a place in the fridge for all the leftover food!! By the time I got to my bed it was almost 2:45am...

La Comida Rica!

Dos tortas!
Dos deseos!

                                 

La Fiesta

Mi familia:
Laura, yo, Mama, Valeria y Papa

Mis tios y primos
(the other birthday family!)
Alejandro, Tio, Tia Teresa, Adrian

Other tios:
Daniella, Tia, Tio Javier y Javier Jr.

Los Hombres:
Misah y Gustavo

And promptly at 11:00am my mom knocked on my door saying "We're leaving for Adrian's party in 30 minutes!"  I knew we had the party, but maybe it was just hope that made me think it was much later... we arrived and their garden was turned into a child's dreamland!  There was a trampoline, a blowup castle complete with a slide and obstacles and kid sized tables, chairs and coca cola!!  Not to mention there was a piñata -that was actually just a huge balloon filled with little trinkets for the kids- and everyone got their own balloon!  Do you know how many fights start when only some kids get balloons??  The Bolivians have this party thing figured out!  So the kids were having a blast, yelling, screaming, running around!  The boys were all on the trampoline and the girls were all in the bouncy castle, and all the adults were exhausted.  We all sat under a tent in the shade, nursing coca cola and eating, laughing at the kids playing.  It was fun, but I really just wanted to sleep!  We ate our cake and soon after headed home and when I thought we were finally finished with the parties, the doorbell rang and most of the relatives from Adrian's party were standing on our front step!  We still had so much food left over from my dad's birthday that I guess we offered to share it -- which makes sense!  But after the meal, my sisters, Misah and I passed out on the couches for a few hours at least!!  And while we were sleeping even more people showed up!!  So really, it was just an insane weekend of lots of greetings, new introductions, besos and cake.  LOTS AND LOTS OF CAKE!  And normally I don't say no to cake, but after so much.. I don't even want to eat the leftovers in our fridge!  I tried at least four different types (all were amazing, but the Chocolate was definitely my favorite!) and now I'm done... until tomorrow at least! ;)

Adrian and his Abuelas (Grandmas)
Also, I love that his cake & shirt are Rage Comics...

There were so many flavors.. but it was delicious

What every child wishes they had at their birthday party!

After all that craziness, Sunday was very low key.  We made lunch (just for the family) and I've been working on homework all day with my sisters, doing laundry and other boring household chores!  Oh and of course packing for La Paz!! I leave tomorrow morning at 5:00am!  So that should be interesting, especially since we have things scheduled until 9:00pm at night!  I hope someone bought us lots and lots of coca as we will also be going up in altitude again!!  I'll try and keep you updated from La Paz, but no promises that I'll have internet! :)



To an exhausting, yet exhiliarting weekend of family fun,
Carly