party party

Erin's surprise party was... great. Really. Erin was thinking that we were all meeting up to go out to eat, she walked in, saw everyone and didn't think a thing about it. Just thought we were getting ready to go. Then i walked her into the dining room where the cake was and said.. "this is the restaurant.. surprise?!" haha.. she says "are you serious? wait.. i told all my friends we were going out to eat.. " me, "erin, that's the point of a surprise party, everyone else has known about it for a while" ... "oooh"

So there were about 35 people at the house.. we were a little sad at first because it had started raining and the charcoal got wet, so we weren't going to be able to have a barbecue, but then a German named Phillip asked me if he could at least try and i'm thinking "goodluck buddy" but give him the lighter.. and he and another girl get it!! so we ended up having barbecue after all.

(this is me and Jackie, a girl from Massachusetts that lives with me)

The piscosour was awesome (i should hope so, what with all the sugar that's in it) and some hours later, we moved the party to erin's hostal and stayed up there talking and having fun until about 4 or so.

Gift-wrapped presents are a must for any birthday party. I got Erin new headphones with a mic so that she can talk to mom and dad online and.. peanut butter because it's kinda hard to find here. :)

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Today, I get home about 1pm and there's a TON of people at the house! All the relatives (except those in foreign countries) came over for lunch. There was Antonio and Lucy (my host parents), Mana, Rosillo, Javier, Jose, Jose's wife and 2yr old son, mamama (grandma), and someone else- maybe my "aunt"?

After sitting at table talking for a while, we moved the gathering into the living room, playing with Rodrigo, the 2yr old. Then we got to singing songs.. spanish ones, of course, then Head shoulders knees and toes with rodrigo. Then Jose got the guitar and the went from singing The Bare Necesities to who knows what songs in Spanish! They're still downstairs now.. but i have to get to work on class stuff :/ I feel SOO lucky to be with this family. I always feel included and they're all reallly nice. Not the fake, "oh yeah? that's neat" nice, either.. like genuine interest and we share jokes and .. just great. It's only a week and I'm already sooo very comfortable here.