Day 169 (Saturday June 23rd) - Birthday!

This was the second time that I have ever been away from my family for my birthday.  Having a summer birthday was always a little difficult as a child because when I was younger all of my friends planned big parties and passed things out around school and people were generally excited about it for a long time before hand!  I have had parties before but before the technology of cell phones and e-mail it was a different task.  Anyway, what I am saying is that in the past one thing that was consistent for me every year was the fact that my family was always there!  I have been blessed the last two years to be around great people for my birthday, but it will never be quite the same being away from my family :).

My day was like any normal Saturday.  I taught my two English classes and then we had youth group!  For youth group we played games and ate cake and brownies and just hung out.  We were celebrating all of the birthdays from January to June.  It was a ton of fun!  It also just so happened to fall on my birthday, haha!  :P

After this I headed home and what should I find upon entering my apartment?!

Some good friends broke into my apartment and decorated it all Colombian-like!  Yellow, blue, and red are the colors of the flag.  Then, there were also little cut outs of different Colombia things around as well!  I was so surprised and excited! :)

There was a nice little smörgåsbord (I looked up this word and it is apparently a type of Scandinavian meal that is served buffet style.  It originated in Sweden... you learn something new every day.  Also I thought the original spelling was fun) of Colombian food!

We've got muffins (in Spanish also called muffins) that are made with peanuts and arequipe (or dulce de leche as it is more commonly known in the States).  Delcious.

This is called matrimonio, kind of like marriage.  It is made with a coastal cheese and a something called bocadillo which is a lot like home made fruit roll ups.  Yummy.  Never would have thought to put cheese with fruit though.  That was weird at first!  The tooth picks had coffee beans and Colombian flags and good 'ol Juan Valdez (who was the first person to import coffee into Colombia).

Delicious cake that was basically one of the muffins but it bunt cake form.

On top here is botifarra, which is a type of sausage.  Then on bottom is bollo de yuca.  Bollo (boy-o) is... kind of... hard to explain.  It is kind of a cake type thing.  But made out of yuca, which is a root like a potato, but not a potato.  It is interesting.  They also have corn bollo which is pretty delicious.

 This is a blended fruit drink made out of my FAVORITE fruit, maracuyá (passion fruit)!!  So delicious.  It is topped of with milo, which is a chocolate powder that is from Australia, but is really popular here!  It is so delicious!

I had such a good night!  We listened to Colombian music and talked and laughed and they tried to teach me how to dance some but I was cursed with two Mennonite left feet and dancing isn't my strong suit to say the least!  Haha!  It was such a good night and they made me feel so special and loved here in Colombia!  They also made me realize that I should keep a better eye on my spare key... Haha!  :P