Day 13: June 3rd...BIRTHDAY! :)

Birthday Day!!! I woke up nice and early as always and took my usual shower. When I came back to my room, I was greeted by a huge sign that said ‘Feliz Cumpleanos Maggie!’ It was made by Mafer and it was a great way to start the morning. Dorita had music blaring once more, but this time it was a Spanish “Happy Birthday” song. Music blaring and a huge sign made the morning perfect. I also got a small gift from the family: a picture frame and worry doll.

At school, Melanie started telling some of the kids that it was my birthday and they all wanted to take pictures. I had fun taking pictures with the kids at recess. The kids were infatuated with my camera so I let them take pictures. The recess bell rang and Melanie and I walked into the classroom. The students stood up and started singing “Happy Birthday” to me. They sang the English version and then the Spanish version which goes as follows:
“Ya queremos pastel, ya queremos pastel, aunque sea un pedacito pero queremos pastel!! Jaja”
And then the students started counting my age! It was such a blast and I was so glad to be able to share the day with the kids.

After class the whole crew came back to Dorita’s. We kind of hung out talking about the trip and just reflecting on everything. To eat, we had a wonderful chicken soup to calm the stomachs of many. After we had, Dorita and some of the other host mom’s brought out a chocolate cake with a candle on top. I had two versions of Happy Birthday sang to me. It was great to be with the group to celebrate the day. We then packed into the car and headed to the pool at the Holiday Inn. It was so nice earlier in the day, but as we were leaving we could see incriminating clouds in the distance. We still went hoping it would clear up. Sadly it didn’t…it actually poured.
Since we had just gotten to the pool we didn’t want our host families to turn right back around and pick us up. The entire group, all ten of us, went to the restaurant next door to the hotel. Most of us ordered drinks. I got my first Gallo, the official beer of Guatemala. As we were enjoying our time, a mariachi band and the group told them it was my birthday. So the group sang a birthday song to me which was fun. We wrapped up our drinks and headed back to the hotel to wait for our rides to pick us up at 5:00pm. It turns out that the traffic was so bad that it almost took two hours to come pick us up. Everyone was pretty frustrated, but we were glad to see some familiar faces when they arrived.

When Rosio came to pick us up, she told us that we would not be able to get back to Dorita’s for dinner. Melanie and I were pretty disappointed because we knew that Dorita had something planned for the evening and it was frustrating that we couldn’t celebrate with her, but alas there was nothing we could do. It was completely out of our hands. The group that was left: Bobby, Melanie, Molly, Monica, Carina and myself went to Pizza Hut along with Rosio, Gladis, and Gabby. The Pizza Hut was so nice and it appeared that couples were actually going there for dates. It is just so surprising because the fast food restaurants here are so much nicer than back in the states. While we were eating, yet again the employees came to the table and sang a Pizza Hut verision of Happy Birthday. Lots of Happy Birthday’s for the day so it was a lot of fun!

We finally got back to the house at both Melanie and I were pretty excited to see the family. We were talking with Dorita and she convinced us to have some margaritas with her. The three of us had fun just drinking small little glasses of margaritas and trying to talk about the day. And of course the day would not be complete without Dorita breaking out her CD of music. She made me get up and do our little dance in the living room. It honestly was the perfect way to end my day. I was happy to have spent my birthday somewhere new with a lot of really great people that made the day extra special! :)