HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!!!!

Sunday was a really nice day.

It began with church - which was nice. A little sad because it was all about mothers and mine wasn't there to celebrate with, but it was good to get a little extra reminder of how great moms are. And mine is pretty much awesome.

Following church, Esther brought me back to the flat where my flatmates were cooking lunch for me! We had planned to have a nice lunch together and I had asked Eddie to cook Pad Thai - my favorite. Ariel made some fish - which was REALLY good. And for those of you that know me, I'm not a huge fish eater. And I made some of my favorite pasta that mom had sent over (see... look how great my mom is!). It was really nice. After eating the main meals we dug into the remaining cake (see May 7th's blog for more information on this international cake). However, before we dug in, we had to light up the candles and sing happy birthday. And what better way to do that than with a singing candle?! Unfortunately - or fortunately, you could look at it both ways - the candle wouldn't stop singing once the flame was blown out. Hilarity ensued and we all just laughed for a few minutes until pulling the candle out of its little stand. And now I think it's broken forever. :( Oh well.... we got some laughs out of it!

After lunch Esther brought me to the shopping center where I hoped I would be able to find a place to cut my hair. Problem was that it was Sunday.... things close on Sunday. Many of the salons were closed all day or closing as I arrived. So, no hair cut. But I did get my nails done. And that was nice!

That night we met up with a few people at El Torito in West End. Look at the pictures in the video and you'll know that it's NOTHING like the El Torito Californians are used to. It was a little hole-in-the-wall place with pretty lousy service. But the food wasn't bad at all! Aside from the spelling of a few things ("quezadila" and "tamal"???) and an odd looking tostada (the "salad" you see on the plate in the video is really a tostada... basically a small crispy tortilla with black beans and literal salad topping it off) it was respectable Mexican food.

You will also notice in some of the pictures that we brought a friend along with us - in the form of a picture. :) That's because Maija wasn't able to with us. No, she's not dead. She's just in Maine. :) But I wanted her there, and I wanted her to be a part of it, so she was there....... in picture form.

Everyone else that was there:
Esther, Sally, Sharon, Karmel (girls from Lifegroup)
Frida and her brother Benjamin
Blake (a friend from all my classes - he's from Texas so we have stuff in common to talk about while in class....... paying close attention to the professors as they give their lecture of course)

It was a really nice night.