First, before I get too far into the festivities, you need to understand something about Mexican culture. Birthdays are a big deal here (meaning people assume you will have a party, and you will be flooded with hugs and congratulations on completing another year). While people are always sure to point out your big day, they don´t celebrate you like we do in the States (for example, they don´t buy you gifts, and if you go out with your friends for dinner to celebrate, don´t expect them to pay for you, you pay for yourself). I have observed this over the past 5 months, and realized that if I was going to do something for my birthday, I was going to need to plan it. Not wanting to come across as "It´s my birthday, LOVE me" by planning and throwing myself a party, I decided to grit my teeth and bear it. So, I decided to invite everyone over to my house for Spaghetti.
But before we get to that, the celebration starts Thursday night the 5th. Not sure why, maybe emotions of being away from home for my birthday, or culture stress, or who knows what (no, not pms :-D) but I was in a bad mood. I just needed to get out and be with people and not be at home by myself for the rest of the night. So I called a friend Aaron who happened to be hanging out with 2 other friends at Starbucks and they invited me to join. So I met them at Starbucks. Knowing I was not in the best of moods, Aaron, being the amazing friend that he is, bought me my favorite drink from Starbucks (Which was easy to do. Since I have now made friends with some of the workers at Starbucks, all he had to do was asked the barista for the drink that Traci orders). I was already feeling a little better :) What can I say, I´m easy to please. After Starbucks we headed to Los Camineros for some tacos. After hanging out awhile longer into the wee hours of the morning, I said goodbye to my friends for the night and snuggled into bed in a very pleasant mood. (Thanks Aaron, Abraham, and Israel!)
Then, Friday was the big day. I was tired from my adventures earlier that day, so I slept in. (A cool thing about Mexico, or maybe just the church I work for, but on your birthday you get the day off from work. Like I said, birthdays are a big deal here.) Then one of my friends called me and we went to a movie. Now I must admit the movie was retarded, but fun to hang out nonetheless.
After the movie I headed to the church for the evening service. I ducked out a little earlier to give my family a call so they could tell me how much they love me. Success. I was able to chat with all my State-side family and catch up which was nice.
Then after the service my friends insisted we go out to eat to celebrate. I could not refuse. We ended up going to Wing's Army, a Buffalo wing restaurant. It was absolutely amazing. Granted it was not the same quality as the Anchor Bar, but it wasn't bad. It reminded me of the many nights after small group going to Buffalo Wild Wings with friends in the States. It was the absolute perfect meal to celebrate my birthday. And I think it may have become one of my favorite places in Morelia :)
Then on Sunday after church I cooked Spaghetti for about 25 of my friends in my apartment. Short of birthday cake, balloons, and singing, it was still a good party. We ate food and hung out. Then after the majority had left, a group of us headed to Starbucks and then to the theater. There were no good movies showing so we decided to rent a movie, which also failed for lack of consensus. So we headed back to my apartment to hang out and ended up playing one of those rythm games you play in kindergarden. Normally those aren't so fun, but when they include animal noises, they become a lot more hillarious.
And so, as my good friend Bob would say, "There it is."
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