Forgive the abundance of pictures on this one. It was a fun party, with all people I knew, with plenty of photo ops. And again, it's very Mexican to take a gajillion pictures.
Front row (L to R): Liliana, Marisol, Rocio, Mayrita, Karla, Chapo, Karina, Karina's friend.
Back row: Iván (Rocio's boyfriend), Jair, me, Alma, Lenin
Front: Mayrita, Karla, Jorge Luis (birthday boy), Marisol (his GF), Rocio, Liliana, Renato
Middle: Chapo, me, Lenin, Alma, a couple I don't know, Mayra's brother, Iván, another guy I don't know, Mayra's other brother (Sergio?)
Back: Topete
Liliana, Karla, Me, Mayrita, Alma, Marisol, Rocio
See what I mean about Mexicans loving pictures?
Front: Liliana, Marisol, Mayrita
Back: Me, Alma, Karla, Rocio
Lenin rocking the ping pong.
Roommates!
Jair and Mayrita
Alma, Mayrita, Karla and Marisol check out the pictures and video footage thus far.
Marisol, the birthday boy's girlfriend, pats out the hamburgers with a tortilla press!
Dancing to the Banda karaoke (Banda is awful Mexican music with a German flavor. Trust me; it's awful!)
My girl Liliana- so much fun!
Unfortunate that the birthday boy has to cook the food for his guests! I will not be carrying on this tradition in a few weeks....
Teaching the girls a variation on the electric slide.
Chapo and Topete rapping.
Hilarious.
Chapo and Topete with a little more Mexican flavor!
We drove to a gas station to meet up with the rest of the gang. From there, we all headed to the party. I LOVED this party because we arrived, sat down and just chatted for awhile. The guys huddled around the ping pong table and the girls sat and gossiped. I knew everyone at the table, and I even knew most of the characters that they were talking about. Later, the middle school dance feeling changed and we were a little more interspersed. Topete had plenty of stories as usual. He and Liliana pretty much went head to head, competing for the microphone so to speak. The guys played ping pong for a really long time. Chavo (Carla's boyfriend, who likes to practice slang English with me) kept winning, so he stayed at the table for a LONG time. Finally they tired, and finally we complained enough! The girls started to play. Bless their hearts. After they had all had their turns, I stepped up. It was kinda hilarious hearing the guys gasp in shock that I knew what I was doing. Thanks Columbia Avenue Church Camp Ping Pong Tournament. Usually I would make it to the finals and then Andy would just cream me. How I can have hand-eye coordination in this "sport" and in no other activity (yoga doesn't count because it's slow), I will never understand. I of course took it easy on my friends. After I had played through the girls twice, some of the guys decided to play. I beat Renato (Liliana's dancing boyfriend) fair and square (only they only let the girls play to 5), and I think I beat Lenin (I know there was a second one I played and beat, but honestly can't remember who is was). Then Chapo came to the table. He took it easy on me, but still beat me quickly. My streak was over. It was fun though. Later, the girls dragged out a jumprope and played for about 30 minutes. I felt no need to get out of breath and sweaty, so I just watched!
After the jumprope, there was a piñata.
In the midst of it all, we ate grilled hamburgers. I hadn't had my annual burger in over a year I think, so I actually enjoyed it (there was no other option, so I guess it's good that I partook!). Of course, Mexican hamburgers are different. I'm sure the meat is a bit different, but that's not exactly what I'm referring to. The hamburgers fresh off the grill come already fixed with mayo and cheese. The extra options were barbecue sauce, ketchup, onions, lettuce, guacamole, mushrooms, and it seems I'm missing something. Everyone I saw loaded their burger with all of the above. When in Rome...
I am a very plain eater. I prefer to think of it as easy to please. I eat salads without dressings. I don't like a lot of condiments. I'm simple. However, since my burger already had mayonnaise on it (bleh!), I decided to cover that flavor up with everything else. It was delicious. I especially liked the guacamole and BBQ sauce (I used ketchup for chips since I figured BBQ and ketchup might be overload). This was also apparently the day for my chips consumption. I prefer something sweet any day to chips. They seem like a major waste of calories and fat to me. I'd rather consume that in chocolate any day!
Back to the jumprope and piñata. Given that we were all adults breaking this piñata, it broke within the first three or four people. The candy is another very Mexican thing. I would fill a piñata with chocolate (see previous paragraph) things. Here it's all sugar candy. Mostly fruity, and lots of suckers. I ate a chewy sucker and that was it for me. No temptation there!
As it got later (around 5 or 6, with the party starting at 1 theoretically), the karaoke started. Marisol and Liliana totally hogged the mic (which didn't bother me of course). They sang the entire repertoire of some Mexican singer (I think Paulina Rubio?). Then they sang some more.
By this point, the beer had run out, so the guys went for more. I knew it was going to be a long night at that point!
Again, as with all karaoke nights, I got roped in. There's no option really. Well, when I saw that within the limited English selection was "Air Force Ones," well it was settled. I jammed. It was hilarious! Halfway through, Lenin decided to join me. He might have been way over-served at this point. Lenin speaks about three English words, so obviously an English rap song was not his best bet... He grabbed the second mic and started rockin' with "wachu wachu wah wachu wachu wachu wah." It made me laugh so hard that I completely lost my jam. Oh well. It was worth it. I can only hope he got caught on camera!
After "Air Force Ones" and "our" standing ovation, I sang "Walk Like an Egyptian" again. This brought the house down (okay, so maybe everyone but Alma and I were over-served! Everyone got up and started doing the walk-like-an-Egyptian walk. We took pictures and everything. It was really funny.
More karaoke ensued and around 8:30 we were all hungry again. Well, I wasn't really hungry, but it was time to eat. They fired up the grill and rolled out the rest of the burgers. Well, like I said before, I like about one burger per year, so fat chance I was going to eat two in one day! I passed at meal time (I wasn't starving, so no biggie). About an hour later, the coals were still hot even though the fire was out. I took that opportunity to toast a bun and some cheese. It wasn't your typical grilled cheese, but it hit the spot!
The rest of the night was more singing, dancing, etc. Around 11:30, we started packing up the party. The karaoke machine had to be loaded into a truck to be returned. The food all had to be put away. The ping pong table had to be stored.
As we were standing around (the girls), the guys did all the labor. Fine by me, of course. Liliana gave me a big hug (repeat after me: over-served) and said, "Laura, don't leave! You should stay here forever! Let's find you a Mexican boyfriend and you can stay here forever." Ah, Liliana. How much you still have to learn about me!
By the time we got packed up, said our goodbyes (everyone kissing everyone before being allowed to leave takes some serious time), and got home, it was close to 1. That's an early night, of course for Mexicans! However, it was Sunday night and not a normal weekend night. It was also the third night out in a row. We were beat.
We got back to the house and Alma asked me if I had my key. I said yes and scurried into the house quickly. I thought she and Lenin maybe were headed over to Marisol's house (that had been discussed as we were departing), but it seemed out of character to do something without dragging me along! Turns out she had been upset with Lenin most of the party and needed to discuss that with him (until 4 am!). Thank goodness I decided just to go straight to sleep and not wait up for her...
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