¡viva los cumpleñaros!

i have absolutely no idea if that is how you spell what i am trying to spell in spanish. but i am going to go with it. bottom line: my birthday yesterday was nothing short of the usual adventure. i went to the hospital... all was normal... and i came back home for lunch and my room was basically revamped. my blue bedspread was switched with this fancy white frilly thing... complete with pillows... and i had a big bunch of flowers and a card from cristina and isidiro. (apparently the white bedspread thing is some sort of birthday thing... so i went with it.) so that was fun. and we washed the car, because we are getting set to roadtrip out to the coast this weekend for some beach time and r&r. that turned into a water fight carnaval-style... also exciting. what else? oh right... got my hair cut. in ecuador. for $2. ha. kind of shorter than i anticipated... but... adventure, no? it actually looks fine... nothing drastic. just shorter than i bargained for. hmm... oh yes... we followed up hair cuts with leg waxing... why, you might be asking yourself? i don't know. but that's what people do here... so. i am just fitting in. :) it may or may not have been one of the most painful experiences of my life to date. but. other than that... a success.

the best part of the day, however, was when we went to blanca's casa (one of cristina's sisters) for a birthday party because her oldest brother has the same birthday as me. bottom line: abuelita and all EIGHT of her children (con familias) were there for dinner and dancing. and of course, dancing always means 'let's try to teach the gringa how to salsa'. awesome. awesome and awkward. but fun. and loud. and so distinctly latino. but i love their family and they all like to tell me how they are my aunts and uncles and cousins and how i can come back and be in the family whenever i want to. so funny.

and that's the birthday festivites in a nutshell. hope all is well... only 2 weeks and 1 day left here in ecuador! loco...