Birthday Awesomeness!

I am 25 years old! And because yesterday fell on a Sunday (my weekend here) I was able to spend the day with all the people I love! I woke up early at 8:00 to take a taxi to Agadir and first went dvd shopping. I got a lot of good ones, including Into the Wild, which I'm stoked to watch. Then instead of taking a petit taxi like I usually do, I walked to the beach. And I decided to take a different route. Instead of walking by hotels and touristy-storefronts, I strolled through the Moroccan neighborhoods and walked by swinging slabs of meat, dumpsters, and a mosque. I actually didn't intend on taking this new route, but I was daydreaming and missed a turn and so just navigated my way back.

Once I made my way back toward the beach, I met up with some of my Peace Corps friends at a beach side restaurant. Chase, Dan, Leslie, Ian and Julia came. We ate fried calamari and Chase brought along a carrot cake she baked. We didn't have candles, so we improvised with waving fingers. Then, while the rest of them strolled along the beach, I hopped in a taxi and hurried back to my town. I gathered my overnight backpack, hopped on my bike, and rode out to my host family's village. On the way, a group of giggling boys raced me.

At the douar, or village, I told my family we would be having American birthday night. I baked a chocolate cake with coconut cream frosting, cut up veggies and made a ranch dip that mom sent to me in the mail shHal hadi (a long time ago), and made spaghetti. While waiting for the cake to bake, the twin girls (my host mom's cousins, but they are only four years old) were trying to drag me into the salon and kept asking me, "have you seen it yet?" Everyone in the room was ignoring them, until their mom said finally, "ok, fine, take her to the room" and the girls ran me over to the salon, giggling. Inside, my family had decorated the room for my birthday! With garland, they wrote on the wall "Jenny" and "Houda," another cousin whose birthday is the same as mine, but who didn't make it to the party.

It was a night of surprises. After we ate our spaghetti, I began sticking candles in my cake, when they brought out two store bought cakes! Three cakes! We lit the candles and then somebody decided the "mood" wasn't right and went off in search of "music." Half an hour later, they were blasting Jennifer Lopez (in honor of me) and singing loudly over the music "Happy Birthday." They were really obsessed with taking pictures of me cutting the cakes, so I must ask about the cultural significance of that. As we were eating the cake and drinking coca cola, they surprised me again with presents! I was not expecting presents at all! They gave me chocolate, slippers, a mirror, and oddly, a fireplace bellows.

After presents, I pulled out Pin the Tail on the Donkey. I was nervous using "donkey" might be a little inappropriate (because of cultural reasons) but they thought it was hilarious. So, we played and took lots of pictures. Then, we played Connect Four and Old Maid. They loved all the games. We played until 1 am! Now, comes the cheesy party! I am so thankful that I was able to share yesterday with so many kind people.