Turning 24

Not that this was my first birthday away from home, but I was expecting it to be strange or an emotionally nostalgic time. In fact, it was one the best birthdays on the books. My community woke me up to singing Las Mañanitas and Michael made me breakfast. School was so much fun. Kids sang to me and wished me felicidades. In the afternoon I went to the movies with some coworkers. They bought me fried chicken and we saw The Hunting Party. In the evening we sat on our patio eating pizza from the neighborhood, sipped some cold beer, and got to talk to folks back home. Perfect. On Friday we had a bunch of friends over from work and other places. This happened to correspond to a great annual festival that is held just a block from our house. The festival is called Santo Domingo, and Friday night was the Palo Lucio. Imagine a huge telephone pole lubed up with pig fat and young men standing on each other trying to reach the top. We only saw them get about three people high, but even that was impressive considering how much guaro they had likely drunk, not to mention the tweeked out glue sniffing kids who were not helping the endevour. Apparently there is a great prize for however reaches the top. Buena suerte... It was an exciting and fun way to continue celebrating my birthday. For the record, despite insistent baggering, Michael nor I climbed the pole. Maybe next year.