Birthday Celebrations

One of the fun things about being here and living in the close knit community that I do is being able to share in people's special days and celebrating birthdays together. This quarter we've had three (besides my own). In January we celebrated Lindsey's birthday with a surprise party. But not a surprise just for Lindsey, for everyone involved. We had a true "pot luck" dinner and had everyone bring something. But we didn't tell anyone what to bring and no one was allowed to tell what they were planning on bringing. This way we may end up with all desserts or no desserts at all. But we were going to be surprised. It was a lot of fun and we actually ended up with quite the spread of various things.



Then on April 1st we celebrated my roommate Emma's birthday. For this special day we decided to go to the Sheraton hotel for their fancy buffet dinner. We got all dressed up and enjoyed eating lots of delicious food. We ended up going on the Asian food night (not exactly what we were craving, but it still turned out to be good). A lot of us spent most of our calories for the evening eating their yummy bread. Good bread is hard to find here so we felt like we were in heaven.



Lastly, in April we celebrated Aaron's birthday. A large group of people went out to eat the Saturday night before his birthday at a restaurant where you eat in the dark. It was one of the weirdest experiences I've had to date. You walk in and look at a menu and order. Then they take you upstairs (lead by a blind guy), where you are seated in a room that is completely pitch dark. The kind of dark that your eyes don't get used to and makes you dizzy after a while. Your eyes try so hard to adjust but in the end you fail to be able to see anything. The waiters serve you using night vision glasses. I had steak and french fries with ice cream for dessert. I basically ended up eating with my hands. Silverware is too hard to use in the dark, besides if it's dark no one cares if you eat steak with your hands. :)



Then on Aaron's actual birthday a few of us went to a local hole in the wall restaurant for some spicy Indonesian food. We enjoyed "surprising" him with some party decorations and a chance to blow out a candle. We got really wet on the way there, as it's still rainy season here, but it was still fun.




I've put together a Web Album to give you a chance to see more of the pictures from these celebrations. Click on the following link, which will take you there: http://picasaweb.google.com/emilyinbandung/BirthdayCelebrations