my two birthdays

First of all, I want to say thank you to all of you who wished me a happy birthday. And to those of you who called, an extra special thank you, it was so wonderful to hear your voices out here.

I was lucky enough to have two birthday celebrations. The first one was in San Salvador last weekend with my PC friends, and was a joint celebration with my friend linsey, a spring chicken who only turned 23, not 24 like us viejitos. The pictures above are from our delicious dinner at Benihana's, the Japanese hibachi grill that is my biggest guilty pleasure in this country, where all 14 of us went for a wonderful dinner. The meal was followed by a night of dancing out in the San Salvador clubs.

My second birthday celebration was held in my site. I woke up and made myself and the grandkids pancakes, then we had a pool party with some of my friends, followed by a delicious ice cream cake. But the highlight of the day came later, my friend Norma organized a BBQ, where we grilled steaks, chorizo and chicken over hot coals, delicious. It was wonderful, except that the BBQ was held right by where the family keeps their cows, who were staring at us in contempt - I kept feeling like I needed to apologize to them. Also, when I was talking about how old I felt, Norma's mom chimed in to mention that when she was 24 she had already had 5 children! Oh man...
By the way, in the pictures are above, the pink shirt I am wearing was a present from my host parent's daughter, Rina, very sweet.