Biking and Birthdays

Friday night a couple of us went to Parque Fundidora after work to enjoy the nice weather. You can rent bikes there (100 peso deposit, and you get your money back when you return the bike), so we all took advantage of the 1-speed demons. They aren't very adjustable, so you can see me here ignoring the pedals and just pushing off with my feet...I managed to go just as fast pedaling this way as with the actual pedals...



Last night a coworker had a birthday party at his house. There is a tradition here of a mordita, or a little bite, where the lucky birthday person has to take a bite out of the cake before everyone else digs in. Of course, this winds up with the person getting their face pushed into the cake! I didn't get a great shot in the chaos, but you can see his friends helping out with the mordita here.



Also, the aftermath is below. It was a pretty cool cake made up of cupcakes, which is what you see in the face-imprint.

Concerts and Fútbol

One of my coworkers in the office teaches guitar and piano two nights a week, so she invited the volunteers to a free concert put on by her music school. It was a chorus of 26 female singing teachers, two violinists, and a pianist, with the theme ¨Songs sung by my grandparents¨. I wound up going with my host / counterpart. The concert was in this theater in the Parque Fundidora, at the end of the riverwalk. The songs were pretty good (though in Spanish), and the theater was so packed that people were sitting in the aisles! My counterpart only recognized 5 of the 20 songs, so just an indication of the era they came from...



Also, Friday after work I stayed late and played fútbol with some of the guys from work. They play almost every Friday, in the grassy area in front of the office on a miniaturized field. There was a wide range of skills, so I fit right in with my non-existent soccer skills. I lost track of the score, but it was good fun.