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Earlier this week we were invited to our landlord Américo’s birthday party by his wife Sofia. We were told to come upstairs to the roof of our building at around 4pm on Saturday… I accepted, and then promptly freaked out. What happens at birthday parties in Peru? Do I bring something? Should I dress up? Our Spanish teacher talked us through likely scenarios, and recommended a type of liquor to bring as a small gift. Still, when the time came yesterday to head upstairs, I was nervous.

The party ended up being completely fantastic. They were setup for a BBQ with lots of food and beer. And the speakers playing loud music definitely indicated there would be dancing at some point. About five minutes into it, Scott looked at me and said, “I think this is going to go all night.” And it pretty much did. (I was glad we didn’t make reservations at the fancy, Arequipean restaurant down the street. Our Valentine’s Day Plan B.)

Some highlights:

  • The one cup, one bottle principle. A tradition in Peru that we are absolutely adopting at our parties back in the states. Person A pours himself some beer in a glass, and then hands the bottle to Person B. When Person A is done drinking his beer, he hands the glass to Person B, who pours himself a glass and then hands the bottle over to Person C. And so on. Tandem drinking. Everyone serves everyone else.
  • Conversations in Spanish. I really tried to let go of my internal translating and soak in the meaning of our conversations last night, and it seemed to work. Américo and Sofia have two sons about our age (Américo Jr. and Ruben), who also speak English and could help us out when we really needed it. (At one point, Ruben told us our Spanish “sucked”. We have a long way to go.)
  • Invitation to go-carting. We’re going with Ruben on Thursday! So great.
  • Dancing Part I. Scott and I avoided dancing for the better part of the night, until at one point Américo’s brother invited me onto the dance floor. It was just me and him, with everyone else sitting on the Américo and Sofia on the dance floor.sidelines, watching. We got some applause when the song was over, which made the traumaticness fade a bit.
  • Dancing Part II. After the blowing out candles on the cake, we were ready to sneak out and go to bed. But no, we were both swept onto the dance floor by our hosts Sofia and Américo. We danced (again, with everyone else sitting around watching) to the longest song ever. Scott, who really dislikes dancing, got into it. At the end we were applauded. And then Scott headed straight for the group of men holding a carafe of pisco.