Well, I've calmed down a bit. Senor Asshat chose wisely not to cancel life for the rest of this week, so hopefully we can report to school as usual Wednesday-Friday. However, word on the Whatsapp street says that another fresh barrage of barricades is planed for 5am tomorrow, so who knows. It's madness. And it's taking a toll.
This weekend, tempers flared at Ivan's surprise birthday party between us expats and the Junta, basically the HOA of our apartment building. I'll spare the details but as of now, the six Expats in my building are personas non-gratis around the building. Really, we are chalking up to tensions. Everyone is on edge and just looking for something to take out aggression on. This weekend, it was us. Last week, it was my blog:).
Despite all, we have managed to have a great week. Last Wednesday, we CIC peeps got together and celebrated Ivan and Catherine's birthdays with a BBQ at Catherine's apartment. My boss Kelly made two DELICIOUS cakes for the occasion and we all had a grand time feasting on grilled delicacies and cake. It worked out great because we had virtual school on Thursday and Ivan had fake "holidays" Thursday and Friday, so our weekends started early. Ivan and I spent time with his family on Thursday night for his birthday and then Friday we got some stuff done.
Saturday was the big surprise party for Ivan's birthday. I had spent weeks planning it with his friends over Whatsapp, mainly in Spanish! We reserved the pool area of my apartment and were ready to go on Saturday morning. Just as everyone was arriving around 2pm, I got a call from Ivan, who was on his way over to my apartment. His car had broken down! AHHH! So, instead of just me coming to get him, his entire friend group came to get him! Only half way down the hill, he called to say he got his car working again! And unfortunately he caught up with us on the way back to my apartment! Thankfully, he was so mad about his car he didn't really catch on to what was going on, so by the time we made it down to the pool, there was a great group of people waiting to wish him a surprise happy birthday, and thus commenced a great party! Around 8pm we had the showdown with our Junta and the sober people of the group wisely shepherded us all up to Gordon's apartment where the party continued on. Ivan was so surprised and happy, and I was just relieved he didn't ever truly catch on! The next morning we went down to help Gordon clean his apartment....it reminded me of our old Carrollton Terrace days in college! What a mess! But it was worth it for sure:).
Sunday, Catherine, Carlos, Ivan and I walked down to a park about a 40 minute walk from our apartments and then got some delicious sushi. It was so nice to get out of the house and enjoy the day. And today, Ivan and I drove over to another park nearby with some great hikes and even some old Indian caves! We did a little spelunking along with our hiking, which was super cool! Getting out and enjoying the days is saving my sanity, even if I am not travelling far from home. The icing on the cake today was going to the Italian restaurant near my house which I had never tried before and eating THE BEST salmon tortellini in cream sauce! It was AMAZING. And a great end to our Carnival holiday. We were all a little bummed not to be able to get away for Carnival, but we are certainly making the best of it. I am blessed with a really wonderful group of friends here who all look after each other, try to be positive and love having fun. Together we are going to weather this storm, I am certain! As long as I can still abuse my blog once and a while to get my feelings out, I'll be okay. It's better than damaging property- that would really get the Junta angry! :)
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