Today is Lauren’s birthday. I woke up at 7:30 and read for a little while. I like the balcony a lot, from which you can see the ocean. Every morning there is tons of bright sunshine. Working together in the kitchen, we made scrambled eggs with spinach and onion, toast, and tea. We ate this elegant breakfast on the balcony. We talked about money, debt, and credit cards, an interesting birthday topic. We washed the plates and put on our swimsuits. We lay outside around the pool and wrote in our journals and read for a couple hours (covered in lots of sunscreen, of course). I have tried to be really careful about applying liberal amounts of sunscreen with frequency to avoid getting burnt, and so far, it’s worked! I copied part of Amber’s Spanish notes (her new words) but I still lack seven entire pages (both sides) to do. I spent some time in the shade of the roof that is over the table near the pool. Tato had told us that he was going to come over at one, but we didn’t think he would be on time. We stayed out by the pool until he arrived with his friends at 2:30. We went back inside and got dressed and then came back out. The next nine hours consisted of a big party at the beach house. We practiced our Spanish with Tato’s friends and they practiced their English with us. Most of his wealthy friends had attended bilingual schools and most had studied in the U.S. at some point. Four Garifuna children showed up while it was still light. They were trying to catch crawdads in the stream next to the house. We talked to them in Spanish and they tried to teach us how to count in Garifuna (abba, biama, oora, gahdrew, san-goo). The girl braided Amber’s and Lauren’s hair. Mine was all twisted back so she couldn’t braid mine. We tried coconut tablets (a Garifuna dessert) and casaba (a hard and salty cracker). We took pictures together and gave them orange pop and bug repellent. We were getting hungry and finally Tato had someone bring some food from town. We ate different kinds of meat and a little bit of beans with a tortilla. La Ceiba is known as the party city of Honduras. I found it interesting that three of Tato’s friends said that they want to move to another city because there are not many opportunities in La Ceiba to work or for entertainment other than drinking. However, other people said that they love La Ceiba and think that La Ceiba is the best place in the whole world. Tato drove home after the party, although he probably should have found a designated driver. He thinks that having a fun life is more important than anything else. Amber said something to him about what would happen if he had a wreck when he was driving when he probably shouldn’t be. He said that that it is not important if he has a wreck or even dies because he enjoys every day and that is what is most important. It is amazing how people can have such different perspectives on life. We stayed down there until about midnight. I went up at 11:30 and the girls followed within a half hour. I was in my bed munching on cornflakes when they came up. My stomach wasn’t feeling well, especially in the morning. I did a little bit of school work today, but I still have a lot left that I want to do before I return to the U.S. We gave Lauren her birthday cards, and I went to bed at 12:30.
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