Sunday, March 8, 2009

Cristopher's Birthday Party: Dale! Dale! Dale!
















We just returned from a most special event --- our landlord invited us to the birthday party for his 2-year old grandson Cristopher. A real, genuine, authentic cultural immersion. Balloons were strung in the yard, a hotdog cart served as the pork-and-chicken BBQ, posters from the movie "Cars" hung festively, and we were seated as guests of honour. About 50 or 60 people (seemed like more than half were kids) chowed down on shrimp ceviche, tacos, tequila beer or pop, hot dogs, and cake (from Sanborn's!). I wanted to slide on the giant inflated fun house, but Pat thought the pack of boys would gang up on me and show no mercy. It's happened before.

The main event was the smashing of the pinata, a suspended cardboard figure (from "Cars", naturally). All the kids lined up to take a whack at the car and spill the candy inside. We heard different versions of the pinata's history (Google it) but in the here-and-now it was total glee and bigtime fun.

And we got a language lesson: the song chanted while the pinata is whacked starts with "Dale! Dale! Dale!" Pronounced DAH-lay, it means "Hit it! Hit It! Go-go-go!". Seems right somehow...





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