What it’s like to turn a year older in a foreign country?
A sum up of my celebration day!
Wake up take a shower.
Spend some time with the Lord.
Have a teammate French braid my hair!
Eat some oatmeal…(with sugar, peanut butter, and more sugar)
Give feedback and provide feedback within the team.
Talk to the Lord some more.
Talk to my parents!
Read my Birthday cards and letters from friends!
Eat a snack and then off we go…
On a scavenger hunt…
One of my teammates set up a scavenger hunt for my birthday! It was awesome!
We split up into two groups!
My team: Jenny, Sarah, & I
The other team: Hannah, Hannah Beth, Jada, & Allie (the maker of the scavenger hunt!)
21 hints and one hour to find the clues!
A fun filled adventure walking around the town:
Taking pictures from everything between The largest pack of Saltines, dogs, Chacos, hugging a tree, ice cream, our favorite barista, and so much more…
Not to mention videos reenacting movies, first dates of our new friends, and so much more!!!!
We made it back in the nick of time, but had a blast! It was so much fun!!!
Thanks again for my creative teammate: Allie for creating this fun scavenger hunt!
And my other teammates plus Jenny, for playing along and making it fun!
After that we spent some time preparing materials for our hosts!
Then back to see our favorite Barista: who wanted us to come back and do a coffee tasting! It was so cool! I’ve never been involved in one before….(Let’s face it the main reason, is because I’m not a huge coffee fan, I told our favorite Barista, and he said it was ok to try)…but guys this was legit!
He had coffee beans, from a local farm (about 45 minutes away) roasted to 3 different levels!
Medium
Medium Alto
Dark
They weighed out the beans into the cups…
Then the first round of smelling begins…
Judging the fragrance… (in order to do this you stick your nose in the cup, but you can’t touch the cup!)
Then they take the beans and grind them…
Then another round of smelling…
Judging the fragrance…
Then a measured amount of hot water is added to each cup of grounds…
Then more smelling….
Judging the fragrance…
Then you take a spoon and skim the surface off the coffee…
Smell…
Judging the fragrance…
Then scrape out the grinds on the top and put them in a different cup…
Then take the spoon and scoop out a sip…
Try your sip…
Then the fun begins as far as the taste tests goes…
You grade the taste on:
Aroma,
Flavor,
Aftertastes,
Balance,
Body,
Acidity,
Boldness,
Sweetness,
Let’s just say that a lot of these… I didn’t have a clue what they meant…. So I felt very inadequate…
Then we left for dinner at Oregano!
We had our typical: juice, soup, sautéed chicken, rice, and plantain…
Then Sol walks out with a brownie and ice cream with lite sticks! My teammates sang happy birthday and I blew out as best I could the wooden sticks!
The warm caramel brownie with ice cream was sooooo good!!!!
While we were finishing up with our desserts, Eyson came in with a Té frío Da naragana aka ice orange tea, my favorite from our favorite cafe in town! Him and Karson, bought me one for my birthday!
After we get done with our desserts, we head back to the hostel to watch a movie….
But first we get snacks at the grocery store… let’s just say 7 females with cravings…chocolate,cookies, gummy worms…
Then we all pile into two twin beds put together and watched a movie, one of my favorites “She’s The Man”! While pigging put on our snacks! It was soo fun and funny!
Needless to say the day was fabulous! Thanks again to everyone who made me feel loved today!
31 looks like it’s going to be a great year!
One with much growth in the Lord, building great friendships, and travel around the world!
