birthdays in Brazil

So, tonight me and the gang (meaning Alexandra, the three girls, their two friends and their nanny) all went to a friend's birthday party at 'Fabulous Pizza'. My night went ok for the most part, somewhat isolated from the rest because I'm inept at conversation at this point. But our little corner ended up being the multi-lingual side composed of a few women who spoke various languages. One lady, who cracked me up by the way, was somewhat in my position and spoke only Italian fluently and a little english and portugese. She was really nice once you looked past her Italian bimbo persona (fake boobs, tan, semi obnoxious smile and all). This is what an Italian 'blonde' must be. The other woman spoke english very well, and of course Portuguese. What was funny, was that all the 'second languages' we spoke were all very similar....so we probably ended up making sense out of ital-portug-nol-ish if you want to call it that. What a mess, haha.

I learned a little about the traditions they have here for birthdays too. First of all, they had one of those crazy -can't blow me out- candles on the cake, but honestly it looked, sounded and smelled more like a firecracker to me...no shit. Of course, then you get twelve little ones around it trying to blow it out and you have a new sort of 'frosting' on the cake. They also have these bon bons, which are made out of condensed milk and chocolate powder and then covered in sprinkles. These are a staple to every children's party, I learned. Then the birthday boy/girl cuts the cake and makes a wish and chooses someone from the party (of the opposite sex) to have the first piece. Haha...this is so cute. I'm carrying this one on.

I did pretty well at controlling the number of little slices I ate for dinner, but self control went out the window with dessert. Not only was the cake chocolate mouse cake delicioso! (....bomb), but they brought out pizzas made with banana and cinnamon, cream cheese and strawberry jelly, and the best one- nutella and strawberries. Mmmm. Yum.

I've decided its time to step my game up and speak Portuguese like a pro (ok-decent). I'm giving my self two weeks.

Game on.