I'm back home again after another quick trip. The birthday party last night was a great deal of fun-- food, presents, and music. And music is inevitably accompanied by dancing. One of the American girls had recently acquired a drum in a village she visited, and so they passed around the drum and took turns playing, with everyone else joining in singing. (Everyone, that is, except the ignorant Americans who didn't know the words.) That led to the inevitable dancing (which always makes me think that it's no wonder they make the women cover)-- and then after a while someone decided it was time for the "English dance". [warning: the following may expose generation gaps] Evidently, at a party a few weeks ago (which I unfortunately missed), the girls had asked to learn an American dance, so Brandi and Melissa taught them the Electric Slide. But that wasn't what they really wanted-- as one of them put it, they wanted to dance like people dance on television. So Brandi put in her Skillet CD (that's a band) and they started moshing. (If you don't know what that is, think rock concert, right in front of the stage. Better yet, talk to someone my age (or my father); they can explain it to you. Ask them to demonstrate.) I spent most of the first song doubled over in the floor laughing. The whole idea of it-- being in this country, with friends from another, neighboring country, having a birthday party, moshing to Skillet-- was simply too much for me. Eventually the first attack of hilarity passed and our "mosh pit" really got going. We even convinced the mom and the aunt to join in for a few minutes. The neighbors probably thought we were tearing the apartment apart. In the States they would have called the police.

I meant to be in bed about an hour ago, but then I picked up the guitar.... I have class in the morning, and after last night's excitement and late bedtime, I'd better try to get a decent amount of rest tonight.