The Bicecreamman´s Birthday Celebration

Greg has officially joined the ranks with many other distinguished and mature 27 year olds. Happy Birthday! After my week long celebration in January full of surprises and fun events, I couldn´t let Greg down.

The first celebration of the day (on April 15) began at 6am. 5 good friends helped start Greg´s day off right with a breakfast of champions at none other than Comayagua´s own Dunkin Donuts! (It opened here about a month ago). After pumped our bodies full of sugar and caffeine (we were literally shaking) it was time to go to school. We had ´gate duty´that morning - which involved standing at the entrance and welcoming kids into the school - and I really think that we scared some of them with our hyper active actions!
Anyway, after the crash when our blood sugar plummeted, it was time for our next rush, I mean, party. My 4th grade class and Greg´s 7th grade class planned a joint suprise party for him. However before it began, Julio, the computer teacher, had his own surprise planned for Mr. Greg. You see, here in Honduras life revolves a lot around soccer - or futbol as they call it. Of course, being the sports guy that Greg is, he jumped on the fan train and has self proclaimed himself to the #1 fan for Hispano - Comayagua´s professional futbol team. And it just so happens that there is an Argentinean player on the team named Sergio Diduch, that people say resembles Greg. Diduch has light skin and long blonde hair like Greg, however, he is about ½ his size! Random people at the games and even driving down the road yell out ¨Diduch!¨ when they see Greg. Of course, he loves it and hoped to one day meet his local hero twin. Okay, so back to Julio - apparently he has some major connections in the area because he actually invited him to come to the school to surprise Greg and attend his birthday bash! Sure enough, he came and completely blindsided Greg! Julio hid him in the computer lab, while I guided Greg in (not before accidentally slamming him into the wall first). The look on Greg´s face when he opened his eyes was priceless, I think he was in the beginning stages of shock! They chatted for a little bit - meanwhile the kids and I were preparing the classroom for the party.

The students brought sandwiches, chips, tacos, candy, soda, ballons, streamers, a piñata (shaped like shark in orange in blue to represent the LA Riptide), and a huge strawberry cake. The children went nuts when Greg and Diduch entered the room! It worked out perfectly too because I got Greg a Hispano Diduch jersey for his birthday gift, and he was able to get it signed by him while he was there! After lunch, we brought out the cake. After being serenaded by all the attendants, Greg blew out all 27 candles. Before we served it to eat though, one more thing had to be done - the traditional Honduran ¨cake to face!¨ Sure enough, we snuck up behind him and gave his head a good shove, right into the frosting.

He said he opened his mouth and took a huge bite! After he got cleaned up, it was time to bust up the piñata. With the help of Mr. Greg and the kids, they had that thing raining candy in no time!

Not soon after, it was time for class to resume. I felt bad for the teachers that had to teach the kids that attended the party all sugared up and hyper. Fortunately, there was only an hour left of school. Afterward, Greg and I went home and crashed. We slept for a good couple hours, then got up recharged for one more celebration. We got take out (barbeque) from La Casita then went to Kyle and Crystal´s house. We finished out the day hanging out with great friends, then hit the sack around 10:00pm. Greg said that he had a fabulous birthday! He wondered if it was a little creepy that he was Diduch´s #1 fan (since they are both are grown men) but I assured him that it was okay. I did think it was strange though when he slept in his jersey though…. Just kidding!!!