Covert Ops

Yesterday was the birthday of Amy, undeniably the most pixie/leprechaun-ish of us Fulbrighters. She’s tiny (in terms of physical height), perpetually cheerful, and a consummate prankster (e.g. putting a fake cockroach in Susan’s bag of chestnuts). So, we decided to pay her back in turn…

The Plan
1) Buy lots of balloons (and an air pump to make things easier).
2) Wait until she leaves for work.
3) Blow up aforementioned balloons.

I started working solo around 10 AM upstairs in our apartment, figuring it would take a while. The first problem I ran into: how to store/carry lots of blown-up balloons? Not having a large garbage bag, I thought for a while, then remembered my poncho from Malaysia…which is essentially a large plastic bag =P It made an admirable balloon carry-sack.

Around noon, Emily called to say the coast was clear, so we moved everything downstairs and continued blowing up more balloons. Sam and Mari came to help, which made things go more quickly…by 1:30 PM, we had a few balloon-related injuries but a very impressive result:

Emily had to go to work and Mari had to run errands in Zhuhai, so Sam/Susan/I took turns apartment-sitting until Amy got home. The super-nice security guard downstairs was in on the trick, so (as requested), he told Amy that her room was flooded. When she and Emily came upstairs, we were waiting outside, pretending that Emily had called us to ask for help cleaning up. Amy figured something was up because Emily had apparently started laughing at the security guard’s claim, but she certainly wasn’t expecting the flood she saw in her room =P

Ahhh!

Fwoomph!

We completed the celebrations with a big dinner at Mexicana (expensive but yummy) and a brief stop at Ladies’ Night in the Venetian. I normally wouldn’t go to something like Ladies’ Night, especially since I had to teach on Thursdays last semester, but this time was actually nice because we got a lot of comfy seats in the corner for our big group and the music wasn’t overly loud, so we could actually carry on normal conversation. My first vodka-and-cranberry was weak enough to be palatable (my dislike for the taste of alcohol equals my sensitivity to it), so we passed a couple hours pleasantly before catching a late-night bus home.

"Supreme Nachos" made us realize how much we all missed salsa/guacamole

Soft beef tacos with rice =D

Happy birthday!