All About US: Birthday and Polo

Yesterday was Uche's birthday, so we started the day with chocolate croissants, coffe and fruit. We had plans for most of the day, so we didn't get to celebrate his birthday as much as I would've liked for him. Our friend Ate Evelyn had invited us to a polo match at the Manila Polo Club and our church had it's 15th anniversary celebration in the evening.

We really enjoyed our time at the polo club. It's quite an exclusive place and you can only enter if a member invites you. Our friend's doctor is a member, so we got to enjoy the benefits without the pricetag! I had never seen a polo match before, so it was fun to watch and seems like it's pretty exciting. The horses were quite amazing, and it was fun just to watch them run. They had waitors constantly bringing drinks, so Uche and I started with mango shakes, and I then moved on Coke Zeros. After the match they had a cocktail hour with lots of food. They had roasted on a spit a whole cow, plus they had three small whole roasted pigs (it's called lechon here in PI), lots of chickens, huge platters of salmon, mini cupcakes and lots of other food. My favorite part was CHEESE!! Cheese is not common here, and it's way too expensive to buy in the grocery stores, so I wanted to go wild. Unfortunately, the cheese table was popular, so I didn't get to eat my fill, but I managed a couple bites of blue cheese, brie, and gouda. I could've taken the whole trays and finished them, but I don't think the other people there would've appreciated that. I don't have any pictures of the cocktail hours, as I was too busy enjoying cheese and free soda, just trust me when I say it was amazing.

Afterwards, we headed over to our church for the anniversary celebration. It was fun seeing some old friends, and celebrating with our church family here. We got home late and fell into bed exhausted, but happy to have had such a fun day!

The polo club is located pretty much in the middle of the city, and it feels like an oasis amidst the craziness. We sat in the front row, so we had a pretty good view of the action.

This is our friend, Ate Evelyn. There were lots of people there, and it was a very international. I enjoyed just watching all the people there. It was a pretty exlusive crowd, safe to say we were one of the few seminary students there!

Uche and I trying to look like we do this every weekend! See the waitor behind Uche's shoulder, we probably motioned him over right after this picture for another drink.