Happy Birthday Marlie!

So after an insanely boring week of nothing but reading, watching mafia movies, and preparing for midterms- work which I knew I wouldn't get done while Jackie was visiting- finally there was some excitement- Marla's 20th birthday!

Shannon and I had talked to Andrea about planning a surprise party for her at Borgo Antico, so Shannon and I snuck out on Wednesday to talk over plans with Andrea and pick up decorations.

The day of Marla's birthday, I had dance club. We learned a couple of Italian dances: the Tarantella and one that I can't remember the name of, but I would call it the Italian version of square dancing- partnered dance where someone calls out a "figure" and everyone does that move or combination of moves. Both very fun.

After dance club, I met Shannon at the apartment, and we snuck out (luckily, Marla was napping!) and went to Borgo to decorate. We decorated the table with balloons, streamers, confetti, and a card that Julia had made.



Andrea set us up with the table right in front so that Marla would see the table right when she walked in. Olmo had made Marla a chocolate torte (cake) and even written "Happy Birthday Marla" on it in white icing. They had even bought Marla a present- ping pong paddles! :) So nice! We decided that we would get a bottle of champagne for dinner and pay for Marla's dinner.

We went home to freshen up. It was really easy to convince Marla that we should go to the restaurant for her birthday dinner, and she didn't suspect a thing. We walked over, making sure to keep her distracted until she was all the way inside the restaurant. Her reaction was PERFECT! She was so surprised!

We had a great time at dinner (well, except for Marla and Shannon ordered sardines and swordfish with muscles and all sorts of yucky seafood- the smell was so aweful I had to leave the table for a few minutes! UGH.)



After we finished our dinner, the waitress turned off the lights, and Andrea brought out Marla's cake, candles flickering "Buon Compleanno", and began everyone singing Happy Birthday. Marla, an easy cryer, finally teared up! It was so much fun!





We had intended to go out after dinner, but we ended up staying at the restaurant so late, that we just stayed there and hung out, played ping pong on a table (with a couple boxes of sugar packets acting as the net, lol). It was a great evening, and I think we all made it a very memorable birthday for Marla! :)