Celebrations of the Day of Birth

Sometimes I get the sensation that there is a birthday of some acquaintance of mine about every week or every other week... which here in Argentina usually means that they invite you to come to their birthday party... which for an exchange student - who should take the opportunity to experience whatever possible- is usually a "sure I can come" .  so that is how I end up attending more birthday parties than I have in years.  The fact that I have the same classmates all day, all year also adds about 20 more birthday parties throughout the year that I either have gotten invited to, or are yet to come.  Furthermore... the actual concept of birthday party here:

For the younger kids like my host brother who is 9, most kids rent a birthday salon and have the party there because most of the houses aren't large enough to accommodate a large quantity of people.  But, for the typical high school student's birthday  here is what I have observed:

At school everybody gives them a kiss (which here is typically right cheek to right cheek and the people make a kissing sound) (that is the typical greeting here- besos)  then the classmates typically interrupt whichever teacher they can so that everybody claps and sings a really loud "Feliz Cumple"  while the person who is lucky enough to celebrate their special day typically goes a little red in the cheeks for all the attention.

Otherwise, if there isn't a "prueba" (quiz) on the day of their birthday they will just skip school all together and invite people to come to their birthday party the day prior.  

So the actually party is typically in the afternoon around 4:30 or 5:00 and the birthday celebrator will usually invite whatever friends they want and a bunch of kids from their school class to come over to their house.  Once inside, everyone typically crowds around a large dinning room table that the host typically fills with an assortment of snacks, sweets, treats, whatever be it, typically not in the category of healthy.  Sometimes there are ham and cheese sandwiches, corn puffs, dulce de leche desserts, candy, a mini cake, sometimes pizza, little sausages, coke (almost always), sprite, juice. (One time there was a brand of soda similar to sprite called "bichy"  I could not help but laugh!) And for a couple hours everybody just sits around the table and talks and eats and eats and eats... and eats.... until finally arrives the actual birthday cake and everyone sings again and then eats cake .. that is if they actually have any room left for more food.  Then after cake everybody starts to say goodbye and go back to other activities and go home, some leave before cake or arrive whenever, it is a fairly open deal.  In general that is the typical birthday party as I have become accustomed to here in General Pico.  I go ready to talk or listen and to have the will power to resist the constant offers to eat more!  It is usually a pleasant gathering and an interesting Argentine style of celebration of the day of birth.  Oh, and of course, if the person celebrating their birthday is lucky, their friends sometimes enjoy giving them a nice face full of cake!