Kyrgyz Birthday Party

Our class has 5-6 students in it depending on the day. Two of the students are from Kyrgyzstan, and one of them was in our class last year. This week, one of the Kyrgyz guys celebrated his 20th birthday, and invited Alvin and me to his birthday party at a restaurant. It was a really interesting and fun cultural experience.

Our friend threw his own birthday party. He invited about 20 friends, about half were international students, and the other half were local friends. There were a couple culturally different things that happened during the party.
1) Our friend had assigned seats for all his guests. He wanted to have his international friends sitting next to his local friends.
2) Our friend ordered food for both tables. His one rule for the food was that both tables had to have different food. He really ordered well and it felt like a banquet.
3) Our friend and another Kyrgyz guy went around filling up everyone's plate with food, and then walked around filling up our drinks. I don't think he even ate.
4) The birthday boy also was the first to toast the guests, and then he made a diplomatic speech about being friends with all cultures.
5) At the party were Chinese friends, Kyrgyz friends, a Pakistani guy, a Japanese guy, a French guy, a Mexican guy, and Alvin and I represented the Americans. The most common language was Chinese, so almost all of the conversations were in Chinese, except for a few English phrases and a lot of charades.
6) Our birthday boy had a mix CD on his stereo system. This CD had quite a variety: some Bob Marley, Rihanna, "Eye of the Tiger," "Beat It," Romanian music, and my favorite was Madonna's "Like a Prayer." Some of the conversation during the night was about how weird Lady Gaga looks, and then one guy announced that Britney looks fat. Oh, I didn't notice.


Overall, I had a really fun time at the birthday party. I felt like culturally the party was different from a typical American birthday party, but I am not sure if all the different items were Kyrgyz culture or just this guy's preferences.