Tyler and I jumped on the number 7 train from midtown and stayed on until the last stop. We were on our way to College Point to visit Sarita for a special Colombian barbecue. Sarita’s mother was visiting from Colombia, and to celebrate her birthday, she hired a band to play Vallenato the whole night.

If it’s one thing I learned from the multiple parties I’ve been to at Sarita’s house, is that Colombians know how to party! Not only is it unacceptable for your glass to be empty for more than a millisecond, they will also make sure that you take a shot of Aguardiente every fifteen minutes. “Shot!”, Mauricio or Mike will shot at the top of their lungs if you happen to make eye contact with them even briefly. Even if you’re hiding, they will find you, and you will take that shot. Oh, I hid.

Tyler and I first sat on one of the couches outside and talked under the starts as the grill was going with shish-kebabs, burgers and other traditional American barbecue foods. Dominican cake was served as dessert. If you’ve never had Dominican cake before, you are missing out my friend! I always say, it’s the second best in the world, it almost comes close to how good Haitian cake is.

Next time Tyler suggests to rent a hotel room close to where they live so we can sleep a full eight hours before the party. Then, go back to sleep for another four hours to return at 7AM because that’s usually the peak of the parties. Since my apartment’s in Manhattan, and it takes over an hour an a half by train late at night on the weekend, we sadly said our goodbyes to our friends, the wonderful live music and dancing, Dominican cake, and shots of Aguardiente.