My custom-made birthday bracelets, courtesy of Shaen
Since my birthday came only two working days after making our way back to site from our trip to America and week-long COS conference and travels in and around Tbilisi, I was still warm from the memory of visiting with family, taking lots of showers, eating salad and blueberries, and drinking lots of delicious coffee. That warm glow helped (or at least in my fogged memory of something that happened 2 weeks ago) me stay warm as I went to school and work. Also, all of my coworkers were still all excited and happy to see me again, and were all going out of their ways to talk to me and ask me about my time away from school.
Host sister Lilit got all gussied up for the party and wanted her picture taken
Host cousin Narek didn't get dressed up, but still wanted a picture
Our trip to America inspired some incorrect rumors, stemming from a misunderstanding of the American system of higher education, that Sam had successfully defended his dissertation and been offered a spot as a top professor in a university in either Chicago or Philadelphia. This led to me receiving lots of congratulations, which I at first accepted graciously, thinking they were just happy Sam got admitted to PhD programs or that they were maybe trying to wish me a happy birthday (who told?!?). Happily, though, only 2 people at school seemed to know that it was my birthday and give me long happy-birthday wishes, kissing me on the cheeks. But seeing this display just encouraged others to ask "why are they congratulating her?", which led to more spreading of the Sam's-a-new-professor rumor.
In the end, my Tuesday birthday, happily coinciding with my one-class-during-6th-period-only day at school, saw me stay at school about an hour longer than usual, giving a really, really boring lecture on the differences between the American and European systems of higher education, then going into detail on what Archaeology is (yes, I can say "digging in the dirt" in Russian), and explaining rather convincingly why in God's name someone would spend 10 years studying something after already going to college and getting a Master's degree.
If only I had bought the Sam keychain at the Field museum! I could have explained it all so much better!
Coming home from school was a nice reprieve (for whom, for me or for my poor fellow teachers, who were just subjected to my long-winded lecture?). It was made nicer by the smell of baked goods being baked. Our host mom was in the process of making a delicious cake! Happy day! Then Sam greeted me with "well, I wanted to make you a surprise for your birthday, but now the kitchen is busy and I'm not sure if I'll have time, but at least if I don't we'll have 8 bags of M&Ms."
In the end, Sam made it into the kitchen that night and made a really great batch of M&M cookies (which were a big hit with our host siblings) and we still had 4 bags of M&Ms left over to eat in coming days. After dinner we had Armine's cake, Sam's cookies, and a huge, beautiful birthday cake (baked confection #3 for my 30th!), courtesy of Shushan, our host grandmother's sister (and Marianna's mother).
Beautiful and delicious
And as we settled into our sugar comas around the table that evening, the kids provided us with a dance party entitled "We all really know how to break dance." Enjoy the videos!
How do you say, "They've got those moves like Jagger" in Armenian??
ReplyDeleteI don't understand why you didn't buy the keychain? Or did you, and are saving it to present at the aquarium encounter?
ReplyDeleteNot buying the keychain was one of my more regrettable moves. At least I'll have many, many years living in Chicago to give me a chance to go back and get one!
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