post-birthday blogging

So, on Monday I commemorated another year of life on Earth. As is the hostel tradition, my friends from the fellowship group came to celebrate at midnight - as Feb 3rd turned into Feb 4th (my brithday). Many of our friends from fellowship are away in Moscow right now on a Winter retreat, so we had a small gathering, which was actually quite pleasant. Deepthi had recorded video messages on her phone from everyone who couldn't be there. So it was very nice to know that even those who weren't there to celebrate with me were still thinking of me. We had 2 kinds of cake and of course everyone sang Happy Birthday and I blew out candles. I got a salwar kameez and dupatta from Deepthi. Follow the link or just look at the pics below if you don't know what that is.








Here are some pics from the midnight party.

The next morning Sam made breakfast for me and gave me my present. I got a steamer/rice cooker. I was totally happy. We eat a lot of rice so this will be really convenient and there is no worry about over-cooking. Plus I can steam vegetables...mmmm.



We spent a leisurely morning at home and then Sam took me out for Sushi for lunch! I had mentioned a little while ago how I wanted to go to this Japanese place for Sushi sometime and he took me there. So sweet. The place was quite nice and the food was good. Oh, I almost forgot to mention that God gave me a nice present too - snow. So Sam and I had a nice walk to the metro station in the snow. It was very pretty because not only the ground, but also all the tree branches were covered.

On our way home from lunch we stopped at the post office because we had gotten a notice that a package had arrived for us. I also got a postcard from Courtney on my birthday. Talk about perfect timing! We received the package from my parents' neighbor whom we recently met when we were in the States. She is a very lovely, sweet lady. We got a number of goodies that we just can't get here that I'm very excited about.



ground decaf coffee (can only find decaf instant here), salsa spices, spicy ranch mix, candybars, Tylenol sore throat/cough syrup (Sam considers this a wonder cure), long underwear, and Crest mouthwash. It was a great birthday present!

After we got home, Sam and I watched a movie and made dinner and had a relaxing evening at home together. I had such a fun day; couldn't have asked for a better birthday. And it was even better because Sam has the week off since he cleared all his exams for last semester and classes don't begin till next week. All in all, I'd have to say that Russian birthday #1 turned out alright.