Birthday!

No offense to those at home, but this was probably the most wonderful birthday I have ever had.

My morning was normal, except for the addition of colorful paper napkins and a pretty candle to my breakfast table. I ate some strawberry müsli and ran to my bus. On the way to school I stopped to buy a stamp, and the stamp maschine ate my euro. I was pretty exhausted, as usual, and I went straight to my first class of the day, Deutsch. I entered the room and was immediately shoved outside again by a girl named Martina, who said (in English), "No, you must wait here now." So I waited for a couple minutes and then about ten kids LINED UP to hug me and say "Alles gute zum Gerburtstag"! I was basically in shock -- after all, I have only known these girls for a month, and usually I don't even interact with them except to offer such insights as "Today it is cold in the school!" and "In America the teachers are sometimes more nice, and not so strong." I went into the room and at my seat was a big homemade cake with candles, some cards, and some chocolate. I sat down, and a whole other wave of kids approached me and each person handed me a gift. Yes, I'm serious. I got chocolate bars and cookies and gingerbread and a book and lotion and soap and a pretty box -- AND a whole other homemade cake! (On it it says: "Alles gute zum Geburstag, für Zoe, von Pauli, Soni und Vere." Adorable!)

After the gift-giving was done, the class broke into song. It was a German song, and not "Happy Birthday", either. This song didn't just wish me happiness, it wished me friendship and kindness and love and hard work and all these other totally inexpresivably abstract things that made it so incredibly awesome. And they sang in a ROUND, and 80% of my class is in the chorus and they can all really sing. I laughed like an idiot. The Deutschlehrer looked a little aghast at this huge disruption, but he offered me "congratulations" and shook my hand. And let us eat cake before turning back to Mutter Courage und Ihre Kinder, which I have pretty much given up on.

In each class, someone informed the teacher it was my birthday, and I was sung to again. In French Frau Egge, smiling menacingly (like always) said in German, "I need two men, and they must be very strong, but also careful." Then the two Lukases in my class lifted my chair into the air (without telling me!) while the class sang "Something something something... und DREI MAL HOCH!" Oh my God, it was surreal. Getting all the gifts home was quite a production!

Then I had tons of cake and coffee with Regina and Hans-Peter and opened my presents. I got so many wonderful things, and it was so much fun to have all these packages to open. Aline (from my school) wrote me a really nice note about how happy she is I have come to Germany and she hopes I like the school and she would like to get to know me better; it was so sweet. I got many, many books. I started to tear up after reading the letter from Mana, and once I got to David Meiklejohn's letter I was crying pretty steadily... I was never such a crier before this year. Seriously. All it takes is the sentence "As you grow older, you will see a lot of people start to lose touch with themselves and their dreams" and I start bawling.

The gift opening took a while. The A.P.C. jeans still fit, even after two months of sugar and dairy products! Then we went to Karlsruhe and had Indian food with Alex and Sonja. I can open a menu and immediately know what everything is and how it will taste!! I mean, Navrattan Korma is basically always good! All my favorite comfort food... unfortunately I was SO full from the cake, and I didn't have much of an appetite even for Indian food.

So that was my birthday (roughly.) I had a really lovely day... tomorrow I will have a small party with the other exchange students in Karlsruhe. Should be fun, I think.