First of all, because I am in Russia, I am currently 8-hours ahead of Minnesota... So I started my birthday early! That meant that my birthday lasted for a total of 32 hours instead of the normal 24 --- WAY cooler. I stayed up until Midnight and opened my birthday gift from my dear friend Natasha, a beautiful necklace, and said Happy Birthday to myself on facebook before going to bed. I had class the next day, and choir rehearsal immediately after, which meant that I was a busy birthday girl. BUT when I came home, my Russian mother, sister, and 7-month old nephew were waiting for me with a beautiful and DELICIOUS birthday meal, a fancy cake, and red-currant liquor. Russians love making toasts, so each time we filled our stemmed, crystal shot-glasses, my mother would make a long toast to me, wishing me success, happiness, love, and everything else. They also sang a Russian happy birthday song to me, and my mother sang Happy Birthday in English (which was ADORABLE!) And they gave me a lovely painted Russian box. My nephew Dima was the life of the party, and we ended up all being hit by a fit of the giggles when he started dancing along to some music on my sister's cell-phone. Adorable x2. I went to bed very happy, and pretty tipsy as well...
Anyway, the next day was a national holiday, so I had a 4-day weekend ahead of me. I had a concert in the morning, though, so I started my day early. After my choir sang (the first two songs of the concert) they brought me backstage and presented me with a pink rose, wished me a happy (late) birthday, and popped a bottle of Russian champagne! Once again there were toasts to my happiness and future, and we had a great time eating candy whilst commandeering the entire dressing room. After that all of my St. Olaf comrades came to my place. We drank more champagne, ate more cake, and just chillaxed while watching Russian music videos. They gave me an amazing selection of snacks as a birthday gift: Kinder eggs, my favorite Russian butter cookies, and 2 boxes of coveted chocolate-filled teddy-bear cakes. One of the kinder eggs had a blow-up elephant head in it --- Awesome. In the evening I met with a Russian friend, Ira, and she took me to her Raggae and Hip-Hop dance classes. I just sat and watched, but it was AMAZING! The way that people could move their bodies in that class, it was unbelievable (and the music was GLORIOUS omgiloveditsomuch). One of the last songs they played was Birthday Sex, and I laughed out loud because I don't know if they all really knew what the song was about... Fun fact: Ira and I have the SAME birthday! So that was also cool.
The next day I met up with our mutual Russian friend, Dima, who is a SUPER sweetie and gave me a lovely bouquet of flowers (plus two kisses on the cheek) for my B-day. We took an evening walk all around town, practicing our Russian and English (respectively). Then I picked up Livi and we had our second sleepover in a row, watched the end of Stilyagi on Russian TV, and in the morning I gave myself a rock-star faux-hawk. I am making a weird face, fyi; My face doesn't look like that on the reg.
It felt like the whole weekend was my Birthday, and it's been an amaaaazing time! I still have plans to celebrate with my friends Tanya and Nadia by making Brownies. I can't wait! I Love Russia!
'Til next time,
Sarah
No comments:
Post a Comment