Birthday #23

“Joyeux anniversaire” Happy Birthday!

“Jeune” young

“Vielle” old

No matter the culture, everybody celebrates birthdays. This year was probably one of my best! My friends here in Clermont-Ferrand made sure I would not miss being at home on my birthday.

Mother nature gave me the present of le printemps (Spring) on my birthday, as the sun was shining and the temperature was in the 60’s. Beautiful weather! Thanks for the gift.

The day started with class at 8:30am (a rough class being the morning after St. Patrick’s Day). I have never had class on my birthday since it has always fallen on Spring Break. For lunch, Kate and I waited in the queue at our Boulangerie to buy a baguette to go with lunch, but oh no, not an ordinary baguette for 75 centimes, but a baguette viennois for 1 euro. We only get the viennois for special occasions…it must have more flour or butter in it because it is denser than a regular baguette and soooo delicious! Kate also bought us some French pastry desserts- a fôret noir (a chocolate mousse cake), and a tarte fraise (a strawberry tart). Yum!

I took a birthday sieste, with a springtime orchestra of birds chirping heard through the opened windows in my bedroom. That evening, there was a organized dinner with all the KU students at a restaurant atop a big hill overlooking Clermont-Ferrand. When we arrived, we were greeted with aperitifs on the terrace overlooking the city. What followed was a lovely 4-course meal with bottomless bottles of wine. I could not have asked for a better dinner on my birthday!

After dinner, we took some of the KU students to meet up with my friends here at a bar called “Captain’s Cabin.” It is a very fun bar with good dancing music AND karaoke. I was welcomed with another chorus of “Happy Birthday,” by the international crew when I arrived as well as many bises (kisses). The Italians introduced me to their birthday tradition of tugging on the ears of the birthday person the number of years they are (so my ears got tugged 23 times!). They also gave me a stuffed animal cat, which we named Michela Francesca (Michelle and France in Italian). Later on in the night, I may or may not have sung “Wannabe” by the Spice Girls with my Finnish friend Jenna…

I got back home late (or early in the morning) enough to see the second half of KU’s first round tournament game against Lehigh. Thank you Jayhawks for giving me a birthday win!