I didn't have so much as a birthday as a weekend, and thanks to everyone who made it possible...
And this is bragging, but forgive me...
My actual birthday was low-key, as I was teaching that day--both my teachers and my kids--, but both groups gave me gifts and did the Ukranian tradition of giving me many congradulations and wishes (long life, success in love, etc.).
My Regional Manager from Peace Corps was in town and took me out to a lunch I could never afford and after going to four restaurants that evening (two were closed, one was rented out and one had no tables), the Zhytomyr volunteers, Diana and I finally found a restaurant we could eat at, and they bought me dinner as well. After about a month of potatoes, borcht and peanut butter and jam sandwhiches, I finally felt well fed.
My mother called me that night to wish me happy birthday, and I got to hear my little niece gurgle me a happy birthday as well.
Saturday kicked off the party off in earnest. The way I figure it, since I was born at 9:00 PM in California, with the ten hour time difference it was actually the 17th in Ukraine when I entered the world, and so that entitled me to another day of partying.
My climbing buddy Jon came into town and with the Polissya crew and a few of the girls from my movie club at the library (possibly I am now too old to be hanging out with hot 19 year-olds but, um, I have no willpower) we spent the day climbing at the climbing wall. Hardcore climbing, too: I had some chalk and Jon and I were marking routes that even the best Polissya climbers had a tough time doing.
Two more volunteers came into town for my birthday and Steve and Amy came over that night and all six of us headed out to a club. The girls from my movie club met us there--decked to the nines--and we all danced until 3 AM. Somehow Peace Corps is not as difficult as I thought it would be.
Sunday found Jon and I back on the wall and Sunday afternoon I was at a traditional birthday lunch thrown for both Yarik--Diana's brother--and me (Yarik's birthday is the day after mine). I actually met an English-speaking Italian there. Yarik's girlfriend's mother met him through a dating service and is learning English from Diana so she can actually talk to her new boyfriend. He teaches archeology in Venice and has an exchange program with a university in Odessa, and so comes to Ukraine every few months to see her and plans on taking her back to Italy when she learns enough English. Strange world.
I was so sore from the climbing-->five hours of dancing-->climbing that I was sure someone had gone to work on me with a sledgehammer. Diana offered a massage, which I accepted and just when I thought all the gifts and food were done, my neighbor Valentina (the old lady trying to convert me) came over with a plate. She had made me dinner! Diana left at 10:00 PM and I was so exhausted from the weekend that I went straight to sleep.
Happy birthday to me!
Today I start the 35 hour journey to get home, when I leave at 5:00 PM to go to Kyiv. My flight leaves at 7:00 AM, and since it's a waste to get a hotel room only to check out at 3:30 AM (thirty minutes to the train station, an hour to the airport and two hours to check-in for international flights), I'm just going to go to the airport tonight and sleep there. From there it's a flight to Amsterdam and from there to Detroit with a seven hour layover (why couldn't I have a seven hour layover in Amsterdam!?!) and finally I'll get into Orlando Teusday night.
But you know what? From the time I get to the airport and for the next three weeks, I'm going to be warm...