My birthday had everything to make a great birthday: surprise, warmth (and I don’t just mean the weather), good company, good food and great gifts.
An employee of Doug's was distressed that he had not bought me flowers for my birthday so he bought some for me. As you can see, they were about two and a half feet long and there must have been about 20 - make that 21. You must give an even number of flowers for special events like weddings and birthdays; an odd number of flowers is for a funeral.
Tradition here (at least at the Embassy this is what they do) is you bring treats on your own birthday. So I spent the day before my birthday baking Mrs. Field’s brownies. Two batches since I had to share. They turned out perfect. I passed them around to some very appreciative people who have been good to me in various ways like helping me with my Russian skills or lack thereof.
I started the day early with Doug and was able to go home between exercise and my Russian lesson to clean up. On my way back to the Embassy two elderly women stopped me to talk. This is very unusual. Most people don’t even say “hi” let alone actually talk to a stranger on the street. It got even better. From what I understood she was giving me many well wishes as in a toast or a blessing. I’m sure my jaw dropped as my eyes searched the heavens – “Is this an angel?” She wished me health and peace and a multitude of other things I did not understand. And this happened to occur on my birthday of all days. When she finished, I told her that I understood some of what she said, but that I didn’t know a lot of Russian. I thanked her and wished her long life and health and peace. I don’t think my feet were on the ground the rest of the day.
During my Russian class I got a phone call from a young woman I had met at the Embassy who no longer works there. We enjoyed talking as she speaks very good English. She was also very good to my mother by buying her two scarves/shawls with her name embroidered on them. My mom wrote her a thank you card which I was to give to the young woman. Unfortunately she lost her job at the Embassy. andI didn’t know when I’d ever see her again. Then my phone rang. That, too, is rather unusual because I usually don’t have it on, particularly during my class. She was calling me to tell me that she was at the Embassy and she wanted to meet. I was able to catch up with her, give her the card from my mom and meet her husband. Meeting her husband gave me peace. After she lost her job I feared that she may be married to the kind of man who would be angry at her and possibly hurt her. I just didn’t know. She is in good hands.
I learned to appreciate my good attitude during that little meeting with her. I told her about the old women on the street. She suggested that perhaps they were Jehovah’s Witnesses and asked me if I’d ever heard of Jehovah’s Witnesses. Now, if you ask most American’s if they have ever heard of Jehovah’s Witnesses I think you’d get some eyeball rolling, deep impatient sighs and perhaps some choice words. I came to peace with Jehovah’s Witnesses long ago so I could easily just answer “yes” even somewhat appreciatively. It turns out she and her husband are Jehovah’s Witnesses! Whew!
To make my day even better, a classmate of mine from the Institute in Virginia was in town and my birthday was his day off! We met for lunch and chatted at length. I brought him to our house for brownies. He likes to eat just as much as I do. I just have to share this little story from our class. We were learning restaurant vocabulary. One of the phrases we talked about was “finger licking good” (in Russian). Our very proper teacher said, “Now please remember to never lick your fingers in Russia. It is considered very poor manners." This distressed my friend. He asked, “But I can lick my knife, right?” One of the other students said, “No! You’ll cut your tongue!” Our teacher sat up and, with her eyes downcast, said, “In Russia, we do not lick anything.” On our last day together as a class with her I recalled that story. We all laughed and laughed. Anyway, I digress. I then drove my friend to a beautiful park where we walked and talked some more. This was quite a feat for me as I did not follow any written directions; I was able to find my way!
I was able to squeeze in a nap before getting ready to go out to dinner to an Italian restaurant frequented by the staff of the Italian Embassy. Must be good. And it was. I ate four-cheese gnocchi which was so soft I didn’t need my teeth.
This last picture of me with the flowers was taken just before we went out to dinner. Flowers are a huge tradition here. Douglas was given a bad time by this same employee for not buying flowers to greet my mother with when she visited. I'm trying to picture my poor mother trying to carry these flowers around the airport. Anyway, I told the man that there were so many flowers that I had to separate them to fit them in vases. He asked me if I counted them to be sure I had odd numbers. I had to confess that I did not.
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