Happy Birthday à moi!

I've had the pleasure of celebrating two birthdays in France:  I turned 21 during my semester in Paris and yesterday I turned 23 here in Dijon.  I now joke that I’ll need to keep up the tradition and turn 25, 27, and 29 in various other French cities but all joking aside I am so grateful to have spent a good part of my early twenties en France.  To celebrate my birthday this year a bunch of assistants that I’ve become friendly with went to the big gastronomic, international food festival that is held in Dijon each year! (It's massive and so interesting!)  The featured country this year is Mauritius which brought unique products like banana rum, monkeys made out of coconuts, wooden dodo birds, and so much more!  Outside of the Mauritius area there were various stations to try samples of products from around France that ranged from meats to cheeses to breads to chocolates/desserts and more! As if that weren’t enough there were mini “restaurants” set up with specialities from all over the world, such as Spain, Italy, Lebanaon, India, to name a few. Of course there were French “restaurants” inside too so we decided to go to a place with specialties from the Normandie region for my birthday dinner.

After dinner my friends surprised me with a personal pastry (with candles!) and sang Happy Birthday to me in the fair!  It was completely unexpected and a memorable moment for sure.  As if that wasn’t enough they all chipped in a bought me one of the coolest presents I have ever received.  In the sidewalks around Dijon there are small golden arrows with little owls (city’s mascot) on them that guide you in the direction of important sites.  Well, I now forever have a little piece of Dijon as they bought me an authentic arrow! It was so unexpected and touching that I started to tear up.  It’s an amazing feeling to have traveled here on my own, not knowing anyone, and yet less than 2 months into the experience I have such caring, thoughtful, and fantastic people to share it with.

After we finished at the fair (which I have to go back to since it’s so big and there’s still so much to explore!)  we went out to a couple of bars for drinks and converstion.  There is never a dull moment with an international group like us (the countries of England, Scotland, the US, Germany, and Russia are represented) so conversation/cultural comparisons are always fun!  An added perk of the night is that my birthday is the same day as Guy Fawkes Night/Bonfire Night so in between bars we went into a little side street to light sparklers in honor of the British holiday for the assistants from the UK!  While our sparklers were going off three French guys asked who had a birthday (I don't know if sparklers are a birthday thing in France?) so I told them it was mine and then they sang Happy Birthday to me in French!

So for my 23rd I was able to explore other cultures, try new foods, hang out with great people, celebrate a new holiday, and be serenaded to by 3 random Frenchmen....a pretty top notch day if you ask me!  It is without a doubt that I'll treasure this birthday forever.

You can totally tell I was all choked up... haha

The incredibly thoughtful present :)

Word of the Post: un anniversaire -- birthday