Gourmandise and Felicitations
Happy February 21 everybody!Do you know why it's a special day? It's my birthday. I think this is the first birthday that I've had that was so far away from my people (all of you). Even when I moved to Edmonton for University, I had made a bunch of friends by February. Tonight Loren has a class at AMIDEast and he won't be home until 21:30 and we usually fall into be exhausted before 22:00 so we won't have much time to do any celebrating. All the same, I didn't want to not celebrate, so I decided I had to take matters into my own hands.
Yesterday, after coaching our friend Slim in preparation for his International Business English Placement Exam, he offered to drive us home. [Just a side note here: Slim would love to work in Canada, he's an professional auditor who specializes in the Sarbanes-Oxley legislation applications to multinationals (something like that); so if you know of someone who's looking for an auditor with that background, let me know!] I asked him to take us to a place that does cake so I could share some goodies with the Head Office Staff. He took me to this neat little place called Gourmandise and I realized, to my horror, that I couldn't afford to buy a cake that would be enough for everybody. Very expensive. I settled instead for little mini-cakes, like cookies but softer, and got about sixty for less than twenty Dinars.
Today I called a meeting for everyone and we had mini-cakes, coffee and tea. Everybody offered happy birthday "felicitation!" and ate with me in the sunshine in the back courtyard. We even took a group picture.
As for gifties I was given a neat little collar and earring set by the enda staff (on the co-director's initiative, I suspect) and Loren has promised to buy me a beautiful silver bracelet that we saw in the Medina. We were going to buy it on Saturday, but I have been feeling a bit under the weather and couldn't muster the courage to spend an hour facing the merchants and the narrow dark streets. Maybe we'll go on Tuesday, after our Arab lesson.
Missing you all! Please get yourself a small something (candy, ring, shirt, meal, anything) and wish me a happy birthday. I like to know people are celebrating with me even if I can't see them.
P.S. A big thanks to Hailey and Mom who woke me up with morning good wishes on my little orange Nokia phone! Really nice you two! And if anyone has the impulse to call I'm in time zone +1 (9 hours later than BC time) and my phone number is: +216 21 613 799. The connection has a delay, so it's a bit odd, but it's fun anyway. :)
posted by tiaraletourneau @ 11:28 a.m.
3 Comments:
Dear Tiara,
Happy, happy, happy day! We have been trying to get our heads around the time zone difference ("i" before "e" except after "c"???)I'm afraid that, between your schedule and ours, not to mention time zone issues, we'll not get to hear your lovely voice today, but our well wishes are with you for a wonderful birthday.
We just finally got bird feeders up in our yard yesterday - so far we've been greeted by several blue jays and several dozen red winged blackbirds this morning, not to mention our resident woodpecker - I think I prefer them to the sounds of your bug, as adorable as Loren's description was!
Thinking about you both lots, and enjoying your Tunisian reflections immensely!
love and hugs
Denis and Sue
Happy Birthday!
Hello Tiara hon!
Okay... so my package will be a bit late, but it's stuffed full of love and best wishes and souvenirs of home. It should be arriving next week, pre-riffled by the postmen.
I'm proud you took matters into your own hands and celebrated your bithday properly at work. It would be pretty easy to sink into a melancholy funk around b-day time. Well done beautiful!
many cheers,
Jodie
Post a Comment
<< Home