Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Birthday Party

Saturday, 9 October 2010

There are only 6 girls in Sophia's class, and so when we got the invitation to a birthday party, I knew we should attend. I discovered that it was located not far from our house, and so Saturday afternoon we went.

I was going to drop her off, but she wanted me to stay. I was going to leave after a bit, but I ended up staying the whole time. Here's why:

First, the birthday girl's father offered me some tea. It had been a busy day, so I accepted, sat down and relaxed.

Then, another teacher (who has a child in Sophia's class) showed up. She, too, had been planning on leaving, but she too had had a busy day and welcomed the opportunity to sit and relax with a cup of tea.

Before we knew it, we were ushered to another table and presented with plenty of delicious food as well as champagne. Why not stay?

The party was located in a restaurant that had signs on it labeling it as "music" and "karakoe". Inside it was decorated with festive balloons for the party. Two "pirates" led the party. They were pretty enthusiastic, and also obliging when they learned that some of the party guests did not speak Russian. We heard "one two three!" in Russian, Kazakh, and English.

One adorable little 1st grade girl recognized me and clung to me when the pirates arrived, saying she was scared of the pirates although she did find them quite funny. A short while later, after talking to this girl, the birthday girl's mother came to me and asked me how it is that this girl speaks Russian. I tried to explain that the girl's mother is Uzbek, but she was still confused. Finally, she realized that I am not this girl's mother. We just look alike, and she was clinging to me, but no, this child is not mine, and speaks Russian way too well to be mine!

As the pirates led singing, dancing, games, and, later, pizza and cake, we grown-ups sat and chatted. The birthday girl's father has lived in many different places, including Georgia (the country). He was a jovial, nice man, quite happy to have us here; his wife was very friendly and very relieved that people had shown up for her daughter's party. There were about a dozen kids there, only one boy; but they had been worried that no one would show up.

The food was very good, I had salad similar to that at the wedding. Then I had the absolutely best dessert I have ever had. The closest thing I can compare it to is applesauce, but that does this dessert no justice. There were soft apples on the bottom, and some kind of whipped cream sauce on the top but this dessert was so much more sumptuous than "applesauce with whipped cream". The apples were soft and sweet, a dessert in themselves, the whipped cream light and creamy. The other teacher and I agreed, this was the best dessert ever, whatever it was!!

They sent us home with extra desserts (beautiful little cakes that turned out to be some kind of sugary gelatinous something or other---delicious!) It was a great day, Sophia had a blast, I had a relaxing, delicious time.

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