Maria's Birthday!

Natalie and I had a joint birthday dinner with all of our friends because she wasn't in town for hers and mine was going to be on a week night when everyone had dinner at home. We went out to an Indian restaurant that was really small, but had amazing food! We had eight american girls and two french girls... After we had all eaten as much as we could hold we all went and stood outside discussing what to do next. We asked a guy to take our picture and he asked if we were american. We said yes and he asked if we came from Notre Dame (there are alot of Notre Dame students here) then he told us that he had known a girl from Notre Dame who was young and beautiful, then in after realizing he was with his wife finished with, "like my wife". It was pretty funny! We finally decided to go to a small bar... It was really relaxed with lots of older people and some kids and games all around. They also had a piano which Laura and I both played. We had a friend with us who somehow attracts tons of guys (She had about 4 around her at one time) and eventually some of them finally came over to talk to us as well... I had a great time!
I had alot of trouble thinking of something special to do for my actual birthday and realized that here, I am constantly doing special things; no day is ordinary! So for my birthday it was just more life in France... not a bad thing! After going to my classes (I had a test in one :P) I got to talk with my family on Skype. Paul set it up so that my family in Oregon and Paul could talk to me at the same time! That was exciting! It was especially cool when Natalie on my end in France, Paul in Indiana and Gabrielle in Oregon were all singing the Dutch birthday song to me! (They sounded atrocious, especially with the time delay...) Mme. Moulin invited Natalie to my house for my birthday dinner. She had a really hard time coming up with a vegetarian dinner, but she almost managed it... (she put shrimp in the salad, but Natalie just avoided them) For dessert she brought out a cake with a 1 candle and a 9 candle in it.... then she sang "happy birthday" in in broken english and gave me a necklace! It was very sweet! After cleaning up, Natalie and I met Laura and Candice at a bar called, "Soft". Laura bought me a birthday drink, and we talked for a couple hours; part of the time in french! It was a very different, but nice birthday, one I will remember forever.


She is doing her hair, hence the scarf...