Good Food, Good Friends...

That's what life is all about, right? Well, almost. :)

As most of you know, this past Wednesday was my birthday. I'm now 23, a rather unexciting number, other than being a prime. Many thanks to everyone who wished me a happy birthday. Diana sent me this pic, I think it sums things up pretty well:

That morning was off to a sour start...I was volunteered to sub for a teacher who was absent. I actually took that same class on Monday, and that went over pretty well, so I figured it wouldn't be too hard. Unfortunately, the children's notebooks were unavailable because the keys to the cabinet were also absent. So though I tried just going over the homework, it was extremely difficult to get the attention of the class, and before lunch my voice was already sore from trying to be heard over the talking. However, even before lunch the principal came up and had the class distributed throughout the other first grade classes (which is what's usually done when a teacher is absent). After lunch (which the principal bought for me, some tasty soup) I and Sister Mary subbed a different class who had maths assignments, and that was rather pleasant.

I came home and talked with Berney on Skype while making cookie dough--see above for the recipe! Fae came over around 5, and we hung out and watched TV and baked cookies until Randy, Nethelia, and Ellery also joined us. It was very nice to have just a few close friends over for my birthday--it wasn't stressful trying to host many people, and it wasn't depressing having no one over. Everyone loved the cookies (the sparkling wine less so, since it was really cheap).

I also now understand the cake thing. Nethelia brought me a pretty little cake (it's delicious!) that she made. Its about 3-4 inches tall, and the circumfrence of a tea saucer. I offered some, but no one took. I had noticed at previous birthday parties that cakes were present, but the fancy cakes weren't cut and shared among the guests. Honestly I thought that it seemed greedy, but the other night it was explained to me: The birthday person is given a small cake to last them the entire month. This makes it very special, since it's just for you and you're not obligated to share it. People (other than children) don't receive gifts for birthdays, but they are given a fantastic little cake that should last 30 days if you portion it right.


This week has been very busy.

Saturday I went up to Castries to pick up a couple packages from my mom! She sent tax-related documents, candy, Asimov books, and a very special (broken, but meant to be built again) spaceship. What a great gift for my birthday! (I've already started reading the next book in the Robot series.) I also was able to get my trimesterly report and my 6-month work plan done on the computer at the PC office.

Sunday I made soup. I made A LOT of soup. I have a decently large pot, and it was almost filled to the top. I had a bowl, fixed it, had a little more, then put half of it in tupperware to freeze. That took four containers. I was able to push more of the non-frozen stuff to the guests on Wednesday, so now I only have 9 more servings :) I'm proud of this soup because it tasted so much better than my previous soup (though it looks largely the same, I guess!). It has carrots, onions, chives, parsely, cabbage, okra, christophen (chayote squash), pumpkin, green fig, rice, chicken stock, and some chicken bones and scraps. I was especially proud because, as I said, I had a bowl and then I was able to fix it, adding more salt and a couple spices that I thought would round it out. It worked! It's a very filling and decently tasty soup, without using the pre-packaged seasoning that pretty much just adds MSG (which isn't a bad thing, I'm just glad I could make it completely from scratch!).

Monday afterschool I had to run up to Castries for an errand, Tuesday I went to Piaye to check out Jess's afterschool program, Wednesday was the birthday stuff, Thursday I tried to go meet the counselor at Camus A (unsuccessfully), and today I did meet with her (very successfully!). Now I have a free weekend before in-service training up past Castries. So I'm trying to catch up on little things that I should have done earlier. Like this post! :)