Happy Birthday

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Bill’s 65th birthday. This is the second time we have been in another country on Bill’s birthday. The first time was on our first visit to Betty and Hosit in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil. Bill had his 30th birthday while we were there. On that occasion Betty and Hosit took us to a nice restaurant at the Barra Beach. I cannot remember what we ate that evening, just that the food was good and the company of Betty and Hosit was also very good. That was also our first adventure out of the country and our first trip where we went from the cold winter of North America to the tropical summer of Brazil. Now, thirty-five years later Bill celebrated his 65 birthday working in the IBTS library in Prague, the Czech Republic.

This evening we attended and were part of the IBTS talent show. Nancy read Robert Service’s poem, “The Cremation of Sam McGee,” and then told a story of one of her experiences while teaching in China. Before Nancy did her “thing” Bill gave an English lesson on the meaning of some of the words Service uses that many of the international students might not understand. After Nancy finished her part Bill then told the story of our experience with a customs official when we entered China in 1992. We were in the red line where we were supposed to be as we had some audio tapes and video tapes that according to the instructions on the Chinese customs form had to be declared. The young agent told us, “You should have lied .... go to the green line.”

The talent show was great, not that any of the participants are about to be featured in Broadway, but that everyone had a great time with much laughter and fellowship. A young mother and her son sang a song, two students, speaking totally different languages gave impromptu (ad and hilarious plus totally incorrect) interpretations of what the other said in describing a picture, six students sang a song that required great coordination of ducking at the right time as they swung their arms about playing their parts ... they were well practiced as no one ended up being whopped on their head by the swinging hand of the person beside them, one of the professor performed magic tricks, an Arab-Christian from Israel told a very funny story. David and his wife played a duet on the piano ... and did I mention that everyone had a great time?
During the refreshment time after the talent show, everyone sang Happy Birthday to Bill .

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Photos

Mother and her son singing a song
They were great.