An Early Birthday Present/Party

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Ok, so my birthday's not until Saturday, but Aida organised for us all (meaning the English 'crew'😉 and Lydie, my lovely French teacher to go for a meal last night at a Chinese restaurant - the same one we went to many months ago to celebrate Firyal's birthday. An all-you-can-eat buffet and great company: what more could I have asked for my early 19th birthday party?

Lydie picked me up at 7:45 and after picking up Anna and her boyfriend (he's come to taste the delights of Alsace before Anna leaves), we headed over to Firyal's in Issenheim. We finally arrived at the restaurant at 8:30, by which time most of us were starving, me included.

It was a bit of a disappointment when the waiter (a smug and pretentious little Chinese man) told us that they'd run out of alcoholic aperatif drinks. But we resigned ourselves to having non-alcoholic and silently hoped that the food would make up for it.

After a few round of photos we went up for the first course, piling our plates high with the wide selection of food on offer, in order to satisfy our aching hunger.

I had been worried that the table conversation might be a bit dry and not very lively but it went better than I expected. The three other English assistants and Anna's brave boyfriend (brave for agreeing to come along with such a large group of women) spoke amongst each other, I tended to speak in French with Lydie who was sitting next to me (despite Aida's English-only rule - I thought it quite nice to be able to speak in French) and the others (Aida and most of her family)mainly spoke to each other.

It wasn't long before we were going up for seconds, although my stomach at least was beginning to sigh with satisfaction and groan with a near-fullness feeling. But the food was just too good to refuse.

Once we were all back in our seats, Aida decided it was the moment to reveal the present - a big cellophane-wrapped object which had been sittng, waiting on the window sill from the moment we arrived. I'm old enough and mature enough to be able to sit and wait patiently but I admit that the sight of it out of the corner of my eye evoked more than a little curiosity in me. It was, I was shortly to find out, a 'goody' box filled with toiletries and cosmetics - just what I need in order to pamper myself in the evenings. I was touched by the gesture as I honestly hadn't been expecting anything - earlier on in the car Lydie had suggested that the youth group or the family might have organised a surprise something for me - I strongly expressed my doubt at either possibility - as a way of self-consolation, I've been telling myself that 19 isn't really a very important birthday - I know that the last English girl who was here had a surprise birthday thrown for her by the church but then it was her 21st, or perhaps she was just more popular and liked than I am, Ok there goes the confidence-crushing voice.....

More photos, laughs and food made up the rest of the evening - everytime I got up I had to make a big effort to suck my stomach in, which seemed to be continually growing outwards.

At the end of the evening we were offered shot glasses of Chinese wine, some peculiar substance called Saki or Siki (well something along those lines...). Last time I came for a meal and tried the wine, I hadn't been expecting the tongue-burning sensation which came with it but this time I was ready, which made me very nervous to take it. At the bottom of each little cup was a horrifically rude image of the human form - we all screeched with laughter as we exchanged cups to have a quick curious glance.

And so it was that we ended the evening. At least if I don't do anything very exciting on Saturday (Laetitia suggested an Easter Egg treasure hunt...I'm going to be 19! Seriously?!) I'll be consoled by the memory of last night.

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