23 in Spain!

Yesterday was my 23rd birthday! This is my second birthday in a Spanish speaking country.  Besides the fact I don't have family around, I seem to always get lucky and meet amazing people to make it special. 

The birthday glasses, thanks to Tara!

 

Google creeped me out a little bit, it says "Happy Birthday Samantha!"

 

 

On Wednesday night, my roommate Tara and her mother prepared an amazing dinner for the occasion. We invited over some Spaniards and other English teachers to eat and have some drinks. Tara's mom (Roula) made delicious Lebanese dishes, she's an amazing cook!

This was amaaazzzinggg! Zucchini and beef sauce that we put over white rice

 

Baba- Ghanoush (spelling?) this was my first time trying it.  It's like hummus made out of egg plant- yum

 

Okay so these cookies are not Lebanese, but they are my favorite! I made these from the butterscotch chips my mom brought during Christmas. 

Stuffed grape leaves.  Inside is a mixture of veggies and lentils. Roula spent hours making these.

Roula passing out the grape leaves to John and Mikey

 

Group photo!  6 other English teachers came over as well as 3 of our close Spanish friends

 

Sofia, our good Spanish friend

 

Tara and I enjoying her mama's cooking

 

An amazing friend!

Everyone came over around 8 and we immediately cracked open the delicious Spanish wines that the guests brought.  (Our lives are pretty stressful)  I was lucky to have everyone come over to celebrate my birthday, it was a good one!  Now for the photo roll....

Daron!

Patricia, Tara, and John

 

This cake was one of the best I've ever had.  Tara knows me all too well and covered it with cinnamon (I'm a freak about cinnamon).  It was an orange, vanilla, and yogurt cake.  It was perfect and I'll have to make it again one day!

This birthday was fun because when the cake came out they sang Happy Birthday in English, French, and Arabic! That was a first :)

 By the time I went to sleep, all my American friends were just waking up.  I received birthday wishes all into the next day :) No complaints there.  Since it was a Thursday, I went to my village school.  You will never believe what happened the morning of my birthday....it SNOWED! Yes, snowed.  The village people were so excited to see snowflakes, something very rare in this region of Spain.  The weather here is so crazy, it was in the 60's a week or two ago. 

These are some of the little kiddos who sang to me.  This is them during Carnival, a couple weeks ago

Once I got to school, I was welcomed by little 1st graders singing me a broken-English version of Happy Birthday, too cute!  I carried on with my usual Thursday schedule and went to my two private lessons later that night and waited for Kate to arrive to Badajoz.  We went out again for a sushi dinner with some friends and soon we will be off to Lisbon! We have a cute hostel room booked for the weekend and are looking forward to going. 

Thanks to everyone who wished me a happy birthday! Love you all :)