They say it's your birthday...

For once in my life, I've actually been able to sing the "it's my birthday, too, yeah!" line, and mean it.  Not to brag or anything, but yes, yes it is my birthday.  And thanks to Facebook, even the people in my school who I've talked to on a few occasions, added as a "friend" to be polite and to see what they're up to know that.  Which means that I've had more people say 'happy birthday' to me today than I usually did in Maine just because of the sheer size of my Belgian school.  Who doesn't love getting told happy birthday?

Especially by foreigners (I realize that I'm the foreigner, but that's beside the point); whether it's in French ("joyeuse anniversaire") or in English with an accent (as many of them would say, "ahppy bearthday Ohdray"), it's a lot of fun.  I had a couple of people make fun of each other for their accents and argue over which one was "better."  As I always say (and almost always mean), I like all the accents, and think they're usually pretty adorable.  Plus, I don't want to give them any openings to make fun of my own, which, while getting less noticeable, is still there on a lot of words.

All in all a pretty good day:  I won more than often at cards at lunch– while dealing out the first hand of "President" I told them that they had to let me win because it was my birthday.  I don't know if it was coincidence or if they didn't understand it was a joke, which happens sometimes, but I was the "trou de cul" a lot less than often.  (Thank you, French, for making things sound more polite.)  I also went out for a waffle after school, and even though it started to sprinkle a little bit, the weather was nice and warm.  I even got home to find a couple of cards for me from the States!  I feel so loved :)

Well, you just read your first post by an 18-year-old!  À la prochaine!

P.S.  On a completely unrelated note, I was marveling at the English language today:  my teacher handed out a list of 10 verbs (come, cut, fall, get, go, keep, make, run, take, turn) and 10 prepositions (away, back, down, in, off, on, out, over, through, up) and asked us to make at least 20 "phrasal verbs" (basically just verb+preposition).  I made my 20... then about 50 more.  I still can't get over the fact that you can add one (or 10) little word(s) after a simple verb to give it a new meaning.  It's so cool to think about English this way!