Surprise!

Mom caught a cold just in time for her birthday. In spite of being been a mess, she joined the Fulbright group's trip to Koprivshtitsa, partly because she was too embarrassed to cancel at the last minute, and partly because she couldn't bear saying no to a nice hot bath in the hotel room's bathtub :) Either way, my walks would get out of the window, if it weren't for Tracy who stepped in. Thanks, Tracy!

This morning mom had an appointment with the principal. She still didn't feel well, but knew the appointment was at 10am and that also some students wanted to see her. So she took me (to kill two birds with one stone) and off we went.

Goldie met us at the guards' desk. She said that we need to go to class first because mom had to talk to the students. Mom couldn't remember having promised the students anything, and just as her brain started working, it was already too late. The door opened, and there they were, 90-100 students of the 9th grade, crammed into one little classroom for the surprise party.

Balloons and banitsa, cake and presents, mom never had another birthday celebration like this. The students sang for her, and one student did a little gospel routine while offering her flowers :-D If mom could cry, this would definitely be the moment. But being sick, she couldn't even give hugs. Really sad. She would love to stay and celebrate, share the cake, open her presents (though apparently the birthday person is not supposed to open the presents in the guests' presence?!), but unfortunately the party time was restricted to the 20-minute break. So some students put both of us in a taxi and mom, after taking a ton of pictures of her presents, went straight to bed, dreaming about the best - even if shortest - birthday party of her life...