İyi ki doğdum!
My birthday was a good event. I didn't expect anything from it really, and was actually feeling kind of melancholy on the morning of, not wanting to switch ages. At school though, my good friends in school brought me in a cake with candles lit right in the middle of biology class. They asked me if I knew they were going to do it, because apparently they had been like yelling about it across the classroom, but I hadn't a clue and it was a perfect surprise. The day got better after that, after school I went to a little tea-party like thing at my host mum's friend's house. Traditionally called gold days, groups of women gather at a different one's house for tea and lots of food. Sometimes they still give the hostess small gifts of gold, but usually not. So I went to that, eating and chatting with my new friend, and playing backgammon. Planning on not eating dinner (due to constantly eating form 4-6) my Anne and I came home, only to be called out again by Baba and his friend Feyyaz who were down at the military house. A place for soldiers (and retired ones and their families) to eat and relax and spend time for really good prices, they were there waiting for us and my cllub counselor/Feyyaz's wife Berrin. Although we were full, my Anne and I went down to sit with our friends. There we waited for Berrin, who arrived not long after bearing gifts. Delightful surprises! We ate dinner, which was livened up by pretty much everyone in the restaurant (including our table) ordering this fish/spinach/cheese dish that was served on a flaming plate. And speaking of flaming plates, at the end of dinner ANOTHER lit cake came to our table with sparklers in it-SURPRİSE! My club counselor and her husband got it for me from the best patisserie in the city. Oh what joy!
The next day, Saturday was my actual birthday party. I had it at a bowling alley in a mall in Bostanlı (a neighborhood across the bay from where I live). It was an international, crowded and festive affair. I had people from Turkey, Brasil, Canada, America, Mexico and France there, and I served them incredibly delicious brownies (made possible by my grandma, who sent the mix). Brownie eating, bowling, it was good. After bowling, some of us came back to my neighborhood, the center of the city, and went to a cafe for a while before turning in. By that time, I felt good about being seventeen. It's also an exciting thing to switch ages pretty much exactly at the half-year point. I lived half of sixteen with completely new everything, and now I will get to start seventeen over here and break it in before I return.
The next day, Saturday was my actual birthday party. I had it at a bowling alley in a mall in Bostanlı (a neighborhood across the bay from where I live). It was an international, crowded and festive affair. I had people from Turkey, Brasil, Canada, America, Mexico and France there, and I served them incredibly delicious brownies (made possible by my grandma, who sent the mix). Brownie eating, bowling, it was good. After bowling, some of us came back to my neighborhood, the center of the city, and went to a cafe for a while before turning in. By that time, I felt good about being seventeen. It's also an exciting thing to switch ages pretty much exactly at the half-year point. I lived half of sixteen with completely new everything, and now I will get to start seventeen over here and break it in before I return.