Spangles: A Five Nickels Celebration

If I thought for even a second that having a birthday in a foreign land- and one in which I have only lived for four months- would be lonely, I would have been wrong. Because my big Two-Five was a splendid day indeed. And very unlonely. Of course there was the expected influx of Facebook messages, texts, and emails, but in addition I just felt... celebrated. Not that I need or expect to be celebrated, but there's no denying that it's nice once in awhile. My actual party was just a simple evening at Dave and Erin's house with wonderful improvised American classics (e.g., "nachos" out of potato chips and shredded cheddar cheese... not that nachos are American, but well, kind of) and an open invitation for people to come over.

And of course, games. Oh how I love games. Card games. Board games. Any kind of games. For awhile there were various games going on with groups of people, but later in the evening we gathered everyone together to play Charades, my all-time favorite. Now, I wasn't sure how well it would work to play Charades with people from ~10 different nations. Or if people would even get it. But I explained the game and my version of the rules (turns out there are many understandings of what charades actually is). We divided into three teams, split up to make clues for the opposing teams, reconvened, and then the fun began. It was amazing. Turns out that we have some rather creative friends, and quite a few people showed an entirely new side of themselves.

And it was often quite funny to see the differences in cultures come out, not just at times when one country knew what Sesame Street was and another had no clue. Here is a classic example: It was one of my Israeli (guy) friends' turn. He got us to figure out that his clue was a male, and then was portraying facial hair. So I started saying all kinds of random famous people who might have a mustache. Then he helped us realize it was actually someone in Iasi. At which point he pushed his nose down flat and tried to make it really big. At which point I exclaimed "He has a big nose!... He must be African!... UCHE!" Who happens to be a good friend of mine and who happened to be in the room. And who doesn't particularly have a disproportionately big nose, but he does have facial hair. But that part of the mental processing wasn't what came out of my mouth. And what DID come out served to have everyone in hysterical laughter for several minutes. But hey, I was right... Needless to say, I still chuckle when I think of that whole game.

Friends, food, and fun. What more could a gal ask for?