April 30, 2008 will be a day for me to remember. I’m not going to lie, I thought my birthday was going to be one of the worse I’d ever had. My family wasn’t going to be with me, and my roommates all had something going on. Not to mention there was a holiday the next day with a party in the city the night before that no one wanted to miss. So it looked as though I would be celebrating all by myself this year. How fun was that going to be?
But then things began changing. I woke up, had breakfast with one of my roommates (inclu
ding fresh strawberries..my favorite fruit!) and then went to work decorating my room with streamers and balloons I had bought in the city the day before. Then in the afternoon I met nearly all my roommates in the city for Kaffee und Kuchen (Coffee and cake) which is something Germans typically do for birthdays. We had a wonderful time enjoying the sunshine sitting outside at a cafe watching the people go by. We indulged in coffee and some chocolate cake that was richer than you could imagine.
That night another roommate and I, Teresa, made a typical German dinner: Schnitzel (breaded chicken steaks that are fried), Rotkraut (like Sauerkraut but made from red cabbage) and Klöße (sort of like mashed potatoes rolled into balls, but stickier somehow), which are typical of Thüringen, our region. We didn’t have that much time to cook, so Teresa and I had bought the Klöße nearly ready-made from Tegut (a grocery store)…turned out to be a bad idea. The Klöße tasted like plastic! Then I was put in charge of frying the Schnitzel…turns out the burner was too hot, so they got a bit burnt! But no worries..we laughed about it quite a bit and finished eating.
With that Teresa and I got ourselves ready to head into the city to check out the craziness of Walpurgisnacht (a celebration greeting spring/summer). But wait! There was a ring of the doorbell!! And who was it, you ask? Claudi and Franzi, two
German students that were at Concordia as native assistants. They came by to wish a Happy Birthday to me and then we all went down to the city together. Once we found Teresa’s friend, Lili, Claudi and Franzi had to head out, so Teresa, Lili and I went to check out the band. Turns out they weren’t the best, so we just chatted for a while and then went on the hunt for what else was going on in the city. We found Lili’s boyfriend and a few more friends Teresa and Lili know from their studies and we all went back to where the band was playing. This time the band was AMAZING!! They were from Berlin, and although I couldn’t always understand what they were saying, it was SO fun to be way up close (third “row” maybe?) and just dance and scream with the other students for a few hours. There were so many people there it was unbelieveable! All those people came to the city to help me celebrate my birthday! Just kidding. But it was really neat to be able to party in such a way. Never been third row at an outdoor concert in Germany on my birthday before! 
Even though all of that was really fun and amazing and I ate really tasty food, the best birthday gift arrived at midnight on the train: my sister came for a visit!!! She had a few days off in France from teaching and had asked Monday if she would be able to come to Jena to visit again. With me not having classes on Thursday since it was May 1st (holiday here), I figured she could bum around Jena with me for a few days. SOOO good to have family and friends with me on my birthday and be there to celebrate! But now things have calmed down a bit, gone back to normal and I am back to doing my homework and going to class. Pretty exciting, I know. One thing I have to say: it is getting harder and harder to go to class when the sun is shining and the weather is warm. This could become a very difficult semester for me…