Birthday Bash

International celebration of American Independence!
Maldives, Nepal, Canada and Singapore joined the Americans!

 This week, I celebrated America's Independence and my 33rd birthday.  Somehow, all my course mates found out that it was my birthday on the 4th (I swear I hardly told anyone the news!) so I had a lot of handshakes, best wishes, and demands for मिठाई (sweets).
It was a fun day, despite being far from home and having to go to class.  I hosted my first dinner party with a few friends and we feasted on tacos (complete with homemade sour cream and guacamole), salad, beans and rice. It was a lot of familiar flavors that I have missed!
I was able to Skype with family, and discovered the beauty of having friends and family on both sides of the international date line - I got to celebrate my birthday for two days!!

Trying out the cake! 

A few of my birthday gifts

 In other news, Aarti and I have been learning to ride horses, and it's been a lot of fun - but I must say, experienced riders make it look a lot easier than it is!  Note that the coach on the left has a stick - he's really the one making the horse move!

Every month, there's a flea market sale of rejected export clothes.  We went this weekend and found a few great buys - a bunch of tops for $1 each, a lot of name-brands.  I found a top that had a price tag of $45 on it - and bought it for $1.

Consumer Alert:
Made in America...eh, not so much

Also this weekend, we co-hosted a bigger party with the Canadian officer for Canada Day and Independence Day.  We served burgers and fries and had cakes with the American flag and Canadian flag.  It was a lot of fun - about 100 people came and celebrated with us! 

 It's been a fun week, topped off with a shopping trip to Coimbatore to take advantage of the Aadi sale: the month of Aadi in the Tamil calendar is considered inauspicious, so people traditionally avoid shopping...which means big sales for the rest of us! We visited a big Western-style mall and saw a lot of saris and salwar kameez.  I bought a sari (I know, I have a problem...) for under $10.

This upcoming week marks the end of my first "tutorial" - first of six for the course.  That means we have an exam, so I have to buckle down and can't have too much fun this week.  We'll be rewarded with a long weekend, though, and I'm definitely looking forward to that.  That's it from my end, until next time!